WILL ADDING AQUARIUM SALT HARM LIVE PLANTS ?

Hi,normally I keep my tank at 76-78 degrees, but with no A/C in the house it gets up to 80-83.5 from room temp. and my heater stays unplugged. we have hard water here in the high desert and my PH is 7.2 I have a Magnum 350 deluxe canister filter and on the opposite side of the tank, i have a powerhead attached to a sponge filter. I have never had a problem with fish loss until the guppies. In fact, when i restarted my tank 4 years ago when we moved to Nevada, i used 20 tetras ( some call them berry tetras & some say skirt tetras ) as my start up fish to recycle the tank. all of those fish survived and 4 years later, i still have 11 of them. I will post a link to pictures of my tank further down in the thread. meanwhile, here is a good article on fish acclimation. http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=19&ref=3319&subref=AI
 
OK here is my 100 Gallon F/W tank. I came in 3rd place in a northern Nevada aquarium contest held by a large aquarium dealer in reno and the judges were flown in from out of the area. the catagories were fresh water/ saltwater. The 1st & 2and place fresh water winners had almost bare tanks with wires etc, hanging down the back and a couple of big goldfish in them. The judges liked mine a lot i was told BUT, the 1st & 2and place winners were young kids:welcome: And i agreed that Yes, winning a contest like this will inspire them to continue in the hobby and i gladly accepted 3rd place.:headbang2: Here is the link to my 100 GALLON aquarium------ http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=98772
 
Aquarium salt is mostly NaCL and has nothing to do with brackish water. For that you need a marine mix of salt. Guppies do not need salt. They can in the wild survive in freshwater, brackish water and even full marine. But most bred guppies for commercial trade are freshwater only.

DDeHaven, as much as I hate to disagree with you I have seen tons of guppies tanks with generations of guppies in them and few if any unexplained deaths and they were all freshwater.

High Chloride levels from the salt accumulation (not from short term use like in ich treatment) will eventually lead to plants death or melt or at least stunting.

Please read this link about the "salt myth"

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article22.html
 
wow, Quite an article. My tap water is hard. it leaves hard water spots on glass AND white crusty deposits on the outside windows from the automatic sprinklers , and a white crusty ring around the bottom of my water cooler nozzle:lipssealedsmilie:
 
I think finding out how much water and how often he changes it will be the tell all. If he isn't doing enough the nitrates will be high enough that no fish is going to acclimate to it and will die off. Its easier to get a high nitrate fish into clean water then it is a clean water fish into high nitrates.
 
ICE H20 Your tanks look nice ! what are you using as a substrate , sand ?
I do regular water changes and filter maintanence. What i found out is, all of the fish dealers here in Carson City, AND the one in Reno, all use salt in ALL of their tanks. They have never mentioned that little piece of information to me.:eek: Luckily, all of my other fish that i have brought home have been ok with the transfer into my unsalted tank. We do however, have HARD water. Thinking back, had i known this, i would have gone the way of african chichlids. perfect water for them !:grinyes:
 
The 75 gallon has Quickrete Medium Grade Contractors Sand. The 55 is just gravel. I also have a 15 gallon I used pool filter sand in. Its a bit to white for my taste but still looks good.
 
I use salt only ich treatments.

I agree that keeping a constant level of freshwater salt in a tank is not necessary (although a tank of mollies will benefit greatly of course).

However, the benefits of salt used as part of a treatment (at least in my experience over the years both as a home hobbyist and work at the LFS) is very good IMO.

salt has its place. but not as a constant application. Eg it is good for fish in tanks that are having nitrite problems.
 
thanks. I have seen more "no's" than yes's. I am liking my live plants in the tank. somehow, they really make a difference to the fish.
 
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