Do you really need aquarium salt?

[Platiesowner]

Hey everyone,

Back with another question....


I have two platies out of three still lovin' life in my three week old cycling tank. I added a swordtail to take the place of my little platy girl (R.I.P). He's adjsuting nicely. Anyway...I know that some people recommend adding aquarium salt to the tank to help osmotic pressure or something,(??) and the guy at the LFS said that even platies and sowrdtails like/need aquarium salt in their water.

Is this true? And as a newbie should I worry about adding it? And if so, who makes the best stuff?

as always thanks again!

 

[tstenback]

the fish you listed dont need salt but some do appear to perk up after it is added to the water. I have kept all the fish you mentioned in tanks with no aquarium salt added with great results (except those #*&##@! black mollies, but thats another story ). HTH

 

[silent_one]

I agree you can add salt if you want, but don't add salt if you are planning on getting any scaleless fishes like corys.

 

[Platiesowner]

Ok, so I'll add some salt and see how it affects the fish. Plus I'm sure it can't hurt for things like Ich. With that said, any suggestions for which type of salt to use?

 

[shadow]

Use aquarium salt (you probably already knew that but just making sure) ! I use Doc Wellfish's Aquarium Salt

 

[Dragonslair]

You must buy proper designed aquarium salt for this. Using any other salt will contain anti-caking agents and anti-oxidants and will kill your fish.
Personally I would use aquarium salt for disinfection and cleaning tanks and decoration and equipment only. It is cheap and will do the job as effectively as chemical products. It is a fallacy that adding salt in an aquarium will kill ich. Remember Marine inhabitants in a saltwater setup still get ich. Yes Ich can be killed with salt, but the solution needed would far exceed safety levels in a tropical setup.

 

[Platiesowner]

Dragon,

It sounds like maybe you think I don't really need to add aqauarium salt?

 

[Dragonslair]

IMO No.
Fish do quite well without it. You only need to know about osmosis and pressure if you are breeding specialist fish or fish commercially.
Osmosis is basically without going into chemistry and biology is making a liquid reverse through a one way membrane. I'm sure that is as clear as mud to you. so no you don't NEED salt. In fact salt is quite detrimental to certain species of fish. Tetras for instance are salt intolerant.

 

[Platiesowner]

Cool..thanks Dragon for your help. I'm not going to add salt because I'm planning on getting Gourami in the future, after my tank cycles.

thanks again!