Salt Debate

[MexicanFish]

Well, this topic I'm sure is cyclic, it comes and goes.

In a freshwater tank, how many of you add salt to it? how much?

In mine I add one tablespoon for each 5 gal bucket of water after I vacuum the substrate, so far fish are healty and I've been doing the salt thing for a few months now.

And just for reference, I'll list the fish that i have in the tank:

11 Tiger barbs (small)
one pink gourami (4 inches)
one calico fantail goldfish (4 inches, as fat as they come)
three bala sharks (8 inches, 4 inches, 3 inches)
two purple gobys (10 inches)
a pair of german rams (small)
one black knife (3 inches)
one silver dollar (5 inches)
two gold gouramis (3 inches)
one blue gourami (3 inches)
one rainbow shark (3 inches)
one auratus cichlid (2 inches) (i know, I know, but his tail fin is missing after another cichlid in another tank gnawed on it, and he's pretty peaceful)

[fishboyt]

I use aquarium salt in my tanks. Works well. What sized tank is it?

[Zulaab]

Aquarium salt is good for fish as it assist with adding to their slime coat.
I am thinking as long as you are only replacing what you are removing when taking water out of the tank you are doing good. 1 Tablespoon for 5-10G of water would be about the correct amount.

[cichlidchic]

i add a 3 or 4 handfulls on waterchange days, but i do about 30 gallons.

[Darbex]

I add salt to my Discus tank as its not heavily planted but I dont do it in my two planted tanks. I dont usually measure. I just pour until I feel its enough. I think I measured it once recently and when I do my method it ends up being less than 1Tbsp per 5 gallons its more like 10+ gallons

[MexicanFish]

the tank is 80, and I have a few plants but so far they're ok.

[FuzzyDragon09]

I don't have any fish right now but when my Betta was still alive I added 1 tbsp (1/2 tsp/gallon) for every 5 gallons each of NaCl and Epsom Salt. I added these during water changes and only put in what I took out. I had been doing the regular salt for a while, but when he got sick, I added Epsom salt to the tank. I was planning to keep adding both salts even after he got better... but he died (from the disease not the salt). Anyways, there's my 2 cents.

[Nickintex]

Is salt ok for Knife fish? Aren't SA knives kinda sensitive about water parameters? I have a "white" black ghost in one of my tanks and I do not dare put salt in it as I do not wanna take a chance.

[Darbex]

Salt is good for almost all fish as long as its within range no more than the recommended dosage. The thing is it helps with electrolytes and slime coat regeneration.

[Mzungu]

I don't use any salt. :)

[wesleydnunder]

The prophylactic use of salt on freshwater aquarium fish is unnecessary and often detrimental to them. The myth that it aids in slime production comes from the fact that it's an irritant and causes increased production of slime.

Healthy freshwater fish don't need help producing their slime coat.

Freshwater fish have evolved a very specific method of achieving and maintaining homeostasis in their bodies. It's call osmoregulation. I'm not suggesting that all freshwater fish evolve in the same concentrations of dissolved solids. Most have evolved in water of little to almost no sodium concentration. When we add salt to the freshwater aquarium prophylactically, we upset the osmoregulation process the fish have naturally going for them. Some studies have linked dropsy to the unnecessary use of "Aquarium Salt".

A few years ago, Robert T. Ricketts wrote an article about this in TFH. I'll see if I can find a link.

The only time I add salt to a freshwater aquarium is to treat ick. And then, I don't buy the rock salt ground smaller and repackaged at the lfs as "Aquarium Salt". That's one of the biggest wastes of money that the lfs promotes. "Aquarium salt" is plain salt. Why pay 10 times the price for it as you could at the grocery store.

No one has ever shown me anything more than anecdotal evidence that prophylactic use of salt on freshwater fish is in any way beneficial to the fish. In almost 42 years of successful fishkeeping, I've never used this method and my fish tend to die of old age, not stress or disease.

The sole purpose of most lfs is TO SELL YOU STUFF. Of course they'll tell you the Aquarium Salt use has benefits. I've yet to find one that says, "Here. Buy this. It doesn't do any good and may cause your fish damage, but buy it anyway."

Sorry for the rant, this subject is a pet peeve of mine.

Mark

[MexicanFish]

Sorry for the rant, this subject is a pet peeve of mine.

Mark

[Mzungu]

Woohoo! I totally agree with you, Mark. Maybe not about the LFS thing, lol. But the great salt debate tends to be a pet peeve of mine, as well. :) I'm more of a "research the water params of where the fish originally came from" kinda gal. Mollies are a good example, as many people tout the use of salt in livebearer aquariums. But I test the water from which my fish came, if I can, with a refractometer. For example, in a month or two I am thinking of asking someone to catch me a few sheepshead minnows from a body of water with 3ppt of salt. I will probably end up converting them over to complete fresh in QT.

Now I feel a rant coming on, so to cut it short, I will second Mark's statement that for treatment of parasites salt is ALWAYS my first "medication." Fish can take prolonged emersion in waters with higher salt content than they're normally used to, but parasites tend not to do so well. That has been scientifically proven. :)

As for the slime coat debate, I have even started to be wary of using prime because it states that it aids in the manufacture of slime coating. I'm thinking that after using this bottle up, I am going to switch to a carbon bottle and a dash of sodium thiosulfate.

[Darbex]

The only problem is that most water that is put into fish tanks is significantly devoid of natural salts that would be in the rivers and lakes the fish come from that is put there through rain and erosion. The point of adding salt to the tank is to simulate this since through processing of water salt and other vital minerals are removed from the water and replaced with other minerals such as flourine and chemicals like Chlorine and Chloramines.

[Darbex]

This is one of the many reasons we add salt to our foods. If all we did is eat meats unsalted and plants and drank only purified water we would be lacking important electrolytes because the foods mentioned above do not produce enough.