Salting water

**Boomers G ma** · 12-08-2012, 11:23 PM

Hi everyone, I was sure that someone told me to salt the tank water every 3 months for my Betta fish but when I posted here ( in the wrong part of the forum) I was told not to salt his water unless he's sick.
I need to get rid of the snails in my fish tank, I believe salt kills them? I have rescued any save-able snails and rehomed them ( lol, sorry it's the rescuer in me)...and now I just want to make certain there are no teeny weeny baby ones hiding that will give me further problems, again, I have NO idea how they got into Boomers new tank!

**korith** · 12-09-2012, 01:38 AM

Salt will not get rid of your snails. No need to add salt to your tank. Two ways to get rid of snails, one is my physically removing them from the tank, the other is to add a chemical to the tank that will kill inverts. Most people will avoid adding chemicals.

You can make snail traps, there are several posts on the forum already about how to make them. Many different ways to make one. One simple way is to take a small plastic container, and poke holes on the top and near the top of the sides, big enough for a snail to get in, but small enough to keep fish out. Put fish flakes or algae wafers into it, or any kind of leafy green, then put the top on the container and put it into the tank. Should be able to catch the majority of them in a few days. Then dispose of them however you wish.

**Sligg** · 12-09-2012, 01:42 AM

By 'salting the tank' do you mean actually raising the salinity with marine salt or do you mean dosing 'aquarium salt'. There's quite a big difference. Either way I'm not sure that dosing every three months is going to have any real effect at all whether it's marine or aquarium. Raising the salinity with marine salt would probably kill the snails eventually if they're FW, but I'm not totally sure how tolerant a Betta would be in brackish conditions. It's probably not advised for long term for sure. At any rate it's really not going to be an effective way of removing the pest from your tank!

There are a few really good stickies around the board on controlling pest snails and I'd really recommend starting off there.

Sticky on salt, might have some answers for you; http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aqua...ad.php?t=31554
Information on snails and prevention; http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/aquarium/snails.php

I swear there was a whole sticky on controlling snails but I can't seem to find it and don't have the time to look as of this second.

Hope this has been of at least a little help!

**sheamurai** · 12-09-2012, 02:17 PM

You don't even need to use a trap. The trap is just to keep other tank inhabitants from eating your bait.

I put zucchini in the tank for the bn pleco, and in five minutes its covered with snails. If I wanted to get rid of them, all I would have to do is take out the zucchini and wipe them off, and replace the zucchini. Repeat until they are gone...

I certainly wouldn't dose the tank with ANYthing, as it does not sound like you are sure there are even snails in it, sounds like you are just being pre-emptive.

**talldutchie** · 12-09-2012, 06:54 PM

Salt is in my mind highly debatable for healthy freshwater fish.

As to the technique above. I put it in a net otherwise you lift it and everything drops of as soon as you break the waterline.

**Boomers G ma** · 12-12-2012, 09:35 AM

Thank you all for your replies, I do like the Zuchinni idea very muchly. I might need to add malachite Green to the tank however because Boomer is sick, I believe this kills inverts, some are only like miniscule specs and there are sooooooooo many popping up I realsied I have hundreds of baby snails already that i could barely even see :(

**korith** · 12-12-2012, 11:03 AM

Originally Posted by Boomers G ma

Thank you all for your replies, I do like the Zuchinni idea very muchly. I might need to add malachite Green to the tank however because Boomer is sick, I believe this kills inverts, some are only like miniscule specs and there are sooooooooo many popping up I realsied I have hundreds of baby snails already that i could barely even see :(

If you use malachite green, it will stain the silicone in the tank.

**Cermet** · 12-12-2012, 11:16 AM

First off, tank breed Betta's hardly need salt; also, if and whether salt is ever used, it MUST be aqurium salt - Marine salt will harm fresh water fish. Except for discus, I see no purpose for salt with standard tank breed fish.