salt or no salt

[guppies]

I have a 90 gals tank, with around 60 cardinal in it and some shrimp with be 15 of them, some i put some salt in once in a while for water change. I also have 3 smaller tank for guppies.
1 - 25 gals with maybe 8 female and 4 male guppies
1- 10 gals with maybe 40 new born guppies
1- 5 , 1 - 10 all setup no fish in it.
should i put salt into the guppies tanks too !
Thanks

 

[JSchmidt]

Why would you add salt, esp. for the tank with cardinals?

Jim

 

[guppies]

I didn't add salt in yet, I through salt might help to kill some bad stuff in the water. the box say will help fish to claim down and help fish to prevent getting sick...lol

 

[stoopid]

I use it as a "tonic" still, and because I have a Mono that likes his water closer to brackish... there's a real split in the fish keeper's community about the usage and effectiveness of salt. So far I've only seen good come from using it.

 

[Faramir]

Cardinals come from extremely pure, soft, acid waters with low TDS. What is dissolved in the water is mostly organic acids.

I don't think raising the TDS of water that's already loaded with ions by comparison with salt is going to do them any good whatsoever.

 

[tricksterpup]

Here is a very good artical on salt and mollies, but I believe this works for all livebearers. It was written by Dr. Ted Coletti of the ALA and FAMA.
http://tcoletti.tripod.com/molly_salt_debate.html


One of the main discussions is that Salt is a "tonic" that helps many fish get over ailments. Well yes this does help with external parasites. But this doesn't help the problem, reason for many live bearers become ill is due to bad water quality and over crowding. If you do regular water changes, then you never ever really need to add salt to your tanks.

jim

 

[guppies]

Thank you all for the great help.

 

[cdawson]

Originally posted by stoopid
I use it as a "tonic" still, and because I have a Mono that likes his water closer to brackish... there's a real split in the fish keeper's community about the usage and effectiveness of salt. So far I've only seen good come from using it.

Your mono needs SW as an adult, you should be moving it into actual brackish water soon. I have 3 and they really do ALOT better in brackish to SW. If you keep it in FW for long periods of time it'll succumb due to the minerals and additives that are in SW they aren't getting.

 

[Z Man]

Yes, salt will raise the Total Dissolved Solids in any tank but Neons should not have any salt added. I just don't understand how people can add salt without knowing the TDS of the tank. If you have hard water to begin with, salt will only make it harder. Depending on your fish's wild habitat, they may or may not require harder water. Do a test before you add anything!

 

[stoopid]

Originally posted by cdawson


Your mono needs SW as an adult, you should be moving it into actual brackish water soon. I have 3 and they really do ALOT better in brackish to SW. If you keep it in FW for long periods of time it'll succumb due to the minerals and additives that are in SW they aren't getting.

Well, mine's still a juvi but I want to start the transition sometime for him. I will probably add a tad higher than tonic levels once he becomes an "adult". I won't be doing brackish because I don't have a seperate tank for him (and he would be the only one requiring it). At the time he looks sick from the water quality I will trade or sell him back to the LFS, but I figure that's a good year away... in the meantime he seems very happy and active. Thanks for the info!