Salt?

[toadfarm]

Does anybody salt their pond as a normal routine benefit? if so, how much how often?

 

[koiguy1969]

this is my first year not salting...but i used 1&1/4 cups per 100 gals outside with plants (plants have adverse reactions to salt at much lower levels than fish). and 2&1/2 cups per 100 gals in the basement pond without plants. if you salt your pond, its very important to remember salt doesnt evaporate so you only add salt at water changes in proportion to the water change amount! do not add salt at water top offs.

 

[toadfarm]

I have not tested my salinity and wasn't sure if I was missing something. My water is well water. I would assume there is a natural amount of salt in well water. My plants look great, the fish seem happy. I may add some solar salt as a precautionary measure. If I add half of your suggested, I have to figure there will still be some benefit and little risk of damage. Make sense?

 

[fishin4cars]

I've read many mixed opinions on this subject. Some say keep some salt in the pond, others say don't so that when you need it you can bump it up to get the fish to produce more slime coat. Many Lily growers will tell you not to add any salt. Again, Mixed opinions as I have kept some salt in my pond (I try and keep a .07-.1% level all year) and have fish, plants and lily's and they all seem to be thriving very well together. I do see better lily growth on lily's I don't have in the pond without salt but that could be lighting and nutrients as well. If you are going to maintain a salt level invest in a salinity meter so you know where you level is. There not that expensive any more and you want to maintain a fairly constant level of under .1% so if you need to dose higher for a infection or parasite problem you have room to add salt to the system.

 

[toadfarm]

I was thinking to put in the bare minimum with the assumption that it can only help things.

 

[clm]

I've never used salt in my 25 years of pond keeping. Never have needed to and I'm one of those who think it's seriously overused in ponds.

clm

 

[stroppy]

i have never used salt, i would only add it if there were a problem with my fish

 

[sissy]

I use salt but only 1 cup in my pond and only added more when the pond lost almost half it's water to something knocking a hose out of the pond .I found if I use more than that my plants start to die .

 

[addy1]

I don't use salt

 

[CliffandJoann]

WE faithfully add salt every year in the fall since 1997.
First we remove the plants and take the in plants we are
over-wintering. We use kosher salt -- about 25 lbs, in our
2500 - 2800 gallon pond.
We dissolve about 3 lbs of the salt in a large bucket of pond
water and slowly add it while walking around the pond. Do do this
over a months time, usually by the beginning of November all the
salt is added.
We have only lost one fish (in 14 years) in the winter of 2009. He didn't look
sick, so we believe he jumped and hit his head on one of the rocks
on the edge.

this was taken in Oct 2005, after salting the pond.

 

[koiguy1969]

salting a pond has a few varied benefits....parasite control, slows alge growth, adds trace minerals and electolites to the water, encourages a healthy stress coat on the fish, and blocks the absorbtion of nitrites into the fishes blood stream, thereby helping to prevent nitrite poisoning known as brown blood disease.( the gills will tend to take up chloride ions in preference to nitrite ions) so this can be quite beneficial in a pond where nitrites are a problem...nitrites are absorbed and build up in the fish and can build to the point of being deadly.. At low levels the fish may rub against solid objects or ‘flash’. As levels increase the fish will become lethargic, but may still swim up to feed. If the fish is suffering from nitrite poisoning the gills will be pale tan to dark brown in colour and the fish may exhibit signs of respiratory distress, i.e gasping at the water surface or hanging around water inlets. Moving fish to clean water will often reverse the condition