whats up with my salt

djpom1

djpom1

Member
Hi, everything I have ever read, and websites I go to say to keep the salt at 1.023 for the gravity. Know, my local lfs says to keep it at 1.018 to at the most 1.020. Is this true, I do not want to kill everything in my tank if I bring the salt down. Everything seems to be doing great, but the lfs says the high salt gravity bring more illness. Just wanted to know everyone thinks.
Dennis
 
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mr.tang

Guest
1.018 would be the lowets i would ever go. Alot of the natural oceans are actually around 1.025-1.027. Ive always kept mine at 1.024-1.025 and everything is very healthy. I persoanlly think 1.023 is a very comfortable level. Your salt level is fine and i would leave it as itr is or even bring it up to 1.023. Just remember in these hotter months to constantly add top off water because there is alot of evaporation and the salinity can rise quite quickly!
Good Luck!
Tang ;)
 
frankl15207

frankl15207

Member
A lot of LFS seem to do that and I have yet to get an explanation as to why. I'll have to ask mine directly next time I go in.
What you need to be concerned with if that is the case is the acclimation period for the fish. What I ended up doing is adding half the water that I would normally add to the bag over twice the period of time. That eliminated any problem with the fish from the store.
When I had a fish only tank, mine was kept at 1.020 because that was the standard that was being used at the time. I never had any problem with a fish only tank at that level.
 
djpom1

djpom1

Member
Mine, I am trying, lol, is going to be reef tank. The lfs said they keep it low because it is healtier for the fish, I thought that kind of strange.
 
cotton0627

cotton0627

Member
From what I understand, the ocean is around 1.024-1.027. Your fish can survive in much lower salinity, but the parisites can't. If you drop the salinity (hyposalinity) you will decrease your likelyhood of having parasites. HTH
 
rockster

rockster

Member
Most LFS keep their salinity lower than ideal because many parasites do not tolerate low salinity. They want to keep their fishies alive and looking good (without icks) until someone buys them.(Ergo, acclimation is very essential). This is the reason why many people use HYPOsalinity method to cure common parasites.
 
boogerbooger

boogerbooger

Member
whoa whoa whoa.. ocean is 1.025-1.027?.. uhmm ..my lfs and i looked at a fish book that showed salinity levels around the world in what fish live in and the majority were between 1.021 and 1.022..,but red sea is higher..
 
jester

jester

Member
most parasites can survive lower salinity levels. Yes hypo is good for "ich", but that's about it.
 
rockster

rockster

Member
Jester, I gave a logical reason why LFS keep low salinity in their stock. Can you give any other reason?
 
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mr.tang

Guest
Overall, whaqt we are dealing with here is not ich. He just wants to know a good salt range for his tank. Yes lower salinity will REDUCE the likely hood of parasites but until you reduce the salinity to an approximate level of 1.009, you will not be killing any ich or parasites. They can even live up to a level of 1.011. Most lfs's to try to reduce the salinity for the minor reduction in some parasites but is alos a money saving technique for their thousands of gallons of water. A healthy salt medium for fish is estimated by many people at a range from 1.020-1.026. Lower can be stressful on fish.
Good LUCK!
Tang ;)
 
rockster

rockster

Member
It's hard to believe tha LFS are doing hypos for salt-budget concerns and not the livestocks. I think this is something we all have to explore. I suggest to everyone to ask their LFS their salinity level and the reason for it. Maybe we all can learn something from this.
 
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mr.tang

Guest
LFS'S ARENT DOING HYPOSALINITY! they just have LOW SALT LEVELS. Hyposalinity is when you lower the specific gravity down to a miminum of 1.010. loweing the salinity to around 1.018 or 1.020 is NOT hyposalinity. I dont understand where everyone is getting hyposalinity form becasue we are not even close to those figures. The salinity levels over 1.011 will not kill any parasites and if it does they are so very minute. They do this to save money, and prevent MINOR parasites. Every lfs gets ich sometime.
Tang
 
M

mr.tang

Guest
Where did u get the definitions? if u aer doing "Hypo" at 1.020 you have been very mis-guided. Hyposalinity will ONLY work if your salt levels are uner 1.011 MIMINUM! other than that, its not considered hyposalinity adn it is very stressful to keep fish at levels under approxiamtely 1.016 for over 1-2 months.
Tang
 
rockster

rockster

Member
Tang, by the very definition, anything below the normally accepted range is hyposaline. Somebody said 1.024 is the lower limit in the sea water. For arguments sake let's take that as true and correct. Wouldn't you say that a level of 1.023 fits the definition of hyposaline relative to the normal sea water? Back to the question, what is your source. Let me verify.
 
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mr.tang

Guest
My sources..............every website....years of experience..........this bb........and you acn ask any and every moderator and or experienced bb memeber..... If you wqant it your way, you could call 1.022 etc... "HYPOSALINE" but to perform the action of HYPOSALINITY TO KILL PARASITES SUCH AS ICH....IT MNUST BE NOU HIGHER THAN 1.011. NO HIGHER!
Tang
ask terry...beth...anyone. theyll tell u the same ;)
 
wrassecal

wrassecal

Active Member
Mr. Tang is just trying to make sure that no one gets confused on the way the term "hyposalinity" is used in this hobby. We use "hyposalinity" to treat many fish diseases ( do a search in the disease forum and you will find lots of info). For hyposalinity to be effective in disease treatment it must be below the parasites tolerance level which is the 1.011 and it's recommended to keep at 1.009 to make sure treatment is effective. Just using the word hyposalinity as tanks v oceans we could debate forever...there is a thread going on in the reef section now about temps and salinity....as to LFS using lower, I don't know why, but I'm asking next time I go in. ...excuse me for speaking for you Mr Tang ;)
 
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mr.tang

Guest
HEARSAY! Ive been in the hobby for over 4 years now! ive done hyposalinity myself over 5 times. I dont want to get into a fight and i didnt want topost links but u are being quite ignorant and sorry that your wrong buut here are some sites.....
You should really research before challenging others on things. How long have u been in teh hobby?
here are the sites......
or do you consider them "here say" to?
<a href="http://www.petsforum.com/personal/trevor-jones/hyposalinity.html" target="_blank">Site 1</a>
And if you are still a bit tart, i can gladly find posts by beth and terry on the subject!
TANG :D :D :D :D
 
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