Aquarium Salt

[Col-Dats]

Are all aquarium salt's basically the same?

I have started using API Aquaium Salt to my Dat tank, firstly as a treatment, but through other replies, possibly as an ongoing thing with water changes.

Can the salt used in marine tanks be used?

Just looking for the most cost effective way of buying the salt.

Hope the marine salt question isn't a really stupid one!!!!

Cheers for your replies.

 

[BushFishRox]

well with the aquarium salt it doesn't add any salinity (right word?) to the tank keeping it true freshwater but marine salt will add salinity to the tank making it more of a brackish tank...

so it is best to just use aquarium salt, all though Dats can live in slightly brackish tanks...

 

[jlnguyen74]

well with the aquarium salt it doesn't add any salinity (right word?) to the tank keeping it true freshwater but marine salt will add salinity to the tank making it more of a brackish tank...

so it is best to just use aquarium salt, all though Dats can live in slightly brackish tanks...

Are you sure aquarium salt won't add salinity? From where I'm from, all kind of salt (table salt, aquarium salt, etc...) obtained from collecting from ocean water, after the water evaporated. I don't know about England, but here in the U.S, Home Depot sells 40-lb bag of salt to treat pool water for $5.00, very cost effective way

 

[proaquatics]

to bad you dont live in the US i just buy the 50lb bag of solar salt for $3-4 a bag. so ^^agree

 

[BushFishRox]

yes aquarium salt is meant for fresh water fish while marine salt is meant for saltwater fish. But if you are using table salt which is actually sea salt then yes that will effect the salinity.

 

[Col-Dats]

Cheers for the info.

I need to do some research into different salts available, whats in them etc and work out what is best option for my Dats.

 

[jlnguyen74]

yes aquarium salt is meant for fresh water fish while marine salt is meant for saltwater fish. But if you are using table salt which is actually sea salt then yes that will effect the salinity.

Actually, you can't use aquarium salt for saltwater due to lack of trace elements, but I've used marine salt on fresh water, and there was no problem. It dissolves faster, and it's cleaner. The only reason I stopped, because salt purchased from Home Depot is much cheaper. Just did more research, since there's trace elements present in marine salt, but all salt will raise the salinity in your tank depend on the amount you add. I don't know how you can say that aquarium salt doesn't add any salinity to your tank, because from Wikipedia

Salinity is the saltiness or dissolved salt content of a body of water.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salinity

You can't see the raise in salinity when you add one teaspoon per 10 gallon, but if you add the whole box into a ten gallons, you'll see the difference, may not kill your fish, though

 

[xxt2goodxx]

to bad you dont live in the US i just buy the 50lb bag of solar salt for $3-4 a bag. so ^^agree

thanks for the tip on salt!! that's an awesome idea!! what kind the blue bag or the yellow one??
anyways i think marine salt such as Instant ocean is a synthetic salt and it's not good for fresh water... sea salt is what i usually use.... i used to use Epsom salt which i heard is not good to make your tank brackish with because of the magnesium or something in it... and it should only be used as medicine... i was once looking into using marine salt for my fresh but i read somewhere where its not a good idea and its also expensive

 

[jlnguyen74]

thanks for the tip on salt!! that's an awesome idea!! what kind the blue bag or the yellow one??
anyways i think marine salt such as Instant ocean is a synthetic salt and it's not good for fresh water... sea salt is what i usually use.... i used to use Epsom salt which i heard is not good to make your tank brackish with because of the magnesium or something in it... and it should only be used as medicine... i was once looking into using marine salt for my fresh but i read somewhere where its not a good idea and its also expensive

It doesn't matter, but the brown paper bag one is 1 bux cheaper than the blue plastic one