Aquarium salt in freshwater tanks?

[Pufferpunk]

No need to get insulting.

 

[DasArab]

What about a Malawi set up? Is that not "normal"?

No wouldnt add salt to a malawi set up either. The only set ups you would find me adding salt to a normal tank would be SW, Brakish or if I ever felt the need to do a tank full of Black Mollies.

btw Pufferpunk everyone knows that yo never ever add table salt to an aquarium so im assuming that was a typo

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Well put, but, without backing for such a claim. I have researched and posted the opposite opinion with credited links, to back the claims I made. Carbon and salt, until NASA researches it in space will be debatable topics. There is no (for now) definitive answer, and it is up to us, to read between the lines on this one, till a proper study is done by NASA, Harvard, U.W <<(lol) or some other establishment who has the funds to do it right.....

There is a definitive answer, its in the long proven research/science i just posted in my last post- this is school textbook stuff and has been known about for decades etc.
If you disagree with anything i say, tell me exactly and give me proof/evidence that backs up your claims, otherwise (no offense intended), i will assume you are just saying stuff which other people have advised you to do, but which actually has no scientific/factual proof that is good to do etc.

Sidestepping the above argument, lol.
I use 1 tbsp/5g for general fishkeeping, more as medication. I find that the fish tend to keep a better slime coat and brighter colors with the small ammount of salt than without.

The brighter colours could just be a placebo effect thing, also if you can see the slime coat on a fish then this is a bad thing- if you can't, then how do you know the fish has a "better" slime coat than before?
The fish may develop a thicker slime coat, but this is simply due to the salt irritating the fishes skin and is not a good thing.

Great response! So, I guess it would be similar to us drinking salted water all the time?

Yes i suppose it would be like us drinking water with salt in it whenever we drank water, it would have a similar effect on our kidneys etc as to what it has on freshwater fish.

Salt is found in rivers, lakes, and ponds. Salt is scarce in tap water. Your freshwater fish would prefer a little salt. If you don't think so, you know jack about biology.

Salt is found everywhere, but it varys a great deal in natural habitats. Habitats like the Amazon (where a great deal of fish in the hobby come from) is practically 100% devoid of salt due to thousands of years of floodwaters flushing the salt out of the habitat- which is another reason why catfish and loaches which come from the Amazon in particularly tend to be very negatively effected by salt internally.

Show me the facts/proof that even a particular true freshwater fish benefets from having teaspoons of salt added to its tank is good for it and i will give you a lot more credit to your claims etc.

 

[Pufferpunk]

btw Pufferpunk everyone knows that yo never ever add table salt to an aquarium so im assuming that was a typo

No, that was not a typo.

Sodium chloride is the familiar white crystalline material in just about every kitchen. Table salt as purchased at the local supermarket in this country also contains iodine and anti-caking compounds.

Iodine is a halogen, and is required for vertebrates. It is necessary for our metabolism as an essential part of thyroid hormone, which is our metabolic pacemaker. Soils in wide areas of this country are deficient in iodine, and can result in goiter (hypertrophy of the thyroid gland, effectively from insufficient iodine intake). Thus the practice arose of adding iodine to salt intended for human consumption. This was the safest (the levels of iodine are minute) and surest way of protecting the population from this deficiency as salt is ubiquitous (all but universal) in food processing and preparation. The levels of iodine added to table salt are so small that any water-living vertebrate would be pickled in brine well before toxic concentrations of iodine could be reached, so that particular urban myth is without foundation. In fact, a number of our tank inhabitants need iodine- most crustaceans have a significant demand for the material, and a number of fish can develop goiter in captivity from the lack of iodine- African Rift Lake fish seem especially prone to this. The often-discussed toxicity of iodine could be considered urban myth #1.

