Water Changes?

[Demi ^_^]

When doing water changes, do I add aquarium salt to the water, or only on the first time when setting up tank.

[Rue]

That depends.

There are 2 schools of thought on adding salt to a FW tank.

One is that low levels of salt are therapuetic and generally beneficial for any number of reasons.

The other is that salt does more harm than good.

If you're using salt (and I have used salt, esp. when I have mollies) you use 1 tbsp per 5 gallons. Then with every water change, you add proportionally as much salt as you removed (in the water you took out).

Keep in mind, that when the tank water evaporates, your salt concentration IN the tank increases, so it's very important to keep up with the top offs (of unsalted water).

[Blue Ram]

Ive never used salt in my tanks! Is it suggested to use it?

[cocoa_pleco]

the only time salt is needed is for fish that like it, like mollies, and if you have to treat disease, else it is not needed.

keep in mind some fish cant tolerate the salt, like clown loaches, plecos, etc

[Blue Ram]

In that case I will save it for diseases since I dont plan on owning a mollies anytime soon!

[Demi ^_^]

Really? My LFS gave it to my dad and said we had to put half the container of salt in when we started our tank up. My dad let him know I wanted freshwater. Does this mean I don't HAVE to put any salt in? I'm not going to from now on, since cories can't tolerate salt at all :)

[mitcore]

salt do you mean hardness salt, or something else

if it is hardness salt then yes i would put it in when i add buckets of water, now depending on what hardness range you want depends on how much to put in, i also control my hardness in my tanks this way

[Demi ^_^]

It just says 'Aquarium Salt'

[mitcore]

i am not sure what that is
does it say anything on the pkt on what it is?

[Algenco]

Really? My LFS gave it to my dad and said we had to put half the container of salt in when we started our tank up. My dad let him know I wanted freshwater. Does this mean I don't HAVE to put any salt in? I'm not going to from now on, since cories can't tolerate salt at all :)

They do that because salt will ( somewhat) minimize nitrite poisoning.

They probably tell you its ok to buy a new tank and fish at the same time. If you don't have Mollies or a condition that warrants it, leave it out

[Demi ^_^]

This is the whole thing what it says:

WET DREAMS AQUATICS
AQUARIUM SALT
1 GRAM PER 1 LITRE OF WATER
$5-00

[mitcore]

ummm i really have no idea

i will run a search on it and get back to you