The following article is acknowledged with thanks from
KoiVet.com
www.koivet.com Salt - by Doc Johnson
I
recommend that you use salt, before you try anything else for parasites. I
recommend salt so often because it has so many benefits over other medicants.
Namely:
- It does not harm the majority of fish species.
- It does not push sick fish "over the edge."
- It eliminates, QUICKLY, 7 of 9 parasites I can easily recall.
- It does not get bound out of the system by organics or sunlight.
- It does not pose a health risk to humans contacting it.
- It is CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP. and
- It WON'T harm your filter!
Salt: Remove submerged plants. Perform a fifty percent waterchange,
and clean the pond as well as reasonably possible without causing undue delay
in treatment. Apply one teaspoon of non iodized table salt per gallon of water
every 12 hours for three treatments (3 tsp per gallon). Alternatively, for
larger systems, dose one pound per hundred gallons of water every 12 hours for
three treatments (3 pounds per hundred gallons). Add all at once in the case of
epidemic mortality.
Salt is a superior remedy for many different reasons,
many of which will show up in a search of this website and in the book I extoll
this remedy even more.
Kosher salt, Sea Salt, Non-Iodized Table, Rock
and Ice Cream Salts are acceptable. Do not use salt intended for livestock if
it contains any minerals or trace elements.
Caution! No YPS or Yellow
Prussiate of Soda should be in the salt. Prussic Acid is hazardous to fish
because it dissociates into Prussic Acid in water!
Add the salt all at
once if fish are dying off rapidly
Add one pound per hundred gallons,
per day, for three days if fish are merely sick. This avoids occasional
filter-shock. (2-3 day nitrite spike)
Will not harm hardy Lilies,
common Papyrus, or Irises. Will cause yellowing of Hyacinths, Celery and Water
Lettuce, but will kill Anachris, String Algae, Cabomba and Elodea.
Strengths 3 pounds per hundred gallons = 0.3%
6 pounds
per hundred gallons = 0.6%
Pull sensitive plants to baby-pool and treat
with Formalin in this. (25 ppm 8-12 hours)
Leave salt in the pond for
14 days minimum, then remove by partial water changes over subsequent weeks.
Note From Doc Johnson "I am always absolutely sure to read every
ingredient in the salt I am using. I do NOT take it for granted tha my time
honored favorite brand of salt is still being made with the SAME anti-caking
agent as always. They *do* change these ingredients occasionally and the
addition of Yellow Prussiate of Soda (YPS) can cause death fairly rapidly in
soft water!" ~ Doc Johnson
More on salt... Astor, Akso
Nobel, or Morton brand non-iodized salts sufficient to treat
one system
to 0.3%
two times. Most any salt is okay if it's not: YPS laced,
mineralized, iodized, or really dirty. I've used animal feed or licks - "salt
blocks" from the feed store with excellent results,
you need to read
labels and look for 99.5% purity with
no trace minerals. The blocks
are easy to store and transport. Put them in the way of the water return and
they dissolve rapidly.
NEVER put salt into the filter intake. The sudden
rise in salinity will annihilate your filter bacterial function. One man local
to me put fifty pounds into his skimmer, straight through the filter, and made
his beads snow white.