newhobby
New Member
Does salt need to be added to a freshwater tank? If so, what does it do for the tank?
Salt???
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The ultimate_fish MaC dAddY
Fishaholic
it makes the tanks pH level go up, more alkilinity (I dont know how to spell it) Certain fish like high pH levels, so that's what it's used for.
Since these are freshwater fish, you shouldn't add salt except as a treatment for disease. Mollies prefer brackish water and like some salt but otherwise, freshwater fish don't need salt. Definitely, make sure you don't put salt in any tank with corys or any scaleless fish for that matter. It will burn their skin and kill them. I have never put salt in any of my tanks.
Salt is used to clear disease and sometimes with livebearers. As mentioned above, apparently mollies like salt but can live without it and it has come to my attention that other livebearers (guppies, platies, swordies) like a little salt in their water as they come from areas with a natural source of it. What kind of fish do you have?
smooth_bourbon
Fishaholic
Have to watch some those fish store employees. You'll notice a lot of them never ask what all you have in your tank before recomending somthing like adding salt. Some seem to just repeat the last thing they heard to the next hundred customers wether it applys to their tank or not. Sorry venting lol I was told a couple years back to add salt for my Danios, in my tank with Cories, and a Pleco. Good thing I was a member of this forum back then and asked here before doing it.
dwarfgourami
Fish Connoisseur
We've just had this up for discussion elsewhere.
To recapitulate, some mollies come from brackish water or are descended from brackish water fish. They may benefit from addition of salt.
Other freshwater fish do not have kidneys adapted to cope with salt on a daily basis. (It's like you don't put salt in a human baby's food as the kidneys are not developed enough). They may not show any ill-effects straightaway but there is a risk of long-term damage.
For scaleless fish, such as loaches and catfish, there is a particularly high risk of damage to and through the skin.
Some less enlightened fishkeepers (particularly lfs managers?) like to keep all fish in a a low concentration of salt to ward off infection. This is the same principle as feeding cattle antibiotics all the time in intensive farming- it's cheaper than improving their conditions. In a home setting, it should be perfectly possible to reduce the risk of infection by keeping water conditions good instead.
It has also been thought that salt improves alkalinity. Not all fish benefit from more alkaline water anyway, and this can be achieved by other means (addition of coral sand etc). And there is always the option of suiting one's choice of fish to local water conditions.
Salt does have a proper medicinal use - as do antibiotics once somebody is really ill. Salt baths can be very beneficial against a lot of infections and parasites.
Most experienced fishkeepers would probably not hesitate to treat even a cory, if desperately ill, with a salt bath despite its negative effects- just as we ourselves if struck by a dangerous illness would accept the need to take some pretty nasty medicines. But we wouldn't accept taking antibiotics or chemotherapy on a permanent basis- just in case we fall ill.
To recapitulate, some mollies come from brackish water or are descended from brackish water fish. They may benefit from addition of salt.
Other freshwater fish do not have kidneys adapted to cope with salt on a daily basis. (It's like you don't put salt in a human baby's food as the kidneys are not developed enough). They may not show any ill-effects straightaway but there is a risk of long-term damage.
For scaleless fish, such as loaches and catfish, there is a particularly high risk of damage to and through the skin.
Some less enlightened fishkeepers (particularly lfs managers?) like to keep all fish in a a low concentration of salt to ward off infection. This is the same principle as feeding cattle antibiotics all the time in intensive farming- it's cheaper than improving their conditions. In a home setting, it should be perfectly possible to reduce the risk of infection by keeping water conditions good instead.
It has also been thought that salt improves alkalinity. Not all fish benefit from more alkaline water anyway, and this can be achieved by other means (addition of coral sand etc). And there is always the option of suiting one's choice of fish to local water conditions.
Salt does have a proper medicinal use - as do antibiotics once somebody is really ill. Salt baths can be very beneficial against a lot of infections and parasites.
Most experienced fishkeepers would probably not hesitate to treat even a cory, if desperately ill, with a salt bath despite its negative effects- just as we ourselves if struck by a dangerous illness would accept the need to take some pretty nasty medicines. But we wouldn't accept taking antibiotics or chemotherapy on a permanent basis- just in case we fall ill.
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