Salt in planted tank

[d_b]

How much if any salt can I put in my planted tank ? I've been battled a **** ick problem for some time now.

Thanks

[Bruddah Chrispy]

I stopped putting salt in my tank, since the plants didn't like it. I set up a quarrantine tank if someone needs a 'trip to the spa'.

[Faramir]

But you can't treat ick outside the tank because the free-living stage is the one you need to combat.

I believe that most plants will cope with the short term salt concentrations involved in curing ick. RTR's the one to ask, I think.

[Ger]

I'm also interested in this question but from a different angle -- Swordtails, Guppies, Mollies, etc. (salted but not overly brackish)... Is it possible to maintain a diverse selection of plants with the salt addition that these types of fish prefer?

[RTR]

I've used salt and increased heat to clear Ich in my QT tanks, which generally have plants (as they are also grow-out for young plant or divisions) without problems. I use 1 teaspoon per gallon actual volume, temp 82-85F, hold at least 10 days past last visible symptoms, then dilute out out salt with partials and reduce temp slowly back to normal.

As for light brackish on a chronic basis, some plants will suffer from the salt and high pH. Val, some swords, Crinums, Java Moss and Java Fern, a number of others will handle very light brackish - say no more than 1.003 specific gravity. Beyong that it gets harder.

HTH

[Money Makers]

I want to Know if salt effects plants!!!!!!!! :confused: : :mad2:

[daveedka]

I want to Know if salt effects plants!!!!!!!! :

Short term for treatment, no.
Long term I couldn't tell you because I cannot find any logical reason for long term or chrionic salt additions. BTW, Where did you dig this thread up from????? 1-29-03 ???????? :eek: :eek:
dave

[djlen]

Yeah, you tellum' Dave. 2003!!!??? :)

The best way to get rid of Ick in a planted tank is to take the Fauna out and put them in a non-planted tank and treat with heat and salt.
The organisms that remain in the planted tank will then die within a couple of days with no host fish to feed off of.
Money Makers, read the post by RTR above yours. I think he makes the answer to your question pretty clear. But in case you still don't get it, yes salt has an adverse affect on plants. It's just not that cut and dried. It depends on quantity and length of exposure as to how much affect it will have.

Len

[EcoPit]

I am dosing my planted tank right now due to an ich outbreak. I did not move the fish to a quarantine tank because I felt I would have torn up the tank trying to net them all out. I turned up the heat to 84 and slowly added 2 teaspoons of salt per gallon to the tank. It has been almost a week, and no plants have died yet. We will see if there are any long-term effects. Everything I read before-hand was just like RTR said--some plants don't shoe any effects, and some completely melt down when salt is added. Given the choice between possibly losing some plants and probably losing all fish, I decided to add the salt.

[themadblimper]

I want to Know if salt effects plants!!!!!!!! :confused: : :mad2:

01-26-2003
....
LOL! :laugh:

Salt will not affect most plants if used over a short period of time. (2-4 weeks tops.) Long term they wont like it very much... I know this from experience. :eek:
Listen to EcoPit and djlen if you want to get rid of ich in a tank with plants, but a UV sterilizer always did the trick for me.

[Ghostshrimp55]

I hate to seem like I'm not getting it but..............any salt level will affect plants? I thought it was normal to add something like 1 tbsp/5 gallons for the generall health of the fish? I've been maintaining this level for about 2.5 weeks. My plants don't seem to be showing any adverse affects. Should I stop adding salt just in case? If I should stop, what would be the best way of slooooooooowly making the adjustment from some salt to no salt at all?

Thanks all.

[themadblimper]

By mantaining this level for several weeks, I hope you mean adding salt with the regular water changes. Salt does not evaporate.
Just dont replace the salt you loose in your next water change and you should be fine.

[Ghostshrimp55]

Yah, yah. Whenever I do a change, I keep track of the number of gallons that I'm removing. To compensate for evaporation, I usually add a gallon or two on top of what took out to fill it back up again. I then put some tank water in a bottle, add the recommended level of salt for whatever the ammount was of the change water that I put in and add that to the tank. It seems that, with the salt addition, my GH should be around 7 degrees (up from 5 without salt).

So, don't add salt anymore is what I'm getting from this. Will do......or "won't do".............whatever.

[daveedka]

Ghostshrimp55 there is a huge salt myth in this hobby. Fueled by the folks selling aquarium salt and a bunch of mis-guided fish keepers.

No freshwater tank needs chronic salt additions, and the salt sold for freshwater aquariums (NaCl in a fancy box) does not simulate brackish or marine water either. In other words aside from short term medicinal purposes salt additions are not good for your tank inhabitants. There are lots and lots of heated threads on this forum over the salt argument. I don't want to get another one started, but there is plenty of info available on the subject here and elsewhere.

As said Just do your mnormal water changes and don't replenish the salt eventually it will all be gone and you wil be better off.
Dave

[RTR]

Salt, sodium chloride, has no effect whatsoever on GH. If you see a GH change after salt addition, you are not adding just sodium chloride. You should ask the manufacturer what is in the material you are adding to the tank.

[Ghostshrimp55]

The aquarium salt that I got is from Doc Wellfish's. It says it's all natural, from evaporated sea water. If it really is sea salt, there should be some other stuff in there besides NaCl, minerals and the like (potassium, phosphorous, etc.). That might account for my GH rise.

