How many of you regularly use salt to treat your water? Can you explain your reasoning why? If you do, can you explain your method! Anyone else can also share why you do not if you were aware of the regular practice and decided not to.
Regular salt treatment
- Thread starter fishn10s
- Start date
if my fish are not sick i leave the tank alone. just like me if i am feeling fine there is no need to use drugs.
I only use salt, when treating for something like "ich". Otherwise my freshwater tanks are salt-free. Others claim that using salt regularly may or will cause long term damage to your fish. :dive2:
I love how the aquarium salt at Petsmart is labeled as "the natural fish tonic". LOL how lame is that? 
Petsmart definitely pressures people to add salt to their aquarium, even to the point of aggravation. I took their advice for a little while, but am now only using salt (only 1 teaspoon/5 gallons) for the guppy tanks b/c multiple sources have told me they are brackish. anyone have a different opinion on this because I'd prefer not to HAVE to buy salt at all. Thanks
When people actually notice "requires aquarium salt" on the little signs I just tell them that its not required but that some fish, such as guppies and mollies, like to have a little salt in the water. Unlike my manager, who feeds them crap like "fish produce their own salt and if you don't add salt to the water, the water will take the salt from the fish and kill it"
Salt interferes with osmoregulation, and is also an irritant to freshwater fish.
The "tonic" effect often talked about is created by the interference with Osmoregulation. Over time FW fish that are exposed to slat will become weaker and unable to cope with normal attacks on their immune systems. They generally do not live as long as FW fish which are kept in Freshwater.
The claims of Slime coat production ore of course real, since the fish's natural response to any irritant is to produce more slime coat, they will inevitably do so when exposed to salt. Irritant= reaction. battery acid or gasoline will get you similar reactions
As far as Guppies, This is agreat myth in the hobby. And it goes something like this:
"livebearers are mostly brackish so they need salt" " liveberers need salt to thrive and reproduce well" Or "Mollies are brackish fish in the wild so you have to add salt or they will die"
HEre are the facts: Guppies, mollies, platy's, swordtails, killiefish, endlers etc.etc. are all freshwater fish. of these mollies are the only ones commonly found in the wild in brackish or marine water however they are still predominantly freshwater fish which come from freshwater origins. Additionally, most of the fish in the hobby are tank raised and bred in freshwater, so even if the origin of the original stock has some question to it, the fish sold in the LFS are Freshwater.
Next fact on this thought. Adding salt does not in any way come close to duplicating Brackish conditions. Seawater contains a huge list of minerals, and sodium and chloride neither one are the most prevalent. There is a good bit of salt in Seawater, but there is also a good bit of many other things necessary to the equation.
With livebearers, hard water is usually desired, because these fish do tend to thrive in high calcium high magnesium environments. This also means High TDS (Total Dissolved solids) levels. Since most livebearers are hardy, Most will tolerate salt moreso than other fish might, and since they thrive in High TDS water, the salt sometimes appears to have a positive effect. Salt does in fact raise TDS levels.
For any livebearer except mollies, Whatever your tap provides is awesome. you can't keep them from thriving and breeding, and they adapt to anything from soft to hard water. Mollies can sometimes be a little finicky with really soft water, but will still thrive, they just may not breed as much. For mollies I reccomend some attention to magnesium and calcium and you will see much more breeding activity.
In this whole discussion it is imprtant also to seperate Salt (NaCl) from mineral salts. For instance Epsom salt is MgSo4 (Magnesium Sulfate) and is a great thing to use to increase magnesoium levels.
Many Cichlid Salts Sold in the industry are a combination of mineral salts which produce very hard water for african cichlids. There is a balanced or correct amount of sadium and chloride in these products, but not much because there isn't much in the rift lakes in reality. Cichlid salts and cichlid substrates can be very useful for livebearers but once agian they are seldom needed and not often worth the trouble.
Just for a perspective, The saltiest of the rift lakes is Tanganyika, and the combined Sodium and chloride levels equate to less than 1/4 teaspoon per gallon. Doc Wellfish reccomends 3 teaspoons of salt per five gallons of water. so roughly 11 times the amount found in the saltiest freshwater in the world.
