Little Bit Medication Advise Please

Does the medication say anything about salt? The reason I ask is that you can use plain ordinary salt to combat nitrite - it stops the fish's blood taking up the nitrite.

If the med does not mention salt, it should be OK to use it. The dosage has to be calculated form the nitrite reading and the volume of water.
Multiply the nitrite reading by 10, so in your case 0.25 x 10 = 2.5
Multiply 2.5 by the volume of water in the tank (in litres)
Multiply that answer by 1.5.

That gives you the weight of salt in grammes to add to the tank. Remove a bit of tank water, dissolve the salt in that then pour back into the tank.

Before the next dose of med, do a water change then add it. You will remove some of the nitrite and some of the salt. Measure the nitrite 30 mins after the water change (allows the new water to mix in) then monitor it every day. If it goes up you need to add more salt but only enough salt for the increase. That's why you need to measure it straight after the water change, so you know how much it goes up after the change.



Tip - save empty yogurt pots, margarine tubs, ice cream tubs etc. They come in useful for things like removing some tank water to dissolve salt in.

I should have been more specific. What I meant was does the med say not to use salt at the same time, some meds do say that. If it doesn't warn against using salt, then it's fine to use it to counteract the effects of nitrite.


Nitrite binds to the red blood cells and prevents oxygen from binding so that the blood can't carry much oxygen to the body. Salt stops this happening so that oxygen does reach the body. The amount of salt used is small so most fish can tolerate it. The barbs should be able to cope easily.