Salt as an aid for fish where nitrites are high

Originally Posted by Snappyarcher

Does anyone know of any evidence to suggest that the addition of aquarium salt will help the fish where the nitrites have been high and are now on the way down? The fish in question is a Betta splendens and two guppies in a 25 litre nano with filter and temp of 24. C .... Nitrites sat at about 0.8 mg/ l but declining .... Any other advice very welcome!
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Originally Posted by Byron

Yes, salt will help with nitrites but there are other detrimental effects to salt that limit its usefulness with soft water fish such as Betta. I tried to find my reference material on how salt does this, but the site isn't working, so I'll leave that. There is a safer method [below]. Adding salt which would increase the fish's stress is only compounding the stress already being experienced.

If nitrite is above zero, daily partial water changes of 50% are recommended, using a conditioner that detoxifies nitrite. Prime and Ultimate will do this. There may be others I am not aware of, but most of the common conditioners do not handle nitrite.

Prime detoxifies it for up to 48 hours. During this, nitrite test kits will still read {"nitrite" even though it is in a bound form and "safe." After 48 hours, if it still shows in tests, nitrite in toxic form is still present, so another water change.

Byron.

Originally Posted by Byron

Yes, salt will help with nitrites but there are other detrimental effects to salt that limit its usefulness with soft water fish such as Betta. I tried to find my reference material on how salt does this, but the site isn't working, so I'll leave that. There is a safer method [below]. Adding salt which would increase the fish's stress is only compounding the stress already being experienced.
Thanks mate much appreciated! Are these products American or uk?
If nitrite is above zero, daily partial water changes of 50% are recommended, using a conditioner that detoxifies nitrite. Prime and Ultimate will do this. There may be others I am not aware of, but most of the common conditioners do not handle nitrite.

Prime detoxifies it for up to 48 hours. During this, nitrite test kits will still read {"nitrite" even though it is in a bound form and "safe." After 48 hours, if it still shows in tests, nitrite in toxic form is still present, so another water change.

Byron.