salt

[cobaltblue]

i have a bag of salt from the winter from home depot and the only ingredient in it is Sodium Chloride. I know chlorine is not good for the fish, so would sodium chloride therefore also be bad or can it be used for aquarium salt?
(as you can tell, chemistry was never a great subject for me, lol)

[Tony_S]

the only ingredient in it is Sodium Chloride.


Chris

Sodium Chloride is the 'Systematic' name for plain ol' salt....yes you can use it in your tanks...The only difference you might see, is 'driveway salt' is sometimes dirtier than table, kosher or pickling salt...etc. Nothing major though.



Tony

[Timbo]

agree with Tony, it is plain ole salt but could be laced with impurities. (chlorine and chloride are completely different btw)

[Graham]

The only thing that you ever need to worry about in salt is if it has anti-caking agents in it, such as YPS. This can be toxic to fish. Cheap drive way salt won't have any in it.

''Aquarium Salt'' is probably one of the biggest rip offs there is in the aquarium hobby.....along with plain de-chlor

Fish need and use chloride

[kaceyo]

Hey Graham,
Plain dechlor? I'm guessing your not saying people shouldn't use dechlorinater on their city water so are you saying the less expensive sodium thiosulphate(sp?) or equivalent are better?

Kacey

[Graham]

Hi Kacey, Plain Sodium thiosulfate is dirt cheap and can bought for next to nothing compared to what the manufacturers sell it for. A 50# pail of it can be bought from AES for about $60US and it'll do tens of thousands of gallons of water...a life time supply for many hobbyists.

Needless to say it won't handle chloramine but a lot of places do not use it either. No place here in the Atlantic Canada uses chloramines


If a hobbyist has ammonia or nitrite problems or heavy metal problems that's another story..They have water quality issues but for simple water changes buy it in bulk,




G

[kaceyo]

Thanks Graham. You're 100% correct on that one, tho I must admit to using "brand names" myself. I use API's Tap Water Conditioner which is 1 drop p/gal. Much cheaper than most but still...too much considering the price of Sodium thiosulphate.

Kacey