Salt
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Koi Pond Care Treating your Koi Pond with Salt I commonly use Rock Salt or Morton NON Iodized salt. Make sure your salt has no trace elements or Y P S in it! UPDATE: Go to the water softener department in Lowes or Home Depot. Look for "Solar Salt" 99.9% pure salt made by Morton or Diamond. A 25 pound bag cost app. $5.00. |
I recommend that you use salt, before you try anything else for parasites.
Salt can be used to eradicate a marvelous array of pathogens in Koi and Goldfish. However, there are some cautions to its use.
UPDATE: Due to the overuse of salt, many parasites have become "salt resistant". The treatment for "Salt Resistant" is TERMINATE .1. Plants, of the submerged variety, can be killed by salting. Iris, Papyrus (non Mexican), Hyacinth, Cattails, Water Lettuce and Aurum will survive it - although they may yellow.
2. Salt should NOT contain Y P S (Yellow Prussiate of Soda) or any trace minerals if using a feed salt.
3. Salt should not be used in extremely warm weather without GREAT aeration.
4. Salt will kill string algae - the decay of the string algae will pulse the Ammonia and also consume dissolved oxygen - AERATE!
5. Salt should be added, when possible, in a divided dose to negate any possible filter stumbles.
Salting:
- Remove submerged plants.
- Perform a fifty percent water change, 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.
- Remove salt after 14 days if fish are better via several partial water changes.