Aquarium salt

[Guyb93]

I'm an old fool from the old school. I use 4 teaspoons non-iodized salt per ten gallons of water regularly as a general tonic. I have no parasites and no premature fish deaths. My plants are fine with it. Vesicularia dubyana Java Moss and Microsorium pteropus Java Fern only. Anything the old timers did , I do.

I’m stuck on this question and as an old schooler you have probably tasted and smelled your water before , should your tank taste brackish after dosing with salt , I treated with a 2 per gallon n the water is very much brackish and I would not drink it

 

[Back in the fold]

@Guyb93 Yes , I do smell and taste my water. With my low dose of salt I don't taste it. True brackish water is borderline sea water. Brackish describes water in an estuary. The only way I notice the salt in my tanks is a little salt creep on the glass tops. I rinse that off every so often.

 

[GaryE]

I'm an old fool from the old school. I use 4 teaspoons non-iodized salt per ten gallons of water regularly as a general tonic. I have no parasites and no premature fish deaths. My plants are fine with it. Vesicularia dubyana Java Moss and Microsorium pteropus Java Fern only. Anything the old timers did , I do.

To me, everything you do has to have a reason. Or it had a reason. The old school said no water changes. But with killies for example, this was like going to velvet (oodinium spp) parasites and screaming "this way for free beer!"

So the old guys became old salts and used the stuff, as it keeps velvet down.

So do water changes. I keep the salt in reserve as a medication, but even then, for a war with velvet, I go at one teaspoon per 5 gallons. That can be my local water though.

 

[Colin_T]

ROCK SALT vs SEA SALT
Sea salt sold in shops is made from evaporated sea water and contains sodium chloride, calcium & magnesium chloride and a whole stack of other minerals but in much smaller amounts than the sodium chloride. The minerals in sea water do not evaporate with the water and remain behind with the sodium chloride.

Rock salt is normally made by evaporating water from salt lakes or saline ground water and is mostly sodium chloride and doesn't have as many minerals in as sea salt. Aquarium salt and swimming pool salt are different names for rock salt.

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TREATING DISEASES
As a general rule, you use rock salt for treating freshwater fishes for diseases. However, if you only have access to marine salts, these can be used to treat livebearers, goldfish or rainbowfish for diseases.

You don't use marine salts for treating other types of fishes because there are lots of minerals in marine salts that will increase the general hardness (GH), carbonate hardness (KH) and pH of the water. Most other types of freshwater fish don't want hard water with lots of minerals, so you use rock salt to treat them and not sea salt.

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You only use salt to treat fish if they have a disease that responds to salt. You should not add salt to a freshwater aquarium simply because you can. It should only be added to treat diseases.

Salt can be used to treat minor bacterial and fungal infections on fish, as well as some external protozoan infections (Costia, Chilodonella & Trichodina). It can be used to treat Microsporidian and Spironucleas infections, gill flukes and anchor worm (Lernaea).

Salt does not treat white spot (Ichthyphthirius) or velvet (Oodinium) in fish.

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NITRITE POISONING
Low doses of salt can help reduce nitrite poisoning in freshwater fishes. However, if you have ammonia or nitrite in the aquarium water, the best way to fix it is by doing big (75-80%) daily water changes to dilute it.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the aquarium.

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BRACKISH WATER
Brackish water is any water that contains salt and the salinity (salt level) can be anywhere between slightly saltier than freshwater, right up to a little less salty than sea water. It usually describes estuarine habitats like harbours and the lower ends of rivers that are found close to the coast. However, brackish water can be found further upstream some distance from the coast and the salinity is usually at a much lower level the further you move upstream.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

When I came into the hobby one of the true gurus out there was Robert T. Ricketts, a.k.a. RTR. This was in 2001-02. I never met him in person but he would come into the fish chat I freuqented back then and we did exchange emails and PMs. To date his article on salt in tanks is still the best one I have read to date. I have not read Byron's however.

The Salt of the Earth, the Salt from the Sea . . .

Robert T. Ricketts​

Retired research scientist (biochemistry and physiology, pharmaceutical development) and senior process analyst. Started fishkeeping in the dark ages (1950s), first SW tanks in the mid-60s, first puffers in the early 60s. Started with two tanks and never less than multi-tanked excepting some periods in college and grad school. Specialty if any would be filtration and water management. Primarily species tanks, planted whenever possible/practical and some where it not really practical. Ran something on the order of >150 tank-years* in studying optimum tank conditions for F-8 puffers, the largest tank study I have done. Other studies have been significantly less. Alternate canister use was mid-40s, OERFUG just over 60, veggie filters only about 25 to publication, but still going on less intently. If it had been known that the F-8s would live so long, it probably would not have been started at all. *One tank-year is one tank for one year.

