Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Cooking salt is not iodised. Table salt is.
salt water is aprox 35g /liter of water.
Silvers can handle in my experience upto 15g per liter adding salt to the system over a period of 7 days. Trout on the other hand I dont think they will be able to handle anymore than 8-10g per liter but I dont have a lot of experience with trout. My concern would be something else went wrong. And never add salt to the sump or filtration because it will go in at a huge concentration and It will kill your bacteria in your filter . I alway add salt to the biggest body of water and over a few days . This way the fish slowly get use to the change in conditions and so does the bacteria.


Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk 2

Hmm, yeah, maybe. Dunno.



Sounds like a good cautious approach. Hadn't thought about the effect of salt on the bacteria.

Yeh I learnt the hard way too I used to have a fish room with over 50 fish tank and collected aus native fish back in my day I could just about name almost all the freshwater species .
I would often change water conditions to teat the boundaries of fish tolerances . I always had problems with ammonia spikes after changing from fresh to brackish water and couldn't pin point why until I spoke to one of australias best aquarium experts and he taught me that there are diffrent types of bacteria for different water conditions so changes need to be made slowly so bacteria could evolve and adapt to the new conditions.
When keeping fish in such high densities even a 2-3 degree sudden jump in temperature can knock your bacteria around.
Stability and slow changes are the key to happy fish.

Sent from my GT-N7105 using Tapatalk 2

What? Panicking and driving to your local IGA to empty the shelves of black and gold cooking salt isn't common? Gotta admit, mum did ask me if it was ok to add it all at once. She also asked if pool salt was the same as cooking salt. Doesn't dhe know nobody likes a smartarse? She never "I told you so" ed. Probably cause she knows it wouldn't be worth it.

Incidentally I've learn these things (thanks to everyone that posted above:

Add stuff slowly
Add the right stuff slowly
Add the right stuff slowly when you need to
Use the forum for preventative action rather than killing your entire tank and heading for the buy and sell section to restock.

Incidentally I have found a source of new trout. Thanks rupertofoz

Could also be anti caking agents in table salt. I've dumped salt in my sump tank before when treating for itch. Gives the fish a 9 ppt, shock before diluting down to 3 ppt in the system water. That was ok for silver perch fingerings. I've read the sudden change in salinity is what shocks the parasites.

Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk

The anti caking agent was 535 sodium ferrocyanide. Apparently the cyanide part is not toxic until there is a hydrogen donor (acid) when it makes cyanide gas which is toxic. As my system is slightly on the acid side, I wonder. I wonder if there's enough in the salt to do damage. You wouldn't think so. Cause cooking salt would be not the best to make acid food with. Maybe it's not a problem until you're living in the solution. Don't know, don't care. The only salt I had handy was himillayan rock salt. They weren't getting that.

That would give them altitude sickness!
Thank you, thank you, I'm here all week, try the veal...

Glad to hear you found a supplier for more fish, hope he is travelling well also. (Miss his experienced, valuable, informed input to this forum.)
Still wondering what made you panic and salt in the first place?

The trout were covered in ich and I knew I hadn't salted. I was due to start work at 1030am and was going out straight after work so had 15 min to get salt in. Went to 4 places close to home, none stocked pool salt. The rest as they say is history

As Mattyoga said above, I don't think dumping a lot of (the proper sort of) salt in quickly is a problem, it's the best way to hurt the Ich. I put 9kg into my FT in an hour last year with no problems.

Yeah I chucked 20kg in and was fine. I'm thinking to put yabbies in the other tank (I have 2 linked tanks) will start another thread for that one.

Are you sure the original problem was Ich ? If so you need to put a lot of salt in all at once 5 or 6 ppt or more and leave it for a few weeks to kill the parasite, its the shock of a sudden change that does it. It may knock your plants and bacteria about but the main thing is to get rid of the ich. Apparently it can take longer to get rid of it in winter because the cold slows down the life cycle of Ich. What measures are you taking exactly ? It will be interesting to see if you get rid of it. Are your new trout coming from the same batch as your previous ones ?

Hi Colours, What/who is rupertofoz?

A legendary member of the BYAP community. Poster/contributor of many interesting threads. Long time advice giver to countless members...