Salt

emzyp · Sep 12, 2008

i am setting up a very slightly brackish tank, i am interested to know if i can add normal everyday table salt to it, in order to make it brackish.
because its obviously going to be very slightly brackish i wondered if it would be suitable enough to do the job.

i have looked at marine salt, and in my lfs it is very dear and they only seem to do large amounts, and i only need a tiny bit.

if i cannot add table salt is there any other type i can use rather than marine salt....what about aquarium salt that you use to treat illnesses??

blue acara · Sep 12, 2008

Someone can answer this better than me but basically no, you cant use table salt or aquarium salt. The minerals in the ocean and brakish water contain a lot more than just sodium chloride.

raptorrex · Sep 12, 2008

blue acara said:
Someone can answer this better than me but basically no, you cant use table salt or aquarium salt. The minerals in the ocean and brakish water contain a lot more than just sodium chloride.

i think the real problem with table salt, is there is a lot more in that than just sodium chloride :crazy:

. where aquarium salt is just sodium chloride.
only ever use Aquarium salt of freshwater tanks, though at a pinch rock salt can be used I am advised. :good:

Miss Wiggle · Sep 12, 2008

just use marine salt, i know it's pricey but it will last a long time, remember you don't just add salt once you'll have to add it to the water everytime you do a water change so it will all get used up. :good:

Ace Of Spades · Sep 12, 2008

Miss Wiggle said:
just use marine salt, i know it's pricey but it will last a long time, remember you don't just add salt once you'll have to add it to the water everytime you do a water change so it will all get used up.

Unless you are topping up evaporated water, as when it evaporates the salt stays and raises the SG level. Not so much in Brackish but its worse in marine fish keeping. So Freshwater for topping up evaporated water and SW for changing water...

three-fingers · Sep 12, 2008

boboboy said:
i think the real problem with table salt, is there is a lot more in that than just sodium chloride . where aquarium salt is just sodium chloride.
only ever use Aquarium salt of freshwater tanks, though at a pinch rock salt can be used I am advised.

Table salt has stuff put in it to stop it clogging up, although I've read a few places that chemical shouldn't be harmful to fish.
Aquarium salt is just sodium chloride, which is exactly why it is no good.

As others have said, marine aquarium salt is needed for a brackish water tank.

Bignose · Sep 12, 2008

Iodine is added to table salt. Not so much to prevent clogging, but it was a chemical that humans in general didn't get enough of. Opinion is mixed about whether it is even needed anymore. When people got all their vegetables from local sources, places in the world where there is very little or no iodine in the soil (In North America the Great Lakes region has little or no iodine in the soil) would have very low iodine in their plants. So, the salt companies would add salt to prevent health issues like goiter.

It is only a tiny amount of typical salt, 0.005% or so, almost a negligible amount really. It definitely isn't enough to harm fish -- there is iodine in small concentrations in almost every body of water on the planet, freshwater and saltwater.

I would think that if you went to a higher scale grocery store and bought sea salt, that that would be a suitable replacement. I bet it isn't much cheaper than marine salt, though. It is important to get a mix of salts in the water, like the native waters of the fish you want to keep. Table salt is almost wholly sodium chloride, and while that is a large percentage of what sea salt is, the other trace compounds are important, too.