 

[Back in the fold]

@GaryE Why does salt work ? You just might as well ask , why does the sun come up ? Why does posi-traction work ?
It just does ! ! !

 

[Oblio]

Why does posi-traction work ?

You take the following and put a limited slip clutch in the assembly to tie the two wheel shafts together.

 

[Byron]

@GaryE Why does salt work ? You just might as well ask , why does the sun come up ? Why does posi-traction work ?
It just does ! ! !

With respect I think something has been missed inthis discussion. No one is saying salt will not be an effective treatment for "x" but the point is that as a general "preventative" it is useless. The scientific evidence is clear. that adding salt in the mentioned amounts to prevent "x" is not effective, and using salt in this manner does harm freshwater fish. My article went into detail on this, and the article cited in post 20 says the same. There is simply no value whatsoever in adding salt regularly to prevent anything. It will weaken the fish, that is clear, and this makes them more susceptible to other issues they otherwise would fight off. There is nothing wrong with anyone having opinions, but when this counters the scientific evidence it should get called out.

 

[GaryE]

@GaryE Why does salt work ? You just might as well ask , why does the sun come up ? Why does posi-traction work ?
It just does ! ! !

Or it doesn't and is having no positive effect whatsoever.

It could be salt-fairies, or salt-angels at work, but they only get involved if your fish have led exemplary lives. My fish don't cut it there.

Or as an additive, it could be unnecessary, and harmful. It's a chemical medication that can be of great use, but meds should only be used for definable problems.

 

[Oblio]

When I came into the hobby one of the true gurus out there was Robert T. Ricketts, a.k.a. RTR. This was in 2001-02. I never met him in person but he would come into the fish chat I freuqented back then and we did exchange emails and PMs. To date his article on salt in tanks is still the best one I have read to date. I have not read Byron's however.

The Salt of the Earth, the Salt from the Sea . . .

Good and interesting article. One day I hope to be able to understand all this in greater detail. I can understand physics, electrical (and basics of related types of) engineering, and of course a fair amount of maths, but chemistry eludes me. I have the gene, DD is attending GA Tech as a BioChem major, but said gene did not express itself strongly with me.

 

[Back in the fold]

Or it doesn't and is having no positive effect whatsoever.

It could be salt-fairies, or salt-angels at work, but they only get involved if your fish have led exemplary lives. My fish don't cut it there.

Or as an additive, it could be unnecessary, and harmful. It's a chemical medication that can be of great use, but meds should only be used for definable problems.

The great tragedy of it all - the slaying of something that works by overthinking simplicity .

 

[anewbie]

I've treated ick a few times with salt at the rate of nearly 1 tblspoon per 2 gallons; and while it has been effective i have to say I think it sometime harms the fishes. Usually my treatments last 1 week after which I slowly dillute it by doing 15% water changes daily for a week then 30% water changes and finally 70% water changes before falling back into my normal water change cycle (I remove it slowly at first). While at that level it is effective at removing ick in a week - i sometime have a death in the tank - I'm not going to name the species but will say the tetra seem to handle it fine as well as pleco (though one can never be sure about long term damage; after all Not many of my tetra will last 8 years).
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I can't comment which is less harsh on fishes - salt or a med like ick-x but I think going forward I will just try to keep ick out of the tank and hope i have to use neither in the future.

 

[Alice B]

I saw a DIY pond yesterday where the homeowner that built it has been dumping in big bags of water softener salt every time he added water to replace evaporative loss. The problem with salt as a consistent additive, if it is used and the tank doesn't get water changes (this pond has never had one), it may take a specific gravity meter to see where the water is chemically. I didn't have one with me yesterday. Granted aquariums do not have the level of evaporation that a Texas pond has, but salt is certainly not a substitute for water changes. Turns out the guy was using it to try to dechlorinate. It doesn't work for that either.

I personally use saltwater dips of various percentages for up to 10 minutes to treat some fish parasitic or bacterial conditions. And I use free-running or sea salt, as that's what I have around.

 

[anewbie]

My fishes don't like much being caught and when I do catch them they often pout for weeks afterwards which makes me sad; so I've mostly given up trying to catch them.