Salt for quarantine

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

For those of you that use salt in quarantine, how do you keep your tank cycled?

On 3 different quarantines where I’ve used salt, the salt killed the bacteria on the sponge filter. To get by, I would do daily water changes with Prime, and I had no losses or ill effects.

Just wondering what everyone else does to manage it. 

[BAT]

How much salt were you using?

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On two occasions level 2 salt.

And on another occasion level 3.

Edited September 16, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[BAT]

I haven’t had a problem but honestly the quarantine is usually for a betta. And I change the water so frequently bc of meds it doesn’t end up mattering probably. 

[modified lung]

The salt just has to be added a little at a time. Then the bacteria slows by 3% for every 1 ppt of salinity.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/15/2022 at 9:45 PM, modified lung said:

The salt just has to be added a little at a time. Then the bacteria slows by 3% for every 1 ppt of salinity.

Should I take a few days to bring the salinity up to the level I want?

[modified lung]

On 9/15/2022 at 6:45 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Should I take a few days to bring the salinity up to the level I want?

Depends. Salt won't start killing bacteria until about 15 ppt. But the more salt you add at a time the longer the bacteria go into shock. So if you have a few days, you can add it all at once and wait for them to recover. But if you don't have time, I usually do about 0.5 ppt a day without much affect.

[nabokovfan87]

On 9/15/2022 at 6:33 PM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

On 3 different quarantines where I’ve used salt, the salt killed the bacteria on the sponge filter. To get by, I would do daily water changes with Prime, and I had no losses or ill effects.

I would suggest adding some ceramic media in addition to the sponge for the sake of QT.  Especially something like the AC20 bags of media are awesome for dumping in a filter and then moving it to a QT tank just to help it out.  Worst case, run meds, then add it so you add in a dose of bacteria.  Bags of lava rock would also work and allow you to keep the tank relatively bare bottom.

Depending on the sponge you're using, some are a bit more plastic / smooth in texture while others have a bit easier time hosting bacteria.  I'd love to see someone take some different sponges and compare bacteria growth day by day with a microscope, but I don't think that's been done.  AC, Seachem, and those types of sponges don't struggle as much for me growing bacteria quickly as opposed to something like the more "matala mat" types of sponge.  I'm sure porosity plays a more critical role, but hard to say...  Again, this is just my experience and has no science behind it at all.  For generally all filters I run sponge for mechanical and then I run ceramic or other traditional stone media as the biological host.

Yes, I know that most sponge is a plastic based material, but I am specifically talking about the smooth, polished finish that some sponges have.  When you clean them they sort of crunch a bit more.... hopefully that makes sense. 

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

On 9/15/2022 at 10:00 PM, modified lung said:

I usually do about 0.5 ppt a day

Can you help me translate this to #Tbsps salt per gallon?

On 9/15/2022 at 10:00 PM, modified lung said:

until about 15 ppt

This too? 🙏

[modified lung]

On 9/16/2022 at 3:03 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Can you help me translate this to #Tbsps salt per gallon?

This too? 🙏

Here's a good calculator:

https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/DirectSaltCalculator.php

Or if you like spreadsheets there's a link to one in my signature.

[Chick-In-Of-TheSea]

@modified lung thank you so much. This is so interesting.  The bacteria was not dying after all.  If bacteria dies at 15ppt, that would be approx. >30 T. in a 10 gallon quarantine tank. 

.5ppt = 18.88g (based on your link)

1 T salt = 17.07g (internet conversion tool for sea salt)

Certainly not precise by any means, but I just got a rough idea which just shows me the level 3 salt treatment is nowhere near the bacteria-killing salinity.

I am certain I shocked the bacteria each time I treated, as I had added the salt all at once.  When I got ammonia readings, I would water change, but add the removed salt back in to stay at the same level of salt treatment for the fish.  

Going forward I will add 1 T salt/day to reach the desired level.  This is awesome.  I was hesitant on salt treatments after past experiences, but now that I understand more, I am happy to go with salt again in the future. (And it's cheap too).

Edited September 16, 2022 by Chick-In-Of-TheSea

[modified lung]

On 9/16/2022 at 8:50 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

@modified lung thank you so much. This is so interesting.  The bacteria was not dying after all.  If bacteria dies at 15ppt, that would be approx. >30 T. in a 10 gallon quarantine tank. 

.5ppt = 18.88g (based on your link)

1 T salt = 17.07g (internet conversion tool for sea salt)

Certainly not precise by any means, but I just got a rough idea which just shows me the level 3 salt treatment is nowhere near the bacteria-killing salinity.

I am certain I shocked the bacteria each time I treated, as I had added the salt all at once.  When I got ammonia readings, I would water change, but add the removed salt back in to stay at the same level of salt treatment for the fish.  

Going forward I will add 1 T salt/day to reach the desired level.  This is awesome.  I was hesitant on salt treatments after past experiences, but now that I understand more, I am happy to go with salt again in the future. (And it's cheap too).

Yep, even more interesting, if you keep fluctuating salinity levels over and over, the bacteria adapt and get a little less shocked each time. But it takes about 3 months before they aren't affected at all.

[face]

not to interrupt the conversation but is it the sodium itself that effects the bacteria or would any other ion do the same magnesium chloride for example.

[modified lung]

On 9/16/2022 at 9:53 AM, face said:

not to interrupt the conversation but is it the sodium itself that effects the bacteria or would any other ion do the same magnesium chloride for example.

It's the chloride actually.