Should I or not add some salt?

wrote:
You are right... lets say then a tbs every month...

You're gonna have to use less to stabilize to one tbsp/30 gallons.
You're removing about 56% of a tbsp in 2 water changes and putting a
whole tbsp back. :-| You'll have to do the math 'cause I'm too lazy -
I just add the correct amount of salt with each water change.

Anyway, it's better for your fish if you add at each water change so
they always live in the same salt concentration. It's like matching pH,
temps and everyting else. Remember, your sof****er fish have to adjust
a bit to live in salt and you don't want to stress them by changing it
more than necessary.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

"Elaine T" wrote in message
. ..
wrote:
The salt question it seems to be a tricky one to answer.

I've been reading the newsgroups and it's a toss up between those that
say to add salt and those that say no way.

My impression is that adding salt is okay as long it is in small
quantity.

So I was wondering because I have two red crabs and one just molted,
if
it would make an impact something like 1 tea spoon (or table spoon)of
aquarium salt (that I just bought) in my 30gal thank to the fish and
plants.
Obviously it is a small amount, but will it benefit the crabs and I am
hoping not affect the other fish and plants?

Right now I have and don't plan on adding anything else unless they
die, Gouramis, neon tetras, sherry barbs, apple snail, corycats,
pleco,
guppies and I'm not sure if they are platties or mollies and lots of
live plants.

Would a tea/tablespoon of salt for 30gal of water be a problem?
I also make a 20%-25% water change every week.

One tsp of salt for 30 gallons of water will hurt nothing in your tank.
It's simply too tiny of an amount to bother plants or even the many
sof****er fish you have. It may help the crabs, guppies and mollies.

You'll want to add one drop of reef iodine once a week to help the
crabs molt, and possibly use sal****er tank salt mix rather than
regular salt if your tapwater is soft.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__


At those concentrations, why not just use iodized table salt?
--
www.NetMax.tk (always messing with the status quo ;~)

NetMax wrote:
"Elaine T" wrote in message
. ..

wrote:

The salt question it seems to be a tricky one to answer.

I've been reading the newsgroups and it's a toss up between those that
say to add salt and those that say no way.

My impression is that adding salt is okay as long it is in small
quantity.

So I was wondering because I have two red crabs and one just molted,
if
it would make an impact something like 1 tea spoon (or table spoon)of
aquarium salt (that I just bought) in my 30gal thank to the fish and
plants.
Obviously it is a small amount, but will it benefit the crabs and I am
hoping not affect the other fish and plants?

Right now I have and don't plan on adding anything else unless they
die, Gouramis, neon tetras, sherry barbs, apple snail, corycats,
pleco,
guppies and I'm not sure if they are platties or mollies and lots of
live plants.

Would a tea/tablespoon of salt for 30gal of water be a problem?
I also make a 20%-25% water change every week.


One tsp of salt for 30 gallons of water will hurt nothing in your tank.
It's simply too tiny of an amount to bother plants or even the many
sof****er fish you have. It may help the crabs, guppies and mollies.

You'll want to add one drop of reef iodine once a week to help the
crabs molt, and possibly use sal****er tank salt mix rather than
regular salt if your tapwater is soft.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__



At those concentrations, why not just use iodized table salt?

Didn't think of it 'cause I never use table salt in fish tanks. I guess
the anti-caking agents aren't a problem with this little salt. That's
way cheaper than reef iodine.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

wrote in message
oups.com...
The salt question it seems to be a tricky one to answer.

I've been reading the newsgroups and it's a toss up between those that
say to add salt and those that say no way.

My impression is that adding salt is okay as long it is in small
quantity.

So I was wondering because I have two red crabs and one just molted, if
it would make an impact something like 1 tea spoon (or table spoon)of
aquarium salt (that I just bought) in my 30gal thank to the fish and
plants.
Obviously it is a small amount, but will it benefit the crabs and I am
hoping not affect the other fish and plants?

Right now I have and don't plan on adding anything else unless they
die, Gouramis, neon tetras, sherry barbs, apple snail, corycats, pleco,
guppies and I'm not sure if they are platties or mollies and lots of
live plants.

Would a tea/tablespoon of salt for 30gal of water be a problem?
I also make a 20%-25% water change every week.


Many Corydoras species, and I believe many Pleco species are sensative to
salt. They generally don't tolerate it well. While it's true you're not
using a lot of salt, would it be worth it to possibly lose your cats? All of
my main tanks focus on Cories (I have at least 10 species) so I would never
let salt near them. But that's just my .02 cents.. )

--
Mar
---------
Vet Tech student

MarAzul wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

The salt question it seems to be a tricky one to answer.

I've been reading the newsgroups and it's a toss up between those that
say to add salt and those that say no way.

