How can I tell if I put too much salt in my tank?

Question

In my cichlid tank the people at the pet store told me that i needed to put salt in the tank. I'm a little worried that i put too much salt in the tank. There still arent any fish in the tank yet and probably wont be for another week. But how can i tell if there is too much, and if there is, is there any ways other than emptying the tank to reduce the salt levels.

Answer 1

The only way to remove salt from the tank is through water changes. Things like carbon will not remove salt. I assume you are talking about an african cichlid tank and they can handle quite a bit of salt. How much did you add? Anything less than 1.5-2 tablespoons per gallon will be no problem what so ever for africans.

I would however suggest you call the store from which you plan to buy the africans and ask how much they maintain in their tanks. It would be good to try to match it fairly closely.

MM

Answer 2

Answer: Cichlids don't "need" salt and it's basically an optional additive.

If you decide to use salt, it's probably better to start off with completely fresh water and add small amounts of salt gradually after the fish have already been in the tank (instead of suddenly adding the fish to the tank which has a higher salt content than they are accustomed to).

Too much salt would probably be anything more than a tablespoon or two per 10gal of water.

When doing any sort of 'water chemistry', always keep track of the amount of additives you've put in the tank. Water changes will reduce the overall salt content.

Salt, like any other additives, has to be replaced with each water change to prevent flucuations. For example if you added a total of 30 teaspoons and performed a 20% water change, you'll have to add 6 new teaspoons of salt to maintain the same salt content level.

By the way, carbon will NOT remove salt from the water.

Answer 3

First off I commend you on setting up the tank in anticipation of buying the fish. Cichlids can be expensive and it sucks when they die over something fixable. All you have too do is take about a cup of the tank water to any pet store and they will test the water for you and most will do it free of charge. You'll know within a matter of minutes what's too much and not enough. They sell droppers of all kinds of supplements to help balance the tank. If it's too high you way have to do a 25% maybe 50% water change but most of the time you can just buy some cheap starter fish for the tank then just take them back to the store to get rid of when you want the Cichlids. Also Cichlids are tropical fish and do very well with minimal care and a heater in the tank set at about 80 degrees. :-D

Answer 4

You are supposed to put half a tea spoon of salt anything besides that is risking it especially for new fish. If you are afraid you have too much salt in your tank do a 50 percent water change which would remove a large portion of the salt. Dont worry about it, cichlids live in salty water and they live their water to have salt in it. If i were you i would go buy some cheap asst. cichlids and see their reaction to the water. Btw is your water cycled, if this a new tank and you have too much salt, i would suggest changing 50 percent of your water, cycling your tank, and then putting in your cichlids. Cichlids are tough fish but even they cant stand too high levels of salt. The easiest way to tell if there is a high level of salt in your tank would be to look at the cichlids mouths. If they are "breathing" (opening and closing their mouth) very large and rapidly then you might have a salt problem

Answer 5

well what type of cichlids r they that you are wanting to keep? you can get some that like a little salt (brackish) but most common ones do ok with out as they are easily bread and have never been with salt, Oscars, jack Dempsey's, convicts all do well in fresh water,
if you are thinking of a less common one that needs salt maybe a lake chichlid then i guess u wood use a hydrometer to measure the gravity saltwater, but if i was you i wood go for the less complex way and get an easyer fish to start with.

Answer 6

Don't worry about that. Your carbon filter pulls the salt out anyway.

It will be out of your tank within an hour or so of you putting it in the tank.

I did that once and the vet told me the filter will pull it out. Pets stores are useless. They don't have the same filters we do.