How To Add Aquarium Salt To Freshwater Tank

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Adding Salt to a Freshwater Aquarium

When and When non to Add Salt

Past Tony Griffitts

The practice of adding salt (a.grand.a. Sodium Chloride, rock salt, tabular array salt, solar salt, aquarium table salt) to freshwater aquariums has been effectually almost as long equally the hobby. There are several reasons why hobbyists add salt to the aquarium, stress reduction, medicating, adding hardness, and for fish commonly found in brackish water. It has get a common practice for employees of big box stores to tell all of their freshwater customers to add a teaspoon of common salt per x gallons (38 l). This is not a practice most advanced hobbyist partake in, nor one recommended. Before you add together salt to a freshwater aquarium, y'all should understand why you are doing so, and any possible side effects.

Freshwater

Most wild populations of freshwater fish and plants in the hobby come from rivers and lakes that have very fiddling if any detectable salt. Freshwater fish are adapted to water with common salt content that is measured in parts per one thousand thousand (ppm), versus seawater that is measured in parts per thousand (ppt). My local water supply comes from surface water and information technology averages less than iii ppm total sodium. That means that out of i 1000000 parts, less than 3 are salt. In many cases freshwater has very low salt content, and in some areas of the world, similar tropical rain forests, it can be so minute that it is undetectable.

Fish and Plants

Freshwater fish and plants have evolved to live in an environment that has very little table salt, and because of this some are very sensitive to salt. Most freshwater plants do not tolerate much salt at all, and if you are trying to go along alive plants, salt as a general rule should be avoided. Some species of fish from very soft water, like Plecostomus (sucker oral cavity catfish) do non tolerate much common salt either, and the addition of salt with these fish should exist avoided.

Mastering Freshwater Aquarium Ecosystems

Salt equally a Medicine

The virtually important use of table salt is for medicating freshwater fish for some types of ectoparasites (parasites on the outside of the fish).

Some of the common parasites that are know to be killed by common salt are ich ( Ichthyophthirius ), costia, anchorworms ( Lernaea ). To kill these parasites with common salt, you demand to add a lot of salt, about 1½ cups of table salt per 10 gallons (38 l) to the aquarium, not simply a teaspoon per 10 gallons. The "Specific Gravity" measured with a standard marine aquarium hydrometer should be between 1.005 and i.009 or vii to xiii ppt. If treating for anchorworms closer to 1.009 would exist best. This level of salt needs to be maintained for at to the lowest degree 3 weeks. Not all freshwater fish can tolerate this much salt. Generally Central American cichlids and livebearers, African rift lake cichlids, and koi can tolerate this much salt.

Saltwater dips are also mutual for eradicating some external parasites. A saltwater dip with a specific gravity of one.009 to 1.023 for 30 minutes to ii hours is know to kill Gyrodactylus (skin flukes). When ever treating freshwater fish with common salt, you should monitor the fish closely for excessive stress, and render the fish to freshwater when necessary. In many cases, treating external parasites with other types of medication may be safer for the species of fish you are trying to cure.

A therapeutic amount (ane teaspoon per ten gallons) of salt is sometimes added to the quarantine/hospital tank for fish that have damaged shin or have lost a lot of scales. This pocket-size corporeality of salt volition aid the fish with osmoregulation by helping the fish maintain the salt level in it'south blood while the fish's wound heals. Once the wound has healed, I recommended removing all the salt from the aquarium by doing a nearly 100% water modify. Salt does non evaporate, and so you lot must do a water change to remove it.

Zeolite and Salt

Zeolite is often used in aquariums to remove ammonium/ammonia from solution. When common salt is added to the aquarium it prevents the mineral from removing the ammonium/ammonia. Therefore zeolite is only effective in freshwater. Zeolite tin be recharged by soaking it in saltwater. When soaked in saltwater it exchanges the ammonium/ammonia with common salt.

As a general rule, table salt should not be added to a freshwater aquarium. Salt is an effective medication provided the fish you are treating are salt tolerant. Salt should never be used in aquariums with live plants. Culling medications should be used with fish that are not salt tolerant.

Published - 20061213