Member

Posts: 18
From:Tulsa, OK U.S.A.
Registered: Oct 2003

posted 10-15-2003 03:00 PM         

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Hi everyone. What experience have you all had with adding salt to your freshwater tanks? I have not added any yet and my fish seem healthy and happy. But, I've been reading that a lot of fish, including severums and other cichlids, need a little salt in their tank. Is this true? I currently have 2 severums, one guppy, one pleco (getting very large!), one molly, and a gold mystery snail. Salt or no salt? If so, what is the proper salt to water ratio? Thanks for your help!

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Posts: 806
From:
Registered: Jan 2003

posted 10-16-2003 12:19 AM         

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Yes, you should add salt. Salt is kind of like the wonder drug. It helps your fish to maintain their slime coating. It also helps keep down the occurance of fungus and certain parsites. It also adds electrolyte to the water that your fish need, especially true of catfish. You can purchase Aquarium salt at any tropical fish store or you can use NON-IODIZED ice cream salt like you buy at the grocery store. It is the same thing. Just make sure that it is the NON-IODIZED type salt. I generally run 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons of water. Several people on this site run 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons of water apparently without any problems. Remember that if you are doing a 20% water change you need to add 20% of the salt that you would use to dose the tank. If you are just topping off the water to replace water that has evaporated you do not want to add anymore salt. The salt does not evaporate with the water.

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Member

Posts: 18
From:Tulsa, OK U.S.A.
Registered: Oct 2003

posted 10-16-2003 10:54 AM         

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Excellent! Thank you for the response! That was very helpful.

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