John Bancroft writes: > Hi to all on Silver List, > > QUESTION.... > > Can anyone tell me what effects colloidal silver may, or has had, > in a home fish-aquarium? > Has anyone tried it? > > Effects on the fish? > > Effects on any mold in the aquarium? > > > John Bancroft.
Yes, I have tried it, with mixed results: Fungus that was infecting the fish was no longer visible after a few days and the fish remained healthy for a month without any water changes to the tank. However, after a month the fungus problem started to return. I have researched this a bit and what I found is that while adding colloidal silver (or even metallic silver, as in my notes below) may kill off some fungus, that the fungus is a symptom of other tank conditions that need to be corrected. Further, these tank conditions are generally corrected by having the right bacteria balance in the tank, and the colloidal silver may or may not interfere with this bacterial balance. In short: The tank needs certain bacteria to be healthy, it needs adequate water flow through whatever media the bacteria are in, it needs oxygen, and it needs nitrates removed at a certain rate. In long: Fish and uneaten fish food produce ammonia, which is very toxic to fish. If the ammonia level rises too high the fish will get sick (fungus, etc.) and then die. The traditional method of ammonia control is to have two kinds of bacteria in a filter of some kind (any kind will work if it is efficient enough: undergravel, a box on the side filled with material, etc.): These bacteria (nitrobacter and nitrosomonas) eat ammonia and turn it into nitrite, and then turn the nitrite (which is still toxic to the fish, but less so than ammonia) in to nitrate (which is not very toxic, but still needs to be removed before it gets to a high concentration). One way to remove nitrate is replace some tank water with clean water, another way is to grow plants in the tank, or out of the tank (using a recirculating pump) and let the plants eat the nitrates. In a healthy tank there is a balance between the fish, the ammonia eating bacteria, and the flow rate through the system. If this system gets out of balance the fish get sick, and putting silver in the system may kill off the fungus and *some* other disease organisms that are beginning to thrive in the weakened fish. This can buy you some time to fix the real problem, but the silver may also be killing the nitrosomonas and nitrobacter bacteria, and thus actually making things worse, but I don't know if this is happening. The solution I use is to re-establish the "good bacteria" by adding some > from another source (ask the fish store about Terminite bacteria supplement, and make sure it is a fresh bottle), making more frequent water changes, and cleaning the food and fish waste debris out of the tank more often, since this waste is also creating ammonia. I also think that before re-seeding the bacteria a good dose of silver can help wipe out a lot of the disease organisms and make room for the good bacteria to get a head start. I had been leaving a piece of metallic silver (sterling, about 97% silver, 3% copper) in the tank, but since I am not sure if it is also killing the good bacteria I stopped doing this. A good site to start with is: http://www.intercom.net/biz/aquaedu/hatech/ they have a lot of info on fish and plant systems, and they sell bacteria. Some thoughts: You might try putting the sick fish in a "hospital tank" for a short time and dosing them on silver to clear out their systems of fungus, etc., and then returning them to a well-running tank, since the silver may really help the fish, but might really screw up the bacteria in the main tank. If and when I am ready to totally clean out my own body I might consider using silver to wipe out my own intestinal flora and then replace it with a very carefully chosen culture, and do this very carefully so as not to overload myself with toxins, etc., and make sure that a truly competent doctor is monitoring me as I do this. After I have re-set my body a very low maintenance dose of silver may be useful, or perhaps it may no longer be needed: Silver corrects certain conditions, it doesn't create a state of health all by itself, and I am more complex than a fishtank :) I hope this answers some of your questions, the subject of aquaculture is where you will find most of the work that is being done on all this. -- Richard Ginn [email protected] 510 Utica Street http://www.neuron.net/~ginn Ithaca, New York USA 607-277-5058