My impression is that adding salt is okay as long it is in small
quantity.

So I was wondering because I have two red crabs and one just molted, if
it would make an impact something like 1 tea spoon (or table spoon)of
aquarium salt (that I just bought) in my 30gal thank to the fish and
plants.
Obviously it is a small amount, but will it benefit the crabs and I am
hoping not affect the other fish and plants?

Right now I have and don't plan on adding anything else unless they
die, Gouramis, neon tetras, sherry barbs, apple snail, corycats, pleco,
guppies and I'm not sure if they are platties or mollies and lots of
live plants.

Would a tea/tablespoon of salt for 30gal of water be a problem?
I also make a 20%-25% water change every week.



Many Corydoras species, and I believe many Pleco species are sensative to
salt. They generally don't tolerate it well. While it's true you're not
using a lot of salt, would it be worth it to possibly lose your cats? All of
my main tanks focus on Cories (I have at least 10 species) so I would never
let salt near them. But that's just my .02 cents.. )

Not picking on you in particular, MarAzul, but this is why nobody
understands salt. I have first-hand experience with this. I used to
work in a store where ALL the freshwater systems were kept at 0.1%
salinity. That's about 1 tsp/gallon. Cories, neons, cardinals, angels,
rasboras, loaches, discus, rams, plecos...all were fine. There is a
bizarre hysteria about salt in this newsgroup that IME is completely
unfounded.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

"Elaine T" schrieb im Newsbeitrag
. ..
MarAzul wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...

The salt question it seems to be a tricky one to answer.

I've been reading the newsgroups and it's a toss up between those that
say to add salt and those that say no way.

My impression is that adding salt is okay as long it is in small
quantity.

So I was wondering because I have two red crabs and one just molted, if
it would make an impact something like 1 tea spoon (or table spoon)of
aquarium salt (that I just bought) in my 30gal thank to the fish and
plants.
Obviously it is a small amount, but will it benefit the crabs and I am
hoping not affect the other fish and plants?

Right now I have and don't plan on adding anything else unless they
die, Gouramis, neon tetras, sherry barbs, apple snail, corycats, pleco,
guppies and I'm not sure if they are platties or mollies and lots of
live plants.

Would a tea/tablespoon of salt for 30gal of water be a problem?
I also make a 20%-25% water change every week.



Many Corydoras species, and I believe many Pleco species are sensative to
salt. They generally don't tolerate it well. While it's true you're not
using a lot of salt, would it be worth it to possibly lose your cats? All
of my main tanks focus on Cories (I have at least 10 species) so I would
never let salt near them. But that's just my .02 cents.. )

Not picking on you in particular, MarAzul, but this is why nobody
understands salt. I have first-hand experience with this. I used to work
in a store where ALL the freshwater systems were kept at 0.1% salinity.
That's about 1 tsp/gallon. Cories, neons, cardinals, angels, rasboras,
loaches, discus, rams, plecos...all were fine. There is a bizarre
hysteria about salt in this newsgroup that IME is completely unfounded.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

Elaine,

0.1 % salinity is hard to believe. I equals to 1000 ppm or 1000 mg per
liter. This will increase the electric conductivity by about 700 muS/cm.
Many aquatic species will not be happy about that. For example, it is said
that blue rams like water of 100 to 150 muS/cm.

Juergen

Jürgen Beisser wrote:

Elaine,

0.1 % salinity is hard to believe. I equals to 1000 ppm or 1000 mg per
liter. This will increase the electric conductivity by about 700 muS/cm.
Many aquatic species will not be happy about that. For example, it is
said that blue rams like water of 100 to 150 muS/cm.

Juergen

I cleared my blue ram of ich very nicely at 0.1% salt and 86 degrees F
for three weeks. He showed stress coloration, but continued eating. I
DID slowly lower the salt back down to pure freshwater again once the
ich was gone. Cichlids are amazingly resiliant.

Agreed that rams and discus in particular are best maintained for the
long term in the softest water possible.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 04:39:16 GMT, Elaine T
wrote:

MarAzul wrote:

Many Corydoras species, and I believe many Pleco species are sensative to
salt. They generally don't tolerate it well. While it's true you're not
using a lot of salt, would it be worth it to possibly lose your cats? All of
my main tanks focus on Cories (I have at least 10 species) so I would never
let salt near them. But that's just my .02 cents.. )

Not picking on you in particular, MarAzul, but this is why nobody
understands salt. I have first-hand experience with this. I used to
work in a store where ALL the freshwater systems were kept at 0.1%
salinity. That's about 1 tsp/gallon. Cories, neons, cardinals, angels,
rasboras, loaches, discus, rams, plecos...all were fine. There is a
bizarre hysteria about salt in this newsgroup that IME is completely
unfounded.

