I am 7 days into cycling a 90 litre fishtank with two telescope goldfish. I have been using aqua safe dechorin

Question

thanks for your replies, I dont have a heater because its a coldwater tank and cannot afford one. I was also told that salt can damage the fish. It seems like a horrible catch 22 type situation, and my poor fish is starting to show symptoms such as fins down. What should i do to help her tonight?

Answer 1

DO NOT add salt to your goldies, this won't help what so ever.

Is there a reason you decided to use fish to cycle the tank?  Using aqua safe dechlor except when doing water changes is doing nothing but exposing your fish to more chemicals.  Only use it when changing water.

What are your test results coming back like?  Ammonia and Nitrites?  You need to do a 25% water change wait an hour and test again.  You don't need a heater on a goldfish tank.

Your fish are more than likely experiencing the ammonia spikes.  Do your water change and test.  Also, to help with their breething drop the water level by 1/2" in the tank.  this will allow the filter to DUMP water into the tank increasing the dissolved oxygen.

Answer 2

Salt will not harm your goldfish if you follow the directions. Yes salt is bad in some circumstances but in this case I think it is worth it. I don't know how much you can afford but heaters at walmart aren't very costly, here you can get them for about 19 dollars and the goldfish can handle the increase in temperature just fine until the ich is gone.

salt and a heater I think will be the cheaper route to follow to cure your fish in the long run. Besides the salt will not expire as soon as the medication will so you will have it when you need it again.

edit:There are several different options when treating ich.

The first, safest and in my opinion best treatment method is simply salt. You don’t need any special salt just so long as it’s NaCI salt and not something like Epsom salt or marine tank salt. If you’re not sure just purchase some aquarium salt from your fish store. The method for treating is relatively easy. The common recommended dose for treating ich is 2 tsp per gallon of water. It’s not recommended to put the salt right in the tank. You should mix it in with water so that it dissolves and then add the salt water into the tank. I recommend that you add about a quarter of the salt mix every few hours so that you don’t shock your fish as badly. You only do this once not everyday like with other ich medications. Salt does not evaporate or dilute over time in the water. The ich will probably look like it is getting worse for the first few days while you’re waiting for the salt to have its effect on in. If the ich does not look like its getting better after 5 days you will want to increase the dose by another 1 tsp per gallon. If you are keeping tropical fish I would recommend slowly turning the heat up to 86 degrees to help quicken the life cycle of the cyst which will not be affected by the salt. If you are keeping goldfish or other cool water species I would go to 74-76 degrees. Some people will tell you that 80 is ok for cool water but this really brings them undo stress. 74-76 will speed up the cycle of the organism enough that it should be killed off out in a week’s time. Remember heat is not necessary to kill ich the salt or medication will do it on there own but increasing the temperature will quicken the life cycle of the ich organism. If you keep any invertebrates or very fragile species you may want to consult an expert of the species to make sure that salt will not harm them. I would wait about seven days before doing another water change so that the salt has time to wipe out the life cycle of the organism. When you are done treating for ich I wouldn’t worry about doing a massive water change just your normal maintenance and the salt will be diluted out over time. Once you do a water change it is not necessary to add more salt back to the tank. If you do a water change during your treatment or want to continue treatment after seven day’s you will need to measure out how many gallons you take out of tank. Once you have removed the amount of water that you feel is sufficient for your water change refill the aquarium with fresh water equal to what you removed in old water. Then re-dose the tank with salt equal to 2 tsp per gallon of water that you removed. For example if you removed 20 gallons of water then you will want to add 40 tsp. of salt back into the tank.