Add Salt Mix To Freshwater Aquarium?

[valkyre]

I have 2 - 30 gallon fw tanks in the office. I've used nothing but distilled water in them, as the well water is mineral rich. Should I be adding some aquarium salt mix to the water? One tank is planted, the other is not. If I should add some salt, how much???
 
Thanks!

 

[Essjay]

You do need to add something as even soft water fish have not evolved to live in pure water. But you shouldn't add salt as in sodium chloride. You need remineralisation salts, the kind made for adding to RO water.

 

[BerryAttack]

just put in around 3 teaspoons and your good to go.. oh and if you have any scaleless fish they'll burn so don't if you do.. it's no biggie.. 

 

[Freedom]

just put in around 3 teaspoons and your good to go.. oh and if you have any scaleless fish they'll burn so don't if you do.. it's no biggie.. 

While on this topic,  I have aquarium salt.  Can I add this with these in my tanks?
 
- red cherry shrimp
- mystery snails
- nerite snail
- otocinclus
 
 
I used to add some with every major water change, but since adding the above, I don't know if I can or not.
 
I now have live plants, too, if that matters.

 

[fluttermoth]

Freedom; you shouldn't add salt to any freshwater tanks, unless it's for medication purposes, but your stock wouldn't like it at all.

As essjay rightly says, if you need to raise the hardness or pH of your water, or you're using RO water, you need a proper remineralisation mix, not just salt.

 

[Freedom]

Freedom; you shouldn't add salt to any freshwater tanks, unless it's for medication purposes, but your stock wouldn't like it at all.

As essjay rightly says, if you need to raise the hardness or pH of your water, or you're using RO water, you need a proper remineralisation mix, not just salt.

OK then! NO salt!  No idea why I started doing that way back when.  Officially stopped.  THANK YOU!

 

[Freedom]

Freedom; you shouldn't add salt to any freshwater tanks, unless it's for medication purposes, but your stock wouldn't like it at all.

As essjay rightly says, if you need to raise the hardness or pH of your water, or you're using RO water, you need a proper remineralisation mix, not just salt.

 
So confused.  This is the stuff I have:  http/www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=4982
 
Says it is for freshwater fish, helps w/ stress, disease, and gill function.
 
Are we both talking about the same product?

 

[fluttermoth]

Lol, yes we are.

The habit of adding salt to tanks, on a regular basis, is a 'hang over' from the old days, when tanks were; not properly cycled, did not get large regular water changes and were mostly underfiltered and overstocked.

Salt, for instance, reduces some of the worst effects of nitrite poisoning.

It is still a very useful stand by, as a medication, but does not need to be added to freshwater tanks as a matter of course.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Lets start with the idea of being mugged by a manufacturers. Salt is sodium chloride, Salt out of the salt mines is sodium chloride, salt from the ocean is sodium chloride. So when a manufacturer takes that bottle of table salt and relabels it Aquarium salt, the prices skyrockets. Imo there is no such thing as aquarium salt, there is merely salt. A marine nix (salt) is not the same thing, it contains many other minerals as they are found in the ocean.
 
And just to clarify, salt doesn't block nitrite, the chloride in the salt does. One could use calcium chloride and get the same benefits, but it costs more.
 
Next all tap water has minerals etc in it. There is nothing necessarily wrong with that. You did not provide a good explanation as to why you are using ro water in your post.
 
Most fw fish and plants do not do well with salt in the water. Here is the best article you could ever read on this topic, I knew the author back when and he is one of the most respected hobbyists in America. http/www.theaquariumwiki.com/The_Salt_of_the_Earth (this article has been on the net fore many years and still resides on many sites).
 
As somebody who uses ro/di water I can say the normal method is to mix one's tap and ro which is most often a good method. Only in cases where one's tap is really nasty is using 100% ro and remineralizing required. This is more common on the sw than the fw side of the hobby. There is not a universal remineralizing mix. One selects what they use based on the fish one keeps. A mix for SA fish and one for rift lake cichlids are completely different and not interchangeable.

 

[Freedom]

Lol, yes we are.

The habit of adding salt to tanks, on a regular basis, is a 'hang over' from the old days

AHA!  Now I feel better, this explains it.  The "old" days, that would be when I started fish keeping and got in to the habit of adding the salt.  Thanks very much for going over this with me!