Salt, sodium chloride, is hydroscopic- exposed to air of more than Sahara-at-midday humidity, it will pick up moisture from the air on the surfaces of the individual crystals, which melt at the surface and cement themselves together- in short, they clump. The salt shaker does not work with clumpy salt, so additives are used to block the clumping. Arrowroot is common for this purpose, but others are possible. Again, as with iodine, quantities are small (but larger than with iodine), and are food-safe and fish-safe

Kosher salt is commonly suggested as an alternative to table salt, as it does not have iodine added. This of course is a response to salt myth #1. Others gasp in horror at this suggestion, as kosher salt may have yellow prussiate of soda (the sodium salt of prussic acid, a ferro- or ferricyanide) as its anti-caking agent. Horrors! That is a cyanide compound! You are sending your fish to the gas chamber and it will kill them instantly! Horsefeathers. Once again, the quantity is tiny, food-safe, and the fish would be pickled in brine long before potentially toxicity could be reached. Salt urban myth #2 down.

 

[PacKRaT]

I've read and been following this post for about three days, today is the first day the poll has actually come out of a tie: the no-salt people are in majority right now. Honestly, it seems all the arguments for the use of salt are largely anecdotal, such as my own case, the fish "seem" to feel better, "appear" to have bright colors, and all the arguments against the use of salt are based on research. Although never one to discredit large amounts of anecdotal evidence, such as the case we have here, I can't help but notice that the salt using people fall into the same sort of statistical curve as people on a placebo drug, the "placebo affect" affects around fifty percent of patients in the described fashion. So, I am going to drastically reduce if not eliminate the salt in all my tanks, except maybe my malawi tank, which will get MUCH less salt than before, and I will moniter my fish and water conditions. Thank everyone for taking the time to vote, post opinion, or provide research material. Intelligent feedback like this is what makes MFK one of a kind!

 

[DasArab]

No, that was not a typo.

Oh my! Ok. Still dont think id risk it though.

 

[bigspizz]

There is a definitive answer, its in the long proven research/science i just posted in my last post- this is school textbook stuff and has been known about for decades etc.
If you disagree with anything i say, tell me exactly and give me proof/evidence that backs up your claims, otherwise (no offense intended), i will assume you are just saying stuff which other people have advised you to do, but which actually has no scientific/factual proof that is good to do etc.

You put some info out there...but do YOU care to site your sources? The spelling is bad enough that I believe you did not copy and paste. But IF this is textbook stuff as you have said,surly you would like to share some sources. And then you tell ME to site some sources so you can dance around some more? Like I said already there is NO accredited proof to back this claim, just high school kids and people who don;t mind selling ideas off as fact. Do a search I already told you we have had this long winded no end in sight debate in the recent past. There I posted many links with the opposing oppinion.......

 

[bigspizz]

Oh my! Ok. Still dont think id risk it though.

There is NO risk in using salt. If you don't fine but don't try to scare people away from it untill you can prove it does more harm than good.

 

[bigspizz]

I've read and been following this post for about three days, today is the first day the poll has actually come out of a tie: the no-salt people are in majority right now. Honestly, it seems all the arguments for the use of salt are largely anecdotal, such as my own case, the fish "seem" to feel better, "appear" to have bright colors, and all the arguments against the use of salt are based on research. Although never one to discredit large amounts of anecdotal evidence, such as the case we have here, I can't help but notice that the salt using people fall into the same sort of statistical curve as people on a placebo drug, the "placebo affect" affects around fifty percent of patients in the described fashion. So, I am going to drastically reduce if not eliminate the salt in all my tanks, except maybe my malawi tank, which will get MUCH less salt than before, and I will moniter my fish and water conditions. Thank everyone for taking the time to vote, post opinion, or provide research material. Intelligent feedback like this is what makes MFK one of a kind!

Please lead me to these posts....

 

[DasArab]

Bigspizz plz re read my reply to pufferpunk, my reply was in reference to the table salt thing not to salt in general. I know salt doesnt harm fish I just dont see the need to add it as a rule. Please dont jump down my throat because you never read the reply correctly.