Aquarium Salt: When and How to

Use It Properly
Should aquarium salt be used in freshwater tanks? Some people
recommend dosing it all the time to provide fish with essential
electrolytes, while others say it’s mostly used for treating diseases. After
years of testing with hundreds of fish, we’ve witnessed the true power of
salt. Sodium chloride (NaCl) is one of the best, all-encompassing
“medications” on the market that’s effective against bacteria, fungus, and
external parasites. We love it because it’s cheap, readily available in all
countries, never expires, and can be easily used in low to high
concentrations.

However, the reason why we typically recommend our trio of medications

to beginners is because different kinds of fish have different tolerance
levels to salt, and it can be hard to figure out and remember the correct
dosage for each species. Another disadvantage is that salt cannot be
used with most live plants and snails. Finally, it's easy to accidentally
overdose salt, which may kill everything (not just the bacteria) in your
freshwater aquarium. Nevertheless, with accurate measurements and
careful usage, both new and experienced fish keepers can benefit from
this highly effective remedy.

How Does Aquarium Salt Work?

Salt essentially causes death by dehydration. By raising the salinity of the
aquarium water, water is sucked out of the bacteria, fungus, or parasite as
osmosis seeks to balance the salt concentration on each side of its
membrane or skin. These tiny microorganisms dehydrate faster than the
fish (because the fish has more mass and stored water), and therefore the
pathogens end up dying before their hosts do. However, some
microorganisms can withstand higher salinity, which is why salt is not a
100% bulletproof solution.
Through the power of osmosis, aquarium salt is able to eliminate many
pathogens and parasites on fish.

Should I Use Salt All the Time?

No, sodium chloride salt should not be used on a daily basis as a
preventative measure or health booster. It would be like a healthy person
misusing antibiotics and taking a pill every day to minimize risk of infection
– eventually a superbug may appear that is resistant to the antibiotic and
then your treatment options are greatly limited. In the same way, any fish
disease that gets past your protective “salt barrier” will be quite resilient
and require a much higher salt concentration to cure, which may be
detrimental to the fish. Instead, if you use salt sparingly only when
necessary, it becomes a powerful tool to add to your arsenal.

How to Use Salt as a Medication

Salt comes in all sorts of particle sizes, purity levels, and chemical
compositions, but for the purposes of this article, we’re using normal
aquarium salt or NaCl rock salt – not table salt, marine salt, or Epsom salt.
(Also, the measurement listed below refer to United States (US)
customary units, not the UK imperial system.) Our method of treatment
starts with the lowest level of salt and gradually increases if the symptoms
persist.

Fritz aquarium salt

Salt comes in many sizes and forms, so make sure to use aquarium salt to
follow our treatment regimen.

Level 1 Treatment

1 Tbsp Salt per 3 Gallons of Water

Add 1 tablespoon (Tbsp) of salt per 3 gallons of water. You can pour the
salt directly into the aquarium or hospital tank, but some people like to
dissolve the salt in a small cup of water first. This level of salt is like using
Neosporin topical ointment for a small cut (in other words, it’s not very
strong). It’s used to fight mild cases of bacterial and fungal infection. Plus,
it gently irritates the fish’s slime coat, causing the fish to make more
beneficial mucus that can block some parasites and microorganisms from
reaching its body.

We’ve kept and sold thousands of fish at our fish store, and this level of
salt is safe for virtually all fish – except anchor catfish. Keep the fish in the
salt solution for 4 to 5 days, and then increase the concentration if there’s
no improvement.
Level 2 Treatment

1 Tbsp Salt per 2 Gallons of Water

Use a concentration of 1 Tbsp of salt per 2 gallons of water for the next
level of treatment. Level 2 treatment is capable of combating a wider
range of illnesses. For example, you can use this recipe to treat ich (a
common ailment also known as white spot disease) for a period of 10
days. However, if the symptoms are only getting worse after 5 days, try
increasing the concentration again.

Level 3 Treatment

1 Tbsp Salt per 1 Gallon of Water

When medications and the lower salt levels have no effect, it’s time to
bring out the big guns. Raise the concentration to 1 Tbsp of salt per gallon
of water, and this potent solution will knock out nearly everything. Level 3
treatment is very hard on scaleless fish and other sensitive species, so
please do some research beforehand. We personally have found rasboras,
danios, tetras, silver dollars, livebearers, and most cichlids (as well as their
fry) to be fairly salt tolerant. Even Neocaridina cherry shrimp are quite
hardy in salt, but we haven’t done much testing on Caridina crystal shrimp
yet.

Note: aquarium salt does not evaporate or get filtered out. As water
evaporates, the salt is left behind. Therefore, only add salt (in the
proportionate amount) when doing water changes. For instance, if you’re
treating 100 gallons of water at level 2 for ich, you need 50 Tbsp of salt
initially. Then, if you have to do a 20% water change (or change out 20
gallons of water), add back in 20% of the salt (or 10 Tbsp of salt) to the
new water to maintain the same concentration. Be careful when
measuring the salt because it’s easy to overdose the amount, and unlike
most medications, salt does not breakdown over time.
 Sea salt farm at sunset

Salt does not evaporate or disappear unless you physically remove the
water it’s dissolved in, so be careful to not overdose your aquarium.

How Long Should the Salt Treatment Last?

Leave the salt in the aquarium until the fish looks healthy and then remove
the salt by doing water changes.

At the end of treatment, do a 30% water change without adding any

salt and then wait a week for observation.
If the disease doesn’t come back, do another 30% water change
without replacing the salt and wait another week.
If the disease returns, dose back to the original salt concentration
and add a little more salt to increase the solution strength. The
original salt concentration probably wasn’t strong enough to
completely conquer the sickness, or the fish did not spend enough
time in the salt solution to dehydrate all the pathogens.

Can I Use Salt for Fish in Quarantine?

Yes, you can treat new fish using the level 1 low salt dosage for 2 weeks.
This solution should eradicate roughly 60% of potential illnesses. You can
also use this technique for healing any fish that got beat up and needs
some solitary recovery time in a hospital tank.

While grabbing a box of fish medication may seem like the easiest answer,
salt is remarkable because of its ability to treat mystery diseases that are
hard to diagnose. Plus, certain countries are starting to restrict the sale of
antibiotics and other drugs used in the pet trade to minimize risk to human
and environmental health. In the future, aquarium salt may become your
next best friend when it comes to treating sick fish.