Which test kit to use when adding salt to fresh water tank?

[max]

I use 1 tsp of salt per 5 gallons in my fresh water aquarium. Should I
use a fresh water or salt water test kit? Is this enough salt to effect
the readings?

Thanks,
Max

[Nikki Casali]

max wrote:

> I use 1 tsp of salt per 5 gallons in my fresh water aquarium. Should I
> use a fresh water or salt water test kit? Is this enough salt to effect
> the readings?

It affects my nitrate test kit absolutely, rubbishing the readings. The
salt, in tiny quantities, gives it a false negative. It's documented in
the instructions that come with the kit. I think my other test kits are
fine with this level of salt. 1 tsp of salt per 5 gallons is a tiny
amount compared to full strength sea water. I don't think going to a
salt water test kit will help, unless it says that it can test both.

The only thing that I can suggest is taking a sample of fresh water from
an aquarium and using your test kits on it and then redoing the tests
with 1 tsp of salt per 5 gallons added and then comparing.

Nikki

[George Pontis]

In article >,
says...
> max wrote:
>
> > I use 1 tsp of salt per 5 gallons in my fresh water aquarium. Should I
> > use a fresh water or salt water test kit? Is this enough salt to effect
> > the readings?
>
> It affects my nitrate test kit absolutely, rubbishing the readings. The
> salt, in tiny quantities, gives it a false negative. It's documented in
> the instructions that come with the kit. I think my other test kits are
> fine with this level of salt. 1 tsp of salt per 5 gallons is a tiny
> amount compared to full strength sea water. I don't think going to a
> salt water test kit will help, unless it says that it can test both.

The Tetra Nitrate kit works equally well with either salt or fresh water. The
downside is that is has 4 reagents, including one powder. I don't think it would
be taxed by 1 tsp in 5 gallons. When I mixed a commercial sea salt mix with water
for a marine aquarium, it took something like 2 cups of salt mixture in 5 gallons
water.

[David C. Stone]

In article >, George
Pontis > wrote:

> In article >,
>
> says...
> > max wrote:
> >
> > > I use 1 tsp of salt per 5 gallons in my fresh water aquarium. Should I
> > > use a fresh water or salt water test kit? Is this enough salt to effect
> > > the readings?
> >
> > It affects my nitrate test kit absolutely, rubbishing the readings. The
> > salt, in tiny quantities, gives it a false negative. It's documented in
> > the instructions that come with the kit. I think my other test kits are
> > fine with this level of salt. 1 tsp of salt per 5 gallons is a tiny
> > amount compared to full strength sea water. I don't think going to a
> > salt water test kit will help, unless it says that it can test both.
>
> The Tetra Nitrate kit works equally well with either salt or fresh water. The
> downside is that is has 4 reagents, including one powder. I don't think it
> would
> be taxed by 1 tsp in 5 gallons. When I mixed a commercial sea salt mix with
> water
> for a marine aquarium, it took something like 2 cups of salt mixture in 5 gallons
> water.

The Aquarium Pharmaceuticals kit also claims to work for both fresh and
salt water. It's a two-bottle, liquid reagent kit.

[E.Otter]

Use the freshwater test kits. I add a tablespoon salt for every 5 gallons
for my goldfish tank and I think this keeps the salt percentage at 0.16%. I
do test this with a special salt-concentration test kit for freshwater
aquariums and occasionally it goes too high and I have to do a water change.
Sal****er aquariums have salt concentrations so massively high that salt is
measured by a special "specific gravity" tool. Also, you have to remember
that "natural freshwater" isn't pure H2O, its just free of man-made
pollutants. In a manner of speaking, "natural freshwater" is full of
"natural pollutants". All manner of stuff (including salts) is dissolved in
the water from the clay/mud in the river bed, from the rocks in the mountain
streams that feed a rive,r to the trees lining the river bank. I'll give
you an example, my family used to camp on the Oswegatchie river in NY's
Adirondack mountains. We once found an abandoned American Eskimo dog whose
white coat had been stained a ruddy red by the river water. The river water
had so much "natural stuff" in it that we had to use water purifyiers before
drinking the water.

Depending on the fish species you may have to add salt and other things to
change the water chemistry to fit the fish.