What Is Pond Salt Treatment | Is Adding Salt To Pond Water A Good Idea?
I recently received an email from Susan, who lives in Bolton, England. Susan is fairly new to pond keeping and had read on a water gardening site that a good way of controlling parasites on pond fish is to apply a pond salt treatment by adding salt to the pond water.
I've come across the question of "Is adding salt to pond water a good idea?" on quite a few occasions over the past few years. The simple answer is No but salt does however have its uses.
Incidentally I am not aware of a good reason for adding salt to your pond. Salt treatments for pond fish are only truly effective in a highly concentrated "bath" or "out of pond" situations.
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Susan brings up a very good point and one I would like to discuss for the benefit of my newsletter subscribers. In fact the only reason I can think of as to why it is suggested that she should be adding salt to a fish pond is because someone wanted to sell her some pond salt.
In all honesty in my humble opinion adding salt to a pond is a total waste of time, effort and above all money.
It never ceases to amaze me however how many many water gardening sites and forums thoroughly recommend pond salt treatment as a seasonal requirement with the onset of spring and summer. Many pond keepers really believe that adding salt to pond water is a miracle cure for parasites, flukes and the like.
As with many articles on my website I try to put my point across but feel that it is the individuals choice as to whether they follow my advice or not. So the rest of the article gives a brief overview of salt and if you really insist on applying a pond salt treatment at least do it with table salt or non iodized table salt and not refined salt (raw salt).
What Is Pond Salt? Why Do So Many Pond Keepers Swear By Pond Salt?
Manufacturers and sellers of pond salt claim that pond salt provides all the necessary electrolytes (potassium, sodium, chloride, calcium and magnesium) needed by your pond fish in order to be healthy and happy. Unlike table salt it is claimed that pond salt is made from evaporated sea water which contains the required electrolytes.
Apparently pond salt acts as a natural stress coat for your Koi and other pond fish by thickening the slime coat found all over the fish's body. This slime coat is the fish's natural defence mechanism. A bit like the human skin which protects us from bacteria etc. A pond fish with a healthy stress coat is less susceptible to stress.
When Koi and other fish become stressed they become susceptible to disease and illness and their normally healthy gill function is disturbed. These may lead to osmotic shock in severe cases through a lack of electrolytes. Symptoms of osmotic shock include a reduction in oxygen uptake and the release of carbon dioxide and ammonium by the fish.
It is claimed that pond salt helps to reduce the opportunity for osmotic shock to take place because the electrolytes ensure correct gill functioning.
This sounds absolutely great and I can understand the reasoning and logic behind the claim. One thing I do find puzzling however is how given such a large volume of water compared with the dosage it can actually work. I guess it is up to you as to whether or not you believe in the case for a pond salt treatment.
Personally I do know that there are products on the market that have been specifically designed to replace the fish's stress coat and are much less harmful to the water chemistry than adding pond salt. An overdose of pond salt will kill off your aquatic pond plants in high enough concentrations.
The Facts About Salt ... and therefore Salt in Koi Ponds
Salt has the chemical name Sodium Chloride and the symbols NaCl ... it can be
produced in the laboratory by reacting hydrochloric acid with sodium hydroxide
but this is not recommended since the reaction can be very vigorous. The Cl
(Chloride from Chlorine) in NaCl is a very close compound to Iodine.
Salt is not made in the normal sense of the word it is rather recovered in large evaporation dams (called salt pans) where salt water (not necessarily sea water) is allowed to concentrate.
After a certain concentration of salt in the water is reached the salt precipitates and is harvested and then refined. Many people who watch National Geographic programs will have seen massive flocks of flamingoes congregating around salt pans in the Great Rift Valley of Africa. These birds feed on brine shrimps.
Salt therefore in practice is more than NaCl since other salts also precipitate with the NaCl. These other salts are perfectly safe to humans and therefore to most other forms of wildlife. Raw salt as distinct from refined table salt is used extensively in animal feeds because it is cheaper.
Table salt is much more of a pond safe salt than raw salt which could have any sort of contaminants in it by virtue of the process sued to recover salt and as explained above.
So What About Iodine in Table Salt?
First of all... Iodine is an element that is critical for the day to day
functioning of the thyroid gland in human beings.
Iodine (as Potassium Iodide ... KI) is added to table salt in miniscule amounts (about 0.006%) to counter possible iodine deficiency.
This type of table salt is known as IODIZED table salt. Not all table salt available is IODIZED. If it is it will be clearly marked on the label.
If anyone does have a real concern about using table salt for a garden pond then this worry is easily fixed by buying non-iodized table salt. Maybe it is even preferable but I am quite sure that nobody has ever done enough study to prove the matter one way or another. So the choice is entirely yours.
Should I Be Adding Salt To Pond Water?
Definitely Not - When it comes to using a pond salt treatment by adding it to pond water as a matter of course nobody has ever convinced me that it is essential or even necessary. It does however serve a useful function in treating certain parasitic fish infections out of the pond water in what is known as a pond fish salt bath or simply salt bath.