Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

after trawing posts and internet i need to know a bit more info on Salth Baths.
i have about 500 lts in my IBC set up, so i put around 2 cups of pool salt in the water.(disolved first)
i have 100liters of water sitting in buckets "declorinating" why dont we use water ageer?
i pulled the pipe off the pump so its not feeding the GB, it is on continusly in the Fish Tank
anyway how long do i leave the water for?

yes im planning to remove 10 10ltr buckets of the tank water and replace with the declornitaed stuff......
any ideas?

Not sure about the rest of the members, but my impression of salt bath is:

1) Take a suitable amount of water out from your existing system. So depending on the number of fishes you have, you might need a larger container, hence more water, otherwise you could be doing this for a while and require another holding tank.

2) Add sea salt to that amount of water until the recommended concentration of salt. In most cases, a salt bath would be from 6ppt and above... possibly 10ppt (10kg of salt per 1000L; do you own division).

3) Take the fishes out and put them into this container. Because the water was from the existing system, the only change is the salt, which should do them good.

4) After about 10mins, take the fishes out and put them back into the tank. Time here should be gauged depending on the health of the fish.

5) It is usually best to add salt to the tank up to 3ppt before Step 1. So when the fishes return back into the tank from the salt bath, they are in 3ppt salt concentration water.

Your method involves adding new water that would change the composition of the water, such as pH, which could stress the sick fishes out more.

And you don't use water ager because most water agers are not suitable for fish meant for human consumption. In fact on most quality brands, this statement is printed in fine print.

If you are doing a salt bath... make sure your container is heavily oxygenated.. due to both the number of fish in a small volume... and the high salinity...

Observe.. and remove fish immediately if they appear distressed...