Salt Question

[Adam S]

Solar salt, kosher salt and rock salt are all better, cheaper options than aquarium salt.

Salt has its place in the hobby, but using it on a regular basis isn't needed or a good idea.

[Paul Sabucchi]

As Adam said, as long as the salt is not added with iodine then table salt is fine, some argue that it may still contain anti-caking agents but it has been used for decades and I have not come across any reported problems. Probably the practice of regularly adding salt derives from the "old days" of fishkeeping when it reduced the toxicity of ammonia/nitrates. This nowdays in a well managed tank should not be necessary but it still has a place in helpung to treat problems like ich.

[jeep]

I use Solar Salt for water softeners from Home Depot. It's about $5.50 for 40lbs and it's great for aquarium use. Aquarium salt in the lfs is a rip-off considering the price per pound.

[Pices]

Can someone help please? I salted my tank with aquarium salt yesterday and today. It's at 2ppt right now. I just read that Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate usp) is recommended for swim bladder which my discus appear to have. Is it safe to add Epsom salt to a tank that has aquarium salt since Epsom salt is a magnesium laxative and the other is not? They are totally different, right? I put Epsom salt in a glass with water and tested positive with my salt meter- it does read out on the meter that it is a salt.

If it were me I would do 1 or 2 large water changes to remove aquarium salt. Once you are back to fresh water I would then add Epsom salt. Without knowing specifics of your wc’s, substrate, if it’s in a hospital tank, etc it’s hard to advise. Filling out the disease questioner would improve your chances at saving this guy immensely.
Patty

[nah]

If salt then why not natural sea salt?

[brewmaster15]

If salt then why not natural sea salt?

Natural Sea Salt may contain many other minerals...Really alls you want for the medicinal properties here is NaCl... Sodium Chloride .So if the "natural Sea salt" is just Sodium Chloride its fine... but expensive!

But as the others said, it not something needed all the time. Treat it like a medication and you will be fine.

hth,
al

[bluelagoon]

And Sodium chloride and magnesium sulfate (Epsom salt) should be treated like two separate medications and are used for different ailments.

[slicksta]

I haven't used salt in a long while, but when I did I used Morton salt for hard water treatment without issue and at a fraction of the price of salts designated for aquariums.

[Willie]

Salt is salt, sodium chloride. That includes iodized salt, kosher salt, rock salt, sea salt, table salt, etc. In my experience, iodized salt works exactly the same as non-iodized salt, despite a lot of speculation of fish sites. Some table salts will contain flow agents, but none of them have any impact on fish. I buy salt used to make ice cream at the grocery store because it's cheap and it dissolves readily (finer grind).

I only use salt for treatment, never as a prophylactic. So the quarantine tank will get high salt levels to treat sick fish.

There is Epsom Salt, which is magnesium chloride. It's used to treat constipation in discus. Some people with soft water out of the tap will add Epsom Salt to their brine shrimp mix as it prolongs the life of bbs in soft water. Adding these two together does not endanger discus in any way.

There is also potassium chloride, which is the active ingredient in low sodium salts. It's a lot more expensive and works very similarly to sodium chloride.

Hope that helps, Willie

[Pices]

Thanks Willie,
Could you help post #14? It regards concentration of adding Epsom salt to tank already treated with regular salt. I thought the concentration would be too high for both, but after reading your post, I may have misspoke. It’s okay?
Patty

[Willie]

Salt concentration is seldom a problem in my experience. When my discus gets sick, my standard treatment is 1 tablespoon of salt per gallon. So the 10 gallon hospital tank gets more than half a cup of salt (0.625 cup to be exact). I find that the fish will look immediately more comfortable. Adding the two together will increase the overall osmotic pressure, which is what the fish is reacting to. I don't think it's doing much harm.

Note that, at this level, you'll need to gradually reduce the salinity to avoid shocking the fish. I do this via a series of 30% water changes at 1-hour intervals.

Willie

[bluelagoon]

Just looking though this old post. Some talk about iodine in salt and not being safe. Some water conditioners use iodine to bond to heavy metals to make them more non toxic. It's right on this bottle.https://www.sera.de/us/service/info/...al-substances/

[Willie]

I've used iodized salt and non-iodized salt. There's no difference to the fish. No goiters either.