We need to agree to disagree I think. "Ordinary table salt" shouldn't be used for anything because of the additives. I was one of those newbies (hence the name) with a drastically over-stocked, uncycled tank. Water changes will keep Nitrites down. I was doing 75% daily until the tank fully cycled. Dosing with Prime in between WCs would be better than adding salt IMO.
salt for cycling a tank?? what????
- Thread starter grannylvsfish
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We need to agree to disagree I think. "Ordinary table salt" shouldn't be used for anything because of the additives. I was one of those newbies (hence the name) with a drastically over-stocked, uncycled tank. Water changes will keep Nitrites down. I was doing 75% daily until the tank fully cycled. Dosing with Prime in between WCs would be better than adding salt IMO.
There are no additives in table salt which will harm fish. It's an old myth. It's a shame Robert Rickett's excellent article on salt in aquaria isn't currently available online anywhere; it explodes a lot of salt myths and explains use of salt for nitrite. Water changes will keep nitrite down, but not at zero, and any measurable nitrite is potentially damaging; salt additions at this time and for this purpose will benefit the fish.
So I got a letter today from a friend who is starting a new tank.( see in blue down below ) I sent her several sites on cycling hoping this will help her. Today she posts this... what the heck, the guy at petco says to cycle with salt? my thinking is there was ick in the tank and he wanted her to treat the fish he sold her. what do you guys think??
I am going to send her the posts from you all to let her know what you all think of what salt is for, and the fish she bought... I did not know tetras tiger barbs and platy even go togetherwhat do you all think????
...just got back from errands...I went to petco just to look and came out with 5 albino tiger barbs, 2 Mickey mouse platties and 2 black neon tetras LOL
the fish guy was pretty smart...he gave me some freshwater salt to cycle the tank for free...the fish are floating in the bag now...Im so bad..I really wanted 2 pink kissing goramis but had to walk away from the tank LOL dang fish fever!!!!!!!!!!
freshwater salt..it cycles the tank faster.. and helps the fish with stress..he was doing some at the store..he gave me a cup of it there are holes in the top of the cup..he had me put the whole cup in there and leave it till its gone..the albino tigers are babies..so Im gonna wait till they are bigger for the angels and pink kissers
I actually got 3 tetras..and my list for more now include a red tailed shark, catfish, angels and 2 pink kissing goramis
the mickey mouse platties are so cool orange body with a mickey mouse head on the tail..I was gonna get a few more, but I noticed ick in the tank, he saw it and slapped a quarantine sticker on the tank and would not sell any to me..I was glad..hes a good fish guy!
all of my fish will be coming from that petco store from now on...
We can debate this in another thread if you'd like. The OP's post included "he gave me freshwater salt to cycle the tank". What type of salt do you think that is at a Petco? Let's stick to the topic at hand. I still think that adding salt is a lazy approach (and Prime would serve better) however...
Ricketts has some fine writings, but he also makes a lot of assumptions that can not be verified. Measurable nitrites isn't a death sentence in any way shape or form. Simple water changes when ever you have any indication of nitrite levels would be the quicker response even if you think they are that dangerous.
I've read that salt helps fish with breathing when nitrites are up, and the Petco guys are probably setting her up for a high ammonia/nitrite spike assuming she won't be doing any water changes. She's lucky she has you to set her on the right path.
I don't think the pet store people even care what fish she throws in there, because they assume the fish will die, and their advice will be "just keep getting more to replace the ones that die until it's cycled." Honestly, that's the advice I got from Pet Lovers Warehouse last year.
I don't think the pet store people even care what fish she throws in there, because they assume the fish will die, and their advice will be "just keep getting more to replace the ones that die until it's cycled." Honestly, that's the advice I got from Pet Lovers Warehouse last year.
Naturally, one would do that as well. But the salt at the level prescribed does no harm, and may prevent damage. I don't see why it's so terrible to add the salt as a temporary measure to protect against nitrite as well as keeping the nitrites as low as possible. By the responses I'm getting you'd think I was advocating letting the nitrites rocket and throwing in salt. I've read plenty of threads by newbies struggling to get nitrites below 0.5 or even 1ppm in cycling tanks. Every tank is different; that one could be easily controlled by water changes does not mean that another can be; if the ammonia bacteria get going quickly but for whatever reason the nitrite bacteria take a lot longer, then nitrites can be very hard to control. Usually they're not; sometimes they are, and in these situations salt can save fish lives. I'm a salt skeptic, generally, but for this particular purpose it is cheap and effective. Prime may be the bees' knees, but I've never seen it on sale at any shops around here.
I definitely do not think you are advocating letting nitrites be high.
How ever, though salt has been debatable for years, there is more evidence out there that it does do harm and nothing that verifies that it does prevent damage.
How ever, though salt has been debatable for years, there is more evidence out there that it does do harm and nothing that verifies that it does prevent damage.
There is evidence that it prevents uptake of nitrite.
Here is an example (demonstrating that non-teleost fish show the same characteristics as teleosts, which is what most of our aquarium fish are)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/...ez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
Here is a document including a table showing how nitrite toxicity is related to chloride concentration http://desearch.nal.usda.gov/cgi-bin/dexpldcgi?qry1468747949;1
Quote:
The fact that nitrite is taken up by the chloride intake pathway, and therefore can be outcompeted by upping chloride concentrations, is well established.
Can you point me to evidence that it does harm at the levels advocated - 1/2 teaspoon per 10 gallons - for nitrite toxicity?
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Salt in a tank is nearly irrelvant when pertaining to Cycling and 'potentially' blocking the nitrIte pathway (toxicity) to aquaria. Why? I'd like to ask that with another question: Why not just do a Water Change!?!
Secondly, salt is VERY commonly used as a stressor to irritae the skin to increase skin coats. The fact that even at low levels it is recognized to stress fish, and thus in turn make them more susceptable to infections, etc. is cause enough for questioing its use in a non-treatment environment.
Third, FW fish (and other aquaria such as parasites) are extremely susceptable to salinity levels! It doesn't take much to kill...
and last, if I could be so bold, why not just use Prime and WCs?
Secondly, salt is VERY commonly used as a stressor to irritae the skin to increase skin coats. The fact that even at low levels it is recognized to stress fish, and thus in turn make them more susceptable to infections, etc. is cause enough for questioing its use in a non-treatment environment.
Third, FW fish (and other aquaria such as parasites) are extremely susceptable to salinity levels! It doesn't take much to kill...
and last, if I could be so bold, why not just use Prime and WCs?
Why not do both? A water change can only reduce nitrite; it can't eliminate it. And why the scare quotes and "potentially"? It does block uptake; that's established.
But this is a treatment environment - treatment for nitrite toxicity. My contention is that salt at this level, whilst a stressor to low TDS fish, is less of a stressor than nitrite is.
It takes an order of magnitude higher than 1/2 tsp/10 gallons to start killing fish.
and last, if I could be so bold, why not just use Prime and WCs?
As I said, can't get Prime around here. Not much use at 8pm on a Sunday evening either.
