Salt in my freshwater tank

[sombunya]

I bought a couple of softening pillows for my tank because the water where I live is quite hard and I need to get the ph down near 7.

The aquarium salt I bought to recharge the pillows states it is safe to use in all freshwater tanks and actually said nothing about recharging softening pillows.

I called the tech line of the company and the guy told me that a tablespoon for every 5 gallons is just right and just put a dish on the floor of the tank with the salt in it. Just be careful and only add more when doing water changes, not when topping off with water as the salt does not evaporate, of course. At the very least it won't harm anything and is beneficial in almost all cases.

I did a water change and currently the ratio is about a tablespoon for every 7 gallons instead of 5. Seems strange to me. The fish like to go in and poke around in it!

I am a newbie so I've never heard of adding (freshwater aquarium) salt to a tank. Is this really beneficial? Have I been missing something for a while now?

 

[Cichlid-Man]

Sounds like trouble to me. Its freshwater, not brackish why would you need salt? Fish are very adaptable, changing your pH could be worse then letting them adapt. Stability is the key.

 

[sombunya]

The tech fellow was talking about electrolytes, and how fish lose them as they essentially pump water through themselves. I guess the bottom line is it helps to keep a healthy tank healthy.

The recommended dose is 1 tablespoon to 5 gallons. I'm using a little less so the chances are zero I will accidentally go over that dose. Saltwater tanks use about 80 times that amount.

The ph was a high 7. I'm trying to move it to a low 7. The lady at the tropical fish store advised it, and all of her tanks, fresh and salt, look like Swarovski crystal.

FWIW, I've kept it this way for about a week now and it has never looked better. Just trying to get a few opinions here and I appreciate your response.

 

[wondabread]

I bought a water softening pillow for my rena a few months back. I didn't use it, wasted money.

In order to recharge you need the sodium for the pillow. I don't want salt in my planted tanks. I've found that driftwood and snails (and some plants) reduce the hardness enough to bring it in to check. I don't know that there is even hardcore proof that salt helps in any way.

Tap water here is a around 8pH, 17 or so KH, and a GH so high that I stopped testing before I found my result. After having co2, snails, plants, and driftwood in my tank KH settled in around 9, pH in the mid 7s. Fish are healthy and happy.

 

[Orion]

Most commonly found fish in fish stores are able to adapt to a wide range of pH values. 7.9 isn't really to bad at all. If you have hard water, it's going to be very difficult to keep a stable pH over time. A fluctuating pH is much more harmful fish than one that's not near '7'.

 

[Whiskers]

IMO aquarium salt is ok for your tank. some say not with corys but we have and haven't had bad results but we don't do it all the time. for ph,from all the reading i've done lately, your best bet is to pick your fish for your ph cause it can become a tricky task and if your not up to the challenge i wouldn't try. But if you have to pry into the world of ph you will need a RO unit unless your water has very low buffering capabilitys. if your water has a high buffering capabilitys then the amount of ph lowering additive you add has to override the buffer.that level of a additive is, as they say, more than your fish will probably be able to handle so you will need a RO unit to remove the buffer which, from what i understand, will lower the ph of your water but also allows the ph to go up or down with anything you might add or take out of the tank. so my thoughts are set up your tank like you want it, get the ph where you need, acclimate your fish and constantly check your ph. as others have said its not always your ph but the fast up or down swings that kill the fish. oh and yes another thing i've read about playing with ph is you need to be careful if you add co2 to your tank to lower ph or for plants because the co2 lowers the ph of the tank. if your tank of co2 quits for any reason in a short period of time like a few hrs to 12 hrs your ph will go up and possibly kill your fish or stress them out really bad. i've been reading alot the last week or so and these are some of the things i've found out but if i've stated anything wrong please correct me (getting old bad memory).

 

[sombunya]

Actually, I'm just a little bit concerned about the ph and the hardness. I'm not taking drastic steps to move it, I was just following advice while I was getting it stable. The tap water provided to my house is groundwater, therefore it is hard. My main concern, of course, is nitrites and ammonia. Both are zero at the moment. I'd like to expand on that.

Yesterday I introduced a good sized Crawdad and 3 more small Sculpin. That brought the total of my 41 gallon tank to 4 Bluegill between 4" and 3" each, 4 Sculpin about 3" each and a Crawdad. I fed them well as I usually do and I measured the Nitrite level at .25 ppm.

I checked it when I got home today. No nitrites or ammonia. Nitrates were low too. Not sure if adding the salt to the tank helps keep nitrites under control but I think that was a claim that was made. Again, I am keeping it (the salt) at something like 1 tablespoon to each 8 gallons instead of the recommended 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons.

One more thing. I added another small 2" Bluegill and 2 more 3" Sculpin to my tank. It does not seem crowded and I will be closely watching water quality. As I mentioned in this thread, I work at a water treatment plant and catch these critters at work. If I get too many of anything there are places around here that would graciously accept them.

My tank is 48" long, 18" tall and 11" deep. I have a nice filter sized plenty big (110 gallon capacity). If anyone thinks it's too crowded with the above count (5 Bluegill, 6 Sculpin and a Crawdad) please let me know. I'm trying to take care of it but I am relatively new to this hobby.

Thanks for the responses too.

 

[Avalon]

Ah, the pH will harm your fish debate. pH is among one of the most useless parameters of an aquarium. Simply put, pH can be affected by many different variables, and unless those variables are stated, you're being misled. Overall water parameters are what matters most: GH (general hardness, a measure of calcium and magnesium) & KH (karbonate-German for carbonate-hardness, a measure of carbonates in the water). In the vast majority of cases, most electrolytes are provided by the ions present in the water. This is why I don't recommend people use RO/DI (basic RO is ok) water or distilled water unless it is reconstituted to some degree. Salt does absolutely nothing for freshwater fish and is a complete waste of time and money. Salt in and of itself doesn't automatically provide fish with the electrolytes they need. Those electrolytes come from other mineral ions, not salt. This is why freshwater fish can be safely kept in water parameters without a KH value and extremely low TDS levels (total dissolved solids). GH will have the most important role, however, even GH can be kept at extremely low levels. It doesn't take much