plants and aquarium salt suggestions?

[haiau79]

Hello,

I have a bunch of baby mollies and some baby corycats in a tank with 3 plants. An anubias plant, crypt wendtti and 2 java ferns. I was wondering if adding some salt, about 2 tablespoons to my 12 gallon would be ok?

Are the plants I have OK with salt? Thanks in advance!

[grannylvsfish]

why add salt? it will melt your plants fast. if its not broken do not fix. unless they have ick :eek: but fresh water fish do not need salt .:)

[smyke]

granny is right.
I ruined my plants a few years back by adding salt, thanks to my LFS. I didn't know the cause until I joined this forum.

[Bk828]

Are you trying to provide the "brackish" conditions for the mollies??
Salt for mollies is not necessary since most lfs now keep mollies in regular fw.
Many will also tell you that cories + salt is a bad idea since cories dont do so good with salt (but I havent really had a problem with them before).
Many will also tell you that plants + salt is a bad idea but plants can survive with salt, others are just more sensitive than others.

Anubia and java fern are actually pretty hardy and can tolerate salt, but once again its not necessary.

[haiau79]

OK. My nitrite level was 3 ppm this morning, and I heard salt can help alleviate the gill problems fish suffer during nitrite spikes. I changed about 30% of the water just now, so I'll test again soon and see if that helped.

Thanks for the suggestions!

[jpappy789]

Is this tank going through a cycle?

With high nitrites your only option is more and more water changes until you get the level down to 0.

[Bk828]

^^ i agree

[haiau79]

yep, its about 2 weeks old, so the ammonia is 0 and the nitrites are on the rise.

[jpappy789]

3 ppm of nitrite can be fatal and will at least cause some permanent damage to fish. Do as many wc's to keep the level under .25ppm consistently!

[haiau79]

OK, did some water changes and got the nitrites down to .25 ppm. I'm also thinking of getting some anacharis plants for the tank. I have an eclipse system 12, the light is 15 watts. Is this enough for anacharis?

[Fishy_Fun]

yes that should be enough light for Anacharis.i would advise not adding salt as you don't really need it.its always good to have on hand though

[TKOS]

I agree with the others that water changes are your best bet at the moment to combat high nitrites. If they are rising so fast that you can't deal with it reasonably then adding a 1tsp of sallt per gallon of water will help to combat the nitrite poisoning. It must be NaCl. As a temporary thing your fish and plants will be fine, especially at that low level. As a permanent thing your plants will eventually fail. You add salt by dissolving it in change water and then adding to the tank. Also I would start with a half dose first. If you do a water change, only add enough salt for the water you remove.

Teh salt system is helpful for really large tanks, where it is hard to do massive water changes daily or twice daily. If you tank is smaller, then just keeping the nitrites low through water changes is still the best option.

[Bk828]

anacharis grows in anything..

[J double R]

it doesnt grow in pots...

[Bk828]

it doesnt grow in pots...
:lipssealedsmilie::devil:

[haiau79]

Thanks a lot for all the help! I'm glad I joined this community!!