How much salt do you put in your tanks?
- Thread starter wild bill
- Start date
I was told salt is one of the easiest medications you can use.
I think it is also ageneral rule that fish do better with a little in their water. Our tank with the mono's is the only tank we salt real heavy. We always watch the fish for stress and none appear to suffering any ill effects. Another interesting is that this tank seems to always be healthy even though it is likely over crowded. Would like to know though how much salt is needed in a 150 to make it a brackish tank or does the salinity of brackish water very.
I have never heard of Morton's salt but we used to use pickling salt it worked fine but this salt we use now is way cheaper. There may be some soft water fish it may add to many mierals for so we are careful.
I think it is also ageneral rule that fish do better with a little in their water. Our tank with the mono's is the only tank we salt real heavy. We always watch the fish for stress and none appear to suffering any ill effects. Another interesting is that this tank seems to always be healthy even though it is likely over crowded. Would like to know though how much salt is needed in a 150 to make it a brackish tank or does the salinity of brackish water very.
I have never heard of Morton's salt but we used to use pickling salt it worked fine but this salt we use now is way cheaper. There may be some soft water fish it may add to many mierals for so we are careful.
Information only, not telling anyone else what to do:
Spent my first decade doing African tanks adding aquarium salt or an equivalent like canning salt (before that I did SA and used little or none). At some point I began to question whether it was really necessary or helpful and after another year or two experimenting I concluded it's not, which agrees with some of the research I've done in the meantime. That was years ago and haven't used it since, except as a treatment for minor scuffs, etc. This includes Malawi cichlids and cyphotilapia.
A common misconception I've seen is the African lakes are fairly salty or I've seen comments like 'liquid cement'. Their not, not in terms of sodium chloride, though each has its own profiles of mineral content (including calcium and magnesium). Fact is, salt content of the major rift lakes has been tested to be fairly low, virtually no more salty than the North American Great Lakes-- see this chart.
Naturally, whole different thing for brackish water fish...
Spent my first decade doing African tanks adding aquarium salt or an equivalent like canning salt (before that I did SA and used little or none). At some point I began to question whether it was really necessary or helpful and after another year or two experimenting I concluded it's not, which agrees with some of the research I've done in the meantime. That was years ago and haven't used it since, except as a treatment for minor scuffs, etc. This includes Malawi cichlids and cyphotilapia.
A common misconception I've seen is the African lakes are fairly salty or I've seen comments like 'liquid cement'. Their not, not in terms of sodium chloride, though each has its own profiles of mineral content (including calcium and magnesium). Fact is, salt content of the major rift lakes has been tested to be fairly low, virtually no more salty than the North American Great Lakes-- see this chart.
Naturally, whole different thing for brackish water fish...
I don't understand why you would try to make a FW fish a SW fish?? Have only heard of it being used for injured/ill fish. Are monos thriving in brackish coastal areas? Thought p bass were found in rivers primarily? I dunno, this is just the first I've seen this approach...
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Monos can be found in fresh and brackish when young, as they mature they tend to stay in brackish and full sea water.
I agree with skyddakyd, other than temp, the African rift lakes are hard and alkaline not salty (as in NaCl) very much like our great lakes.
The cenotes along the coast of Mexico are salty, I wouldn't hesitate to add salt to a tank with JDs, sailfin mollies, or sleeper gobys from there.
I agree with skyddakyd, other than temp, the African rift lakes are hard and alkaline not salty (as in NaCl) very much like our great lakes.
The cenotes along the coast of Mexico are salty, I wouldn't hesitate to add salt to a tank with JDs, sailfin mollies, or sleeper gobys from there.
We are not trying to turn fresh water fish into salt water fish. The fact is the tank is a show tank in our kitchen it contained cichlids and my wifr found 2 Mono's for sale my dad liked angels and the 2 look similar. We put yhe Mono's in the tank and wanted them to survive so added some salt. My wife did some more research and found most cichlids can handle fairly salty water so we added some more salt. The Mono's have grown and atr about 8 or more inches tall now and very healthy wich I guess means water conditions are good. The thread was started to find how much salt others use and to find out how much salt it takes to create brackish or even salt water tanks of various sizes. A lot of you would be amzed at the variaty of fish in this display tank with no aggression issues. There must be somebody who knows how much salt it takes to make a 150 gallon tank salt or brackish.
I am only curious as to how close we are to brackish now as our Mono's are doing great. The other fish in the tank are thriving too so please don't criticize all I am asking is for some specs. Keep the post coming if others have found similar findings lets hear.
I am only curious as to how close we are to brackish now as our Mono's are doing great. The other fish in the tank are thriving too so please don't criticize all I am asking is for some specs. Keep the post coming if others have found similar findings lets hear.
I usually do <3ppt for general disease prevention and 3-5ppt for treatment (wounds, saprolegnia, ich, etc...). However I don't add any to my planted tanks or my axolotls, and I add about a 1/2 dose for loaches and most catfishes.
Many cichlids can survive very high salt concentrations and some species have been captured in marine environments (e.g. Mayans and some tilapia). Personally I've taken my New World cichlids as high as 10ppt. which is about 1/3 of the strength of seawater.
Many cichlids can survive very high salt concentrations and some species have been captured in marine environments (e.g. Mayans and some tilapia). Personally I've taken my New World cichlids as high as 10ppt. which is about 1/3 of the strength of seawater.
I understand I didn't have an answer to your original question, but in my case I meant no criticism of what you're doing, especially as I understand that monos will need some salt and realize some cichlids are also quite salt tolerant. Mine was just a general comment regarding the need for salt for cichlids in general-- in response to some of the other comments made. And, btw, while I've yet to keep them myself, mainly because I've always done freshwater, monos are among my favorites.
