Adding salt to water

[bubbs]

I've recently had a copule of fish die and a friend of mine (who used to keep tropical fish) suggested that once a month I should mix a solution of table salt and water and put it in the tank to kill bacteria.

I have a 15 gal (UK) tank and he suggested 5 teaspoons of salt sholud be added each month. I do regular 15-20% water changes each week.

I don't want to do this before I have more information so your comments would be appreciated. I have only kept fish for 10 weeks so am very new.

 

[WheelmanCA19]

I think it depends on what kind of fish you have in your tank.

From what I've read, salt should never be added to a tank with Cories. Don't know about other kinds of fish, I'm pretty new at this myself.

 

[clutterydrawer]

I think tetras dislike salt aswell, so I wouldn't. Also is tbale salt even suitable?! I thought it had to be aquarium salt.

 

[daisycat]

Get some proper aquarium salt - it is very cheap in LFS and comes with proper dosage instructions!

Most people say not to have salt with corys, but we have salt in our aquarium for our turtle and we had 3 corys in there with no problems (they did die in ammonia spike when we had an accident moving the tank, but that is another story). At the time I didn't know the thing about corys and salt so all I can give is my personal experience that it didn't bother them in anyway I was aware of.

 

[Crookster]

We had this discussion on a thread I started called Medications a few days ago. We sort of came to the conclusion that the thing about cories is a myth.

I've used it b4 and they were ok.

Check out this link and old thread.old thread

fish doc

Salt is at the bottom and if you click on the word salt it will give you more info.

 

[Crookster]

Don't use table salt!

 

[Liz05]

Salt is not supposed to be used with cories, snails, or any other type of scaleless fish. But, I've never tried it, so I don't know if the salt will really harm them or not... I guess in high concentrations it would. Bettas and goldfish do really well with salt; it can be used as a non-chemical medication or all the time. As for me, if there is a tank that I can use salt in, without harming anyone, I use it. I think you can use table salt only if it is NOT iodized. Aquarium salt is extremely cheap at WalMart and pet stores, and leaves out the worry of getting the wrong kind of salt.

 

[Bol]

...I should mix a solution of table salt and water and put it in the tank to kill bacteria.

From what I understand, that's not the reason you add salt.

If I remember correctly, the main reason you add a little salt is to ease the "pressure" on a fish's gills when there are trace amounts of nitrites in the water.

Could be wrong, of course.

 

[Crookster]

The salt has something to do with RO. It is supposed to kill bacteria i think. It sucks all the water outer them and dries them up or something.

Read the link I put on earlier it tells you on there.

Oh, I asked at my LFS about it yesterday. They said scaleless fish might have a problem, but if you halve the dose and only add it to the aquarium rather use it in a bath they should be ok.

Oh and cories have scales so iy is ok to use it with them.

 

[wrs]

tablesalt would kill the fish.
ive used aquarium salt with my cories. one didnt seem to like it because she got all slow and mopping around like, but the other didnt care about it.

 

[endparenthesis]

I've read it's the anti-clumping agent added to tablesalt that's dangerous. Some tablesalts use the agent and some use other agents that aren't harmful to fish. I forget what the ingredient is, it can be found online somewhere.