Salt

[townshend13]

i have been adding salt after every water change for a while to my ten gallon tank.i read alot of things saying not to.its api salt made for aqauriumsand also im adding fish to my now empty aqaurium,i do not want ick or any diseases.will salt keep that from happening

 

[fatheadminnow]

i have been adding salt after every water change for a while to my ten gallon tank.i read alot of things saying not to.its api salt made for aqauriumsand also im adding fish to my now empty aqaurium,i do not want ick or any diseases.will salt keep that from happening

Salt can be used as a remedy if your fish develop ick. If they do you can add salt, raise the temperature a little bit and this will help.

But I would not add salt right now. Your fish should not get any kind of disease if when you buy them they are healthy and you maintain good water parameters in your tank.

What you can do is get a quarantine tank and put the new fish in there for a couple weeks with some medication, and then add them to your main tank.

-FHM

 

[mwood2]

Well here's the things about salt, there are multiple kinds. Aquarium salt is used to cure ick as said above but it can cause harm to your fish is used to much I believe. Now there are Brackish fish that need an environment that need salt to live a proper life but in this case aquarium salt isn't what should be used. I believe amrine salt is the proper one.

There is no way to prevent it besides keeping a healthy environment for your fish. Keep up on weekluy water changes and test your tank to make sure condition are ideal for your fish. Also keep in mind that salt used on species such as Otto, Cory or other fish will do more harm then good even they they have ick (so I hear).

 

[OldMan47]

As both MWood and FHM have said, salt is not a good thing to use routinely in a tank. Table salt, the same thing as aquarium salt, can be used as a treatment for ich but is not a preventive. Sea salt can be used for brackish water fish as long as you have no other fish in the tank except brackish fish. If you have brackish fish, it is a commitment to a tank being nothing but brackish. Either kind of salt will kill the typical aquarium plants and can harm sensitive fish. There are still some people around who would advocate using salt indiscriminately on mollies but what mollies really need is good water that is high in pH and is high in mineral content. I have water like that but most people would call it hard water, not salt water.