Introducing Aquarium salts

[PandaLUV]

Hey Boys and Girls.
I recently had a fungus outbreak in my tank which i have almost fully contained. But as extra measure i want to start using aquarium salts, sadly i have never used them before.
My question is are their any serious side effects? My tank is pretty well planted. Should i introduce the salts slowly?

This question might be a longshot, but any help is appreciated, does anyone know if Congo Tetras, Pakistani Loaches, and Leopard bush fish are senstive to salinity changes? i tried researching it by couldnt find much.

Thanks heaps for the time my peeps.

[talldutchie]

It's a debatable practice at best. There's a big sticky on it on the forum..

My personal 2 eurocents...
1. Check on a good loaches resource, loaches.com for example how well this species takes salt
2. Have a good look at your setup, see if you can figure out the root cause.

[Cermet]

I use salt for my discus and do have a few thoughts:

First off, salt does not generally belong in a fresh water aquarium because neither fish see it normally, and due to large weekly water changes that most people need to do, keeping a low but constant level is extremely difficult.
Second, salt is not very good for plants - at low levels they will easily tolerate but that is not the same as helping them. Plant growth will not be as good.
Third: salt is really a med, and as such, should be used as a cure for a specific purpose and never as a standard treatment.
Finally, adding salt to address fungus is not a good prevative; rather, good aquarium housekeeping is what is needed. Vacuum up waste food as needed (mostly, daily.) Do large weekly water changes (depends on nitrates but without a kit, a 30% w/c is a good idea.) Vacuum and stir the substrate from time to time. Finally, at least a monthly heavy cleaning - move all wood, rocks and oniments to clean under and remove debris.

When I use salt, I use a massive dose combined with higher temperature because I am curing an illness (most often, an unknown one that I refuse to use a shotgun medication approch on.) Then the salt is carefully controlled, and used for two weeks. Then removed over a week of very large water changes.

In conclusion (finally!!), i'd be against using salt for the std aquarium; has uses but they should be restricted to treatments - Ick, unknown illness, refusal to eat with fish getting dark (color fade.) Otherwise, I would suggest to avoid salt.