The next part of this argument is always the claim that aquarium salt is somehow magically better than table salt. The marketing department did great things on this one. I know people who use aquarium salt and then turn around and add iodine spplement for their shrimp :thud: :thud:
The trace amounts of anti-caking agents and iodine found in table salt will harm nothing in your tank. so in addition to not needing the product long term, when you do need it short term (Ich or nitrite poisoning) you still don't need to buy the high dollar salt from the LFS. mortons Iodized table salt is my product of choice for the rare occasion I do actually need salt.
I never expose my fish to salt unnecessarily or for any extended period of time.
For more information here is a great article.
Salt
The "tonic" effect often talked about is created by the interference with Osmoregulation. Over time FW fish that are exposed to slat will become weaker and unable to cope with normal attacks on their immune systems. They generally do not live as long as FW fish which are kept in Freshwater.
The claims of Slime coat production ore of course real, since the fish's natural response to any irritant is to produce more slime coat, they will inevitably do so when exposed to salt. Irritant= reaction. battery acid or gasoline will get you similar reactions
As far as Guppies, This is agreat myth in the hobby. And it goes something like this:
"livebearers are mostly brackish so they need salt" " liveberers need salt to thrive and reproduce well" Or "Mollies are brackish fish in the wild so you have to add salt or they will die"
HEre are the facts: Guppies, mollies, platy's, swordtails, killiefish, endlers etc.etc. are all freshwater fish. of these mollies are the only ones commonly found in the wild in brackish or marine water however they are still predominantly freshwater fish which come from freshwater origins. Additionally, most of the fish in the hobby are tank raised and bred in freshwater, so even if the origin of the original stock has some question to it, the fish sold in the LFS are Freshwater.
Next fact on this thought. Adding salt does not in any way come close to duplicating Brackish conditions. Seawater contains a huge list of minerals, and sodium and chloride neither one are the most prevalent. There is a good bit of salt in Seawater, but there is also a good bit of many other things necessary to the equation.
With livebearers, hard water is usually desired, because these fish do tend to thrive in high calcium high magnesium environments. This also means High TDS (Total Dissolved solids) levels. Since most livebearers are hardy, Most will tolerate salt moreso than other fish might, and since they thrive in High TDS water, the salt sometimes appears to have a positive effect. Salt does in fact raise TDS levels.
For any livebearer except mollies, Whatever your tap provides is awesome. you can't keep them from thriving and breeding, and they adapt to anything from soft to hard water. Mollies can sometimes be a little finicky with really soft water, but will still thrive, they just may not breed as much. For mollies I reccomend some attention to magnesium and calcium and you will see much more breeding activity.
In this whole discussion it is imprtant also to seperate Salt (NaCl) from mineral salts. For instance Epsom salt is MgSo4 (Magnesium Sulfate) and is a great thing to use to increase magnesoium levels.
Many Cichlid Salts Sold in the industry are a combination of mineral salts which produce very hard water for african cichlids. There is a balanced or correct amount of sadium and chloride in these products, but not much because there isn't much in the rift lakes in reality. Cichlid salts and cichlid substrates can be very useful for livebearers but once agian they are seldom needed and not often worth the trouble.
Just for a perspective, The saltiest of the rift lakes is Tanganyika, and the combined Sodium and chloride levels equate to less than 1/4 teaspoon per gallon. Doc Wellfish reccomends 3 teaspoons of salt per five gallons of water. so roughly 11 times the amount found in the saltiest freshwater in the world.
The next part of this argument is always the claim that aquarium salt is somehow magically better than table salt. The marketing department did great things on this one. I know people who use aquarium salt and then turn around and add iodine spplement for their shrimp :thud: :thud:
The trace amounts of anti-caking agents and iodine found in table salt will harm nothing in your tank. so in addition to not needing the product long term, when you do need it short term (Ich or nitrite poisoning) you still don't need to buy the high dollar salt from the LFS. mortons Iodized table salt is my product of choice for the rare occasion I do actually need salt.
I never expose my fish to salt unnecessarily or for any extended period of time.
For more information here is a great article.
Salt
to add or not to add
Good Question,
I have also been surfing the net for some time,
To add or not to add salt.... is there really one good answer?
I myself after recently adding clown loaches to my fish tank "Got Ick", So, what I did is added salt about 1tablespoon/gal about 1.0011 specific gravity and raised the temp to 89F for 10 days. This worked great even my clown loaches showed no problem. (One lady on the net said this is her normal level for clown loaches for years, a little high for salt level but works for her)
So, you ask what about normal salt in freshwater and you will find most sites I found said yes add about 1talbespoon/ 5gals. But after reading more I have decided with more current advice to not maintain a salt level in my tank.
I started with an Oscar and two plecos in a 30gal tank and never used salt but with every water change I added a conditioner/ chlorine remover solution and a small amount of quick ick (maybe was not needed, but now with loaches no can do).
I can only say for sure if Ick use the salt and heat method, worked for me and many others. As for normal salt use in freshwater ......let me know?
my posting http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82774
other links http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/treatment/a/saltiinfresh.htm
http://www.bestfish.com/fwsalt.html
http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/salt.shtml
http://www.algone.com/salt_in_fresh.htm
Good Question,
I have also been surfing the net for some time,
To add or not to add salt.... is there really one good answer?
I myself after recently adding clown loaches to my fish tank "Got Ick", So, what I did is added salt about 1tablespoon/gal about 1.0011 specific gravity and raised the temp to 89F for 10 days. This worked great even my clown loaches showed no problem. (One lady on the net said this is her normal level for clown loaches for years, a little high for salt level but works for her)
So, you ask what about normal salt in freshwater and you will find most sites I found said yes add about 1talbespoon/ 5gals. But after reading more I have decided with more current advice to not maintain a salt level in my tank.
I started with an Oscar and two plecos in a 30gal tank and never used salt but with every water change I added a conditioner/ chlorine remover solution and a small amount of quick ick (maybe was not needed, but now with loaches no can do).
I can only say for sure if Ick use the salt and heat method, worked for me and many others. As for normal salt use in freshwater ......let me know?
my posting http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=82774
other links http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/treatment/a/saltiinfresh.htm
http://www.bestfish.com/fwsalt.html
http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/salt.shtml
http://www.algone.com/salt_in_fresh.htm
I think the normal salt use has already been answered respectomy. read scouts info, as well as the link at the end of his post to Robert's essay. In short the answer is no, but it would benifit you to understand exactly why.
I am unsure of your theory of adding quick ich at every change. Ich is a parasite that will die without a host. Once it is eliminated from your tank, it will not come back unless it is brought in by a host (this can mean an impliment such as a net carrying the freeswimming stage of the ich lifecycle, as well as an infected new fish). There is a myth that ich will always be in your tank, this is usually due to the fact that ich must be killed during the free swimming stage of its life. It is possible for your fish to loose signs of visable ich, and still have freeswimming ich in your water. If you stop the treatment at this point, the freeswimming ich can rehabitate your fish's body, and show themselves again in the future. So long as you carrry out a full term treatment(4-6 weeks, well after your fish may have lost visable signs of the parasite), weather it be with salt or meds, you will have sucessfully killed all the ich in your tank so long as you did things right.
I am unsure of your theory of adding quick ich at every change. Ich is a parasite that will die without a host. Once it is eliminated from your tank, it will not come back unless it is brought in by a host (this can mean an impliment such as a net carrying the freeswimming stage of the ich lifecycle, as well as an infected new fish). There is a myth that ich will always be in your tank, this is usually due to the fact that ich must be killed during the free swimming stage of its life. It is possible for your fish to loose signs of visable ich, and still have freeswimming ich in your water. If you stop the treatment at this point, the freeswimming ich can rehabitate your fish's body, and show themselves again in the future. So long as you carrry out a full term treatment(4-6 weeks, well after your fish may have lost visable signs of the parasite), weather it be with salt or meds, you will have sucessfully killed all the ich in your tank so long as you did things right.