I don't know. All I know is, I tested a day or so before I added it and it was at 5, which was the level it was always at. I do regular changes (25%/week and 50%/month). I added the salt and tested the next day and it went up to 7.............?

As for the salt myth..............I didn't read that thread. I think I have heard mention of this much contested topic here before, though. I don't really have an opinion, one way or the other. Just doing what the LFS guy said. From what I understand about salt, it basically irritates the fish a little bit, causing them to produce more of a slime coat. This slime coat is supposed to be beneficial for the healing process and that was what I was after. Whatever it did, it worked. My angels' fins were a little bit ragged for a week after I returned my danios (they were chasing them and nipping their fins like crazy). What's worse, the fins seemed to be receding. That's why I was worried about fin fungus. I added the salt and a week later, I started seeing definite signs of healing and re-growth. Now, their fins are back to normal.

But. since it seems to have no long-term benefits, I'm going to stop using it and keep it around only for the off-chance of an ich attack (knock on wood that it doesn't happen).

I also don't think it was any kind of deliberate conspiracy by the LFS to sell me salt. I've had it for over 3 weeks now and, after regular use, I've only used a quarter of the container, if that. And, it only cost 3 bucks. I was really convinced that my fish had some kind of fungal disease and I said as much to the LFS guy. He could have easily sold me 20+ bucks of medication. Instead, he opted for the 3 dollar container of salt.

[daveedka]

The aquarium salt that I got is from Doc Wellfish's. It says it's all natural, from evaporated sea water. If it really is sea salt, there should be some other stuff in there besides NaCl, minerals and the like (potassium, phosphorous, etc.). That might account for my GH rise.

It is possible it has some cantaminatns, one of the downsides of "freshwater aquarium salt" is that we really don't know what is or isn't in the box. Unlike food grade salt it does not undergo the testing and scrutiny. GH test kits pick up specifically on calcium and Magnesium so if the GH elevated, it would be one of those ions.


I don't really have an opinion, one way or the other. Just doing what the LFS guy said. From what I understand about salt, it basically irritates the fish a little bit, causing them to produce more of a slime coat. This slime coat is supposed to be beneficial for the healing process and that was what I was after. Whatever it did, it worked. My angels' fins were a little bit ragged for a week after I returned my danios (they were chasing them and nipping their fins like crazy). What's worse, the fins seemed to be receding. That's why I was worried about fin fungus. I added the salt and a week later, I started seeing definite signs of healing and re-growth. Now, their fins are back to normal.

From your earlier posts I somewhat mis-understood why you were using salt. It does have it's purposes for more than just ich, but as you suggest it should not be used long term or chronically. It does not do everything the label claims, But it does have uses against some ifections, parasites, and nitrite poisoning.

But. since it seems to have no long-term benefits, I'm going to stop using it and keep it around only for the off-chance of an ich attack (knock on wood that it doesn't happen).
look on the bright side, even with the lower levels of salt you may have killed ich off if you did have it. Most Freshwater ich is intolerant of salt even at 0.6 teaspoons per gallon. We reccomend higher doage when combatting ich because some strains can resist low levels, but in many cases 3 teaspoons per gallon would do the trick. You may never have to worry about ich because of the salt use.

I also don't think it was any kind of deliberate conspiracy by the LFS to sell me salt. I've had it for over 3 weeks now and, after regular use, I've only used a quarter of the container, if that. And, it only cost 3 bucks. I was really convinced that my fish had some kind of fungal disease and I said as much to the LFS guy. He could have easily sold me 20+ bucks of medication. Instead, he opted for the 3 dollar container of salt. My cpmments were directed at the manufacturers and wholesalers, most LFS people are victims of MArketing, Just like the end users of the products. I'm sure the LFS guy doesn't know better and is probaly just advising what he thinks best. the manufacturer is a different story, they know what goes in the box, they know what their profit margins are, and they continue to market NaCL for far more than it should cost, and their label still reccomends use that us unnecessary and detrimental to our fish. They additionally go as far as not listing any good information about the product so people cannot find out what it really is if they want to. Table salt is IMO a far better choice for purity reasons alone.
I use Mortons salt, If I buy it directly for the tanks I ge the non-iodized stuff because I don't really need the iodide, if I use what we keep in the house it is usually iodized, but works just as well. The iodide levels are trace, and have no ill effects that I have ever seen.
Dave

[Ghostshrimp55]

Okay, great. Thanks for the responses. They really were helpful. Like I said, I'm definitely not going to use the salt chronically from this point on.

Daveedka, I noticed in your sig that you have cherry shrimp. I know I'm hi-jacking the thread now but I just want your quick opinion here. I got some small cherries from petshrimp.com and they've been living in a grow-out bottle in my tank for about 2 weeks and have doubled and, in some cases, tripled in size and have been molting just fine so far. I read somewhere in this site that iodine might help with the molting process. If this is true, would it benefit the shrimp in any way to add a little bit of iodized table salt to the tank? I'm talking in much smaller levels than aquarium salt, just to provide a trace of iodine. If it is beneficial, how much should I add and is there a better source than salt? Thanks a lot. (Yeah...........this thread's been hi-jacked. Sorry)