salt

I just want to make sure how much salt i can use in my 250 liter tank.
I have guppies, mollies, platies, swordtails and a few neons in there.
Some say 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons of water.
Is this correct?

 

Why do you want to add salt?

 

they say it stabilizes the ph

 

Not sure about that? Why is your PH fluctuating?

 

hi @Javei

What type of salt are you wanting to add?

Chances are your Neons aren't going to like you for it.
I think the Guppies, Mollies, Platties and Swordtails prefer a bit of salt.

Not going to advise as to how much or which kinds of salts as I wouldn't recommend adding anything unless you're having problems.

In my mind, KH is used to measure pH stability, buy a KH test kit (or go to decent LFS) and test your water before a routine water change.
If it reads over 5 or so then you shouldn't need to worry about pH crashing as long as you're keeping up with the required water changes.

 

the person at one of the pet shops told me to add salt. i added 5 teaspoons to my 250 liters of water.

 

okay this is stressing me now!! what is the best? i followed the persons advice and i added salt.
the salt is in their for about 3 days now and every fish is doing fine.
Is the salt a bad idea?
SHOULD I DO A WATER CHANGE?

 

Don't stress. I used to add a teaspoon per gallon to my 30l which had neons, guppies and a sailfin pleco and everybody was fine. You haven't added very much.

 

If your fish aren't having any trouble then I'd say keep adding the same ratio (1 teaspoon per 50 litres) when you do your next water change.

Try to find out what type of salt you've got.

Did you pay something like R20 for quite a large bag?
That would probably be Epsom salts, don't think it does anything to stabilize pH but most of your fish (bar maybe the Neons) should do fine with it.

Don't do any major water changes now, let your fish get used to the salt.

 

Rather put some crushed coral in your filter than adding salt.

 

okay, should i leave it at 5 teaspoons then?

 

I'd say so.

 

It stabilizes ph I don't know about that but I use salt in my tanks and I know it's more for diseases. I use 2 teaspoons(5ml) for 20 lts and sometime even 3 teaspoons for 20lts. If you want to start using salt only add it to aged water and when doing water changes that way your fish will get use to the salt in time.

 

You can use salt if you want to but it's not required. I used it as a "general tonic". The amount you are adding is fine. Just be careful with skinned fish like kuhli's. Skinned fish are generally less tolerant of salt.

 

okay, i paid R8 for i thing its 1kg. The package only reads aquarium salt and Daro is the brand

 

If you are going to continue adding salt then stick to the type you have or coarse salt. Don't get the Cerebos table salt as they add stuff to make it flow etc

 

okay. Well for my tank about 11 teaspoons is needed but it sounds like to much salt.
I dont want to end up with a marine tank that houses freshwater fishes, this will be weird

 

This is the correct stuff

Table salt has iodine added to it. This is poisonous to fish

Marine salt and aquarium salt are two different salts.



There's 2 trains of thought here... but we all have one thing in common.

Some people like to keep a level of salt in the tanks... I personally see absolutely no benefit to this, and feel it is chucking money away.
Other people only use it as a medication if and when necessary.

The one thing we have in common is that whatever your LPS is telling you, take it as a sales pitch to make more money, and come check with us first.

 

oky thanks @Zoom , i will ask here firstly before doing what the pet shops say.

 

thanks to everyones opinion on this