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what kind of salt do you use ?

Diary
By dany boy, Section Ask Guppylog
Posted on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 12:34:24 PM PST
I think that table salt is not the best kind of salt to put in your aquarium.



Is it possible use products in aquariums from original brands? What do you think ?
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what kind of salt do you use ? | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 hidden)
Re: what kind of salt do you use ? (none / 1) (#9)
by GuppyLover4Ever on Tue Jul 01, 2008 at 07:27:26 PM PST

I've used table salt before. It did not harm my fish. They had Cotton Mouth, and table salt cured it.

So, table salt should be fine. :)

-A Guppy Lover :)



Re: what kind of salt do you use ? (none / 0) (#10)
by Scott Lockwood on Tue Aug 05, 2008 at 02:46:17 PM PST

This is very, VERY bad advice. NEVER use table salt in a  fish tank.

"I love to visit PetSmart's Tropical Fish Dept. to see what new diseases are around today." -- inkmaker
[ Parent ]



Re: what kind of salt do you use ? (none / 0) (#8)
by java moss on Fri Jun 06, 2008 at 05:02:46 AM PST

You need non iodised salt which contains no anti caking agents. Table salt is no good. Go for rock salt either in your supermarket or from a pet suppply store that has it by cheap (sold by the lb from a bulk lot)



Please do not use table salt ! ! ! (none / 0) (#5)
by dany boy on Fri Mar 30, 2007 at 01:55:05 AM PST

In my tank I added a table spoon marine salt for
10litters of water .I have box filter "Resun" with active carbon .In your replies i didn't hear nothing about salt with Iodium .I don't know why in our stores salt is with added Iodium.The best way is to buy salt from agriculture shops or pure marine salt.



Re: Please do not use table salt ! ! ! (none / 0) (#7)
by saseniukk on Sat Mar 31, 2007 at 06:32:34 PM PST

Hi there.  We use iodine to promote proper thyroid  gland function in ourselves.  Iodine is also used as a sterilizer.  It will kill off bacteria in your fish tank.  Table salts are fine without iodine (without additives),  sea salt is still sodium chloride.  I put in a touch of pickling salt (coarse table salt with no iodine) and a touch of epsom salts (for the magnesium sulphide).  
The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives. Native Proverb
[ Parent ]


Of course seas salt has some iodine. Fish and (none / 0) (#6)
by unclescott on Fri Mar 30, 2007 at 08:41:34 PM PST

people need trace quantities of it. We have "cured" the fishy version of goiter by adding sea salt to the water. :)

Fish goiter is a swelling of the opercular covers (the gill covers) and area below the gills. Growths on gills have been also attributed to that iodine deficiency)

That is cheaper that the iodine added medical food.

I don't know where it got started, but the advice that fish need iodine free salt is just a myth. It is an essential element for most (all?) animals. Guppies, with their tolerance for sea salt, certainly do not have a problem with it.

[ Parent ]



Re: what kind of salt do you use ? (none / 0) (#1)
by Scott Lockwood on Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 03:48:46 AM PST

Never,  ever use table salt. Also, this kind of question, a two liner, is best asked as a diary.

If you were to do a write up of why you don't use table salt (hint: They coat it with silica, which hurts the fish by coating it's gils, and preventing it from breathing correctly) then that would merit log submission.

"I love to visit PetSmart's Tropical Fish Dept. to see what new diseases are around today." -- inkmaker



This is a first time post, so I will vote for it. (none / 1) (#2)
by unclescott on Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 08:24:28 AM PST

But not next time. :)

Scott is correct, most shorter (under several 100 word) posts should be diaries. So next time, for a "shorty" please make it a diary. (Anyway they often get responded to more quickly and they go immediately to the top of the diary list and the "everything" page without having to wait for a vote.)

You are certainly right about the dangers of table salt. Even the ones which use flour to keep the salt flowing, can then pollute an aquarium. There are a lot of commercial marine salts. Interestingly their recipes are often a little different one from another. They do contain trace elements, but while those are important in a marine aquarium, they may not be needed in a brine shrimp hatcher. Probably most any one could be used in a freshwater aquarium to medicate.

I would caution about putting too much salt (sodium chloride) into a tank as a tonic. Especially where the water is low in minerals, that can cause trouble.

On another list (NANFA's mailing list) the issue of inexpensive brine shrimp hatching salt recently came up. I suggested getting that inexpensive livestock feed salt from agricultural supply stores. In this part of the world, it is simply sun dried sea salt and should do fine.

Others suggested taking plain old rock salt used to get rid of ice on frozen side walks and supplementing it with a little Epsom Salts (for the magnesium) and a little baking soda, to buffer the pH. Real purists could take a dash of calcium carbonate (another ice melter, but read the labels carefully) and toss a pinch into the mix, but it isn't necessary.

In fact, the plain rock salt usually does fine if you have a hydrometer. (Different sized salt crystals sometimes can confuse suggestions for dry measures.) Brine shrimp are quite tolerant of a wide range of salinities. A specific gravity of 1.02 is better than higher salinities, though Great Salt Lake brine shrimp can be found at specific gravities of more than double that. The baby brine shrimp don't tend to live as long with more minerals and why spend more for the extra salt? :)

The pet shop, where I purchase dog supplies, blackworms for the fish and some aquarium stuff, offers 10-pound bags of a popular marine salt. I'm  guessing that they buy it in bulk and re-bag it when business is a little slow. It may be that such salt is cheaper per pound than the usual marine packages and may be all a person would need for quite a while.

I still have a bag of my feed salt (for 50 pounds it was only $2 or $3). It has lived on the floor here for years. When I need some, I just take a hammer and chip a little off. ;)

[ Parent ]



Re: This is a first time post, so I will vote for (none / 0) (#3)
by Scott Lockwood on Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 05:49:09 PM PST

A specific gravity of 1.02 is better than higher salinities

Wow, really? That's interesting, did you know that the normal range for specific gravity of human urine is 1.005 to 1.030. 1.020 is right in the middle of that range.

"I love to visit PetSmart's Tropical Fish Dept. to see what new diseases are around today." -- inkmaker
[ Parent ]



Ah! You made me double check. :) (none / 1) (#4)
by unclescott on Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 08:51:29 PM PST

"Because of salinity and temperature variations, the density of seawater ranges from about 1.02 g/cm3 to 1.03 g/cm3."  Glencoe Earth Science. Ohio: McGraw Hill, 2002: 395.

I have heard that the average salinity of human blood is very close to see water. Because of other cells, plasma and stuff in the blood I know nothing about, its overall specific gravity is 1.06.

That urine has a higher specific gravity than seawater sometimes - and most freshwaters virtually all of the time -  might be because one's body is trying to get of a bunch of extra minerals, ammonia, etc.

Then we get into the whole issue of why marine fish drink water (they all ready have plenty of minerals and are trying not to get to too low a water level in their bodies). Freshwater fish need more mineral salts (more calcium and magnesium and potassium than sodium) and have developed ways to expel extra water from their systems. That will have to be another (yawn) time.

[ Parent ]



what kind of salt do you use ? | 10 comments (10 topical, 0 hidden)
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