Salt or not (plants and fish)

salt or no salt (plants and fish)

  • Total voters
    24
  • Poll closed .
I add 'Marine' synthetic salt to my 'Marine' aquarium.
my freshwater aquariums I don't add anything.

I have stable pH 6.8 - 7(depending on rainfall)with kh at 3-4 and gh-5-6.

this is my source water(community well)
btw perfect for amazonian fish ;)
 
I When I first used sodium salt in my water softener the amount in the water was just at the borderline of brackish which is not that much about 1 tablespoon per 2 gallons in my case. All the fish loved it except for my hydroponic plants growing out of my HOB, they stopped growing and eventually withered and died. So I had to switch over to Potassium and the plants loved it but the fish could only tolerate about 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons. In my case I had to do this becasue allot of my fish could not tolerate the pure well water which has 800 PPM Calcium and Magnesium. So now while the TDS remains the same at about 800 PPM, my water is now composed of 400 PPM Cal/Mag & 400 PPM Potassium, neither of which in there much lower does are toxic and I have experienced no more mystery fish deaths since.

Bottom line is if you already have low to mild hard Cal/Mag TDS (200-400) tap water, don't mess with it, its good enough, and don't use any salts if you don't have to, especially not for medicating a community tank unless your going to a small QT tank. The exceptions like in my case where the tap water hardness in Cal/Mag is toxic to fish, is a different story and leaning curve no one should have to go through if they dont need to which is about 90% of everyone else.
 
This is one of those things where I say take your pick and go with it. Of course you can analyze it to death, if you like to, but the fact is, short of dumping a TON of salt in, most fish and plants will show neither negative OR positive affects. I have 1 FW tank I add salt to, the others get nothing but water and prime. I add salt because without it, my mollies suffer more frequent fungal issues and will get bouts of the warbles. if I put a little salt in (yes plain old sodium chloride), the mollies stop warbling, the fungus clears up, and everyone else is fine too. I could get rid of the mollies and keep the freshwater 'fresh' but I don't wanna and this works. Seriously, none of this is a big deal unless you want it to be. Heck, I don't even measure! I jsut throw a few handfuls in and everyone's FINE and lives long healthy lives and the plants THRIVE.
 
trigiver01 said:
Actually - water treatment, either by a company or by well treatments - do remove dissolved salts using chemical equilibria. Of course, this depends on the region, but often even clean and clear spring water is hardened by dissolved sediments and minerals.
Click to expand...

Do they remove sodium and chloride from normal river water? I doubt it.

... However, salt is needed to MAINTAIN physiologic balance.

Therefore, I add it in low concentrations.
Click to expand...
Your concentrations sound quite high to me; way higher than I'd expect to find in most natural freshwater systems. Do you have any reason to suppose that the levels in tap water are lower than those required? I very much doubt if they are given that many of our freshwater fishes come from environments where sodium chloride levels are extremely low. Bottom line for me here is that the TDS of most tapwater is way higher than that of most tropical freshwater environments already; I see no sense in raising them still higher by adding salt. Show me an analysis of your tapwater with Na+ and Cl- levels, and show that those levels are lower than those in your fishes' natural environments and you've got a point. That's why salt is added to brackish systems, but marine salt, not plain old NaCl. Your whole argument seems to hinge on NaCl being too low in tapwater to support basic physiology and I have no reason to believe that this is so.
 
Originally SALT is very useful thing for everyone,This is one of those things where I say take with us and go with it.I When I first used sodium salt in my water softener the amount in the water was just at the borderline of brackish which is not that much about 1 tablespoon per 2 gallons in my case.
 
I've never used it for anything than treating disease.

It's just unnecessary
 
Well, let's put it this way...I don't add salt (NaCL) to my freshwater tanks and my fish and plants have not suffered ill effects from not using it. It is safe to say that adding it would indeed be superfluous.
 
Actually yes, my water treatment removes sodium and chloride using calcium for precipitation and ion replacement, which is why I add NaCl, because the tap water already contains Mg and Ca, my fertilizers contain Fe and K, and fish waste contains other trace minerals not used by their systems. I don't know about you all, but my water company sends me an annual report about what's in my water and how they treat it. If not, you should call. The information is public.

Notice also that most of the arguments against salt stem from:

"I don't add it and nothing bad happens, so it must be a waste to add it."

Please see the fault in the logic. *technically* we could survive eating wheat germ and taking vitamins...but by eating a proper diet, we thrive - which is what I hope for my fish and plants.
 
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