Aquarium Salt

[dixaisy930]

I've been reading in a couple of places about adding a little aquarium salt to freshwater tanks to help cure (or prevent) ick, and other benefits. I noticed about a week ago one of my platies was "bouncing"off plants and tank decorations. She was the only one out of three fish doing it, though. I haven't noticed any white spots, on any of the fish though (she's in with another platy and dwarf puffer). She's stopped bouncing for about one or two days now. So to get to the point(s) lol, I guess what I'm trying to ask is should I still be concerned about ick, and what are some of the benefits and concerns with adding aquarium salt.

P.S. I have three live plants in the tank, and the fish have been in there for two weeks now.

 

[mathman]

I have heard several first hand accounts that salt is a miracle for some fish. Mollies and Guppies seem to love it and others will swim away from it. A rounded teaspoon per 5 gals is recomended for almost all fresh water tanks. Remember salt is not filtered out so only add it with new water. Please double check for your fish as I have strictly mollie experience. I am hoping to add more variety so will be looking forward to seeing more posts on this subject.

 

[semper fi]

salt can be added to most freshwater tanks. it should not be added to tanks with scaleless fish in them since they can get burned from the salt. the benefit from adding salt to the tanks is that salt helps with a fish's gill function. proper gill function is needed for a fish to expel toxins and disease introduced into the body. when a fish becomes diseased, the gills become diseased and the fish cannot expel the toxins which build up in the body and eventually kill the fish.

salt cannot be evaporated out of the tank. it also is not removed by carbon. when you do water changes you do have to replace the amount of salt per replacement water. example: five gallons of water removed = 1 tablespoon of salt. salt should be well dissolved before adding to the tank. you can heat a small amount of tank water to dissolve the salt.

maggie