Aquarium salt in freshwater tanks?
- Thread starter PacKRaT
- Start date
14 with salt now, and 13 with no salt. I'll start using less salt starting next water change. After watching responses, I'm going to back down to 1 tablespoon to 10 gallons, maybe just a little bit less. Don't see any good reasons to stop, after all, when I started years ago I felt like it improved conditions in my tank, but after reading the link pufferpunk included that magic is now in perspective...
i use it. not very accuratly though ha ha kinda just pour some in from time to time. never alot though
Lots of folks are fooled by myths. I'm not going to stay on antibiotics all my life, so I don't get sick. Clean water is what keeps my tanks healthy, not salted water. Same thing with clean living!
Fish have an osmotic pressure greater than that of the fresh water around them and in order to maintain that pressure they must keep a greater concentration of salt internally than what is outside of them. This is only true for freshwater fish.
The reverse is true for saltwater fish. Increasing the ammount of salt that a freshwater fish is exposed to will result in the fish becomming dehydrated. The freshwater fish is designed to expell water and hold salt so if you increase the salt levels above what the fish hold internaly it will pass out more water than it asorbs.
The result is a strain on the internal organs, and possible liver and kidney failure (like dropsy), and kidney stones. Freshwater fish urinate constantly to maintain the ballance of water in their system. Salt water fish do the reverse they drink saltwater to regulate their osmotic pressure. In saltwater the water is constantly trying to pull water out of the fish, and in freshwater a fish is constantly pulling water in from a freshwater source. You can do great long term dammage to your freshwater fish by using salt for long periods of time.
Salt should only be used in emergency situations where nitrite poisoning is in effect. To prevent this it is recommended to use 1 teaspoon of table salt per 300 gals of freshwater. That's right table salt. The iodine in the salt is so miniscule that it actually helps the fish rather than hurts it. Iodine in low doses helps prevent iodine deficiency in freshwater fishes, which can lead to goiter. It should only be used in extreme cases of parasites, or to reduce the toxity of nitrite poisoning etc.
Fish vary in their tolerance to salt, it is more damaging on some fish than others depending on the fishes evolution and habitat. A lot of livebearers and labyrinth fish do not seem to be that negatively effected by salt and can tolerate it relatively well, but on most other fish they are very negatively effected by salt, on some fish it is so lethal it can kill the fish in just days.
To anyone who is dosing their freshwater tanks with salt on a regular basis, i would strongly advise that they stop doing it, as it will eventually kill their fish sooner or later through the large strain it puts on the freshwater fishes kidneys (imagine the damage getting really drunk every night would do to your kidneys and liver etc or something) etc.
The reverse is true for saltwater fish. Increasing the ammount of salt that a freshwater fish is exposed to will result in the fish becomming dehydrated. The freshwater fish is designed to expell water and hold salt so if you increase the salt levels above what the fish hold internaly it will pass out more water than it asorbs.
The result is a strain on the internal organs, and possible liver and kidney failure (like dropsy), and kidney stones. Freshwater fish urinate constantly to maintain the ballance of water in their system. Salt water fish do the reverse they drink saltwater to regulate their osmotic pressure. In saltwater the water is constantly trying to pull water out of the fish, and in freshwater a fish is constantly pulling water in from a freshwater source. You can do great long term dammage to your freshwater fish by using salt for long periods of time.
Salt should only be used in emergency situations where nitrite poisoning is in effect. To prevent this it is recommended to use 1 teaspoon of table salt per 300 gals of freshwater. That's right table salt. The iodine in the salt is so miniscule that it actually helps the fish rather than hurts it. Iodine in low doses helps prevent iodine deficiency in freshwater fishes, which can lead to goiter. It should only be used in extreme cases of parasites, or to reduce the toxity of nitrite poisoning etc.
Fish vary in their tolerance to salt, it is more damaging on some fish than others depending on the fishes evolution and habitat. A lot of livebearers and labyrinth fish do not seem to be that negatively effected by salt and can tolerate it relatively well, but on most other fish they are very negatively effected by salt, on some fish it is so lethal it can kill the fish in just days.
To anyone who is dosing their freshwater tanks with salt on a regular basis, i would strongly advise that they stop doing it, as it will eventually kill their fish sooner or later through the large strain it puts on the freshwater fishes kidneys (imagine the damage getting really drunk every night would do to your kidneys and liver etc or something) etc.