It is well known that corydoras do not like salt; they come from
waters that don't have any. This is also true of other species. The
point is to attempt, within reasonable limits, to give a similar water
environment in our homes that our specific fish have in the wild. I
would think it not a good idea to keep Tanganyika or Malawi cichlids
in the average ph7.0 tapwater. Minerals or salts (or whatever it is)
have to be added to keep these cichlids thriving.

Back in the days when I bothered to ask store people about their use
of salt in their tanks, they always told me it was preventative,
hopefully would help prevent parasitical illness or bacterial illness
for that matter while the fish were in their custody. So: How long is
the average fish in the store before they sell it? Let's say one week.
The cories and other salt-haters are in a mild salt bath for a week,
then they are moved out to some wonderful private citizen like us.
This one week regimen is presumably much less drastic than a bathing
in malachite green, acriflavin, methylene blue, etc. which we are
sometimes forced to give our fish. So it's maybe okay for the store to
do this. This does not indicate that it's a good idea for these fish
to be kept in the same salt concentration permanently.

I never use salt in an aquarium, although I would if I were keeping
mollies.

-Derek

Derek Benson wrote:
On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 04:39:16 GMT, Elaine T
wrote:


MarAzul wrote:


Many Corydoras species, and I believe many Pleco species are sensative to
salt. They generally don't tolerate it well. While it's true you're not
using a lot of salt, would it be worth it to possibly lose your cats? All of
my main tanks focus on Cories (I have at least 10 species) so I would never
let salt near them. But that's just my .02 cents.. )


Not picking on you in particular, MarAzul, but this is why nobody
understands salt. I have first-hand experience with this. I used to
work in a store where ALL the freshwater systems were kept at 0.1%
salinity. That's about 1 tsp/gallon. Cories, neons, cardinals, angels,
rasboras, loaches, discus, rams, plecos...all were fine. There is a
bizarre hysteria about salt in this newsgroup that IME is completely
unfounded.


It is well known that corydoras do not like salt; they come from
waters that don't have any. This is also true of other species. The
point is to attempt, within reasonable limits, to give a similar water
environment in our homes that our specific fish have in the wild. I
would think it not a good idea to keep Tanganyika or Malawi cichlids
in the average ph7.0 tapwater. Minerals or salts (or whatever it is)
have to be added to keep these cichlids thriving.

Back in the days when I bothered to ask store people about their use
of salt in their tanks, they always told me it was preventative,
hopefully would help prevent parasitical illness or bacterial illness
for that matter while the fish were in their custody. So: How long is
the average fish in the store before they sell it? Let's say one week.
The cories and other salt-haters are in a mild salt bath for a week,
then they are moved out to some wonderful private citizen like us.
This one week regimen is presumably much less drastic than a bathing
in malachite green, acriflavin, methylene blue, etc. which we are
sometimes forced to give our fish. So it's maybe okay for the store to
do this. This does not indicate that it's a good idea for these fish
to be kept in the same salt concentration permanently.

I never use salt in an aquarium, although I would if I were keeping
mollies.

-Derek

Two things. First, many of us mix fish from different water conditions
in community tanks. I did it myself when I needed to add Otocinclus to
my hard water guppy tank after a brown algae explosion. (Nobody told me
Flourite was rich in silicates.) Joe's got a similar mix of soft and
hardwater fish and adding some salt for the crabs is reasonable.

MarAzul wrote after Joe and I had decided on a safe salt concentration
for the tank and suggested that cories would literally die at 1 tbsp/30
gallons, or 0.01%. My experience simply does not bear this out.
Granted, it's not ideal for cories or sof****er fish. It's not ideal
for the crab either, who would prefer a SG around 1.015. But die?!?

OK - I'm starting a new thread to see if anyone has mistakenly
oversalted cories, and how much they can live in.

--
Elaine T __
http://eethomp.com/fish.html '__
rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com

On Tue, 26 Apr 2005 22:38:08 GMT, Elaine T
wrote:

Two things. First, many of us mix fish from different water conditions
in community tanks. I did it myself when I needed to add Otocinclus to
my hard water guppy tank after a brown algae explosion. (Nobody told me
Flourite was rich in silicates.) Joe's got a similar mix of soft and
hardwater fish and adding some salt for the crabs is reasonable.

MarAzul wrote after Joe and I had decided on a safe salt concentration
for the tank and suggested that cories would literally die at 1 tbsp/30
gallons, or 0.01%. My experience simply does not bear this out.
Granted, it's not ideal for cories or sof****er fish. It's not ideal
for the crab either, who would prefer a SG around 1.015. But die?!?

I will venture the following comment, which you may or may not agree
with: the crabs in question have no business in this tank. The
question of adding salt or not would then be nuncupatory.

-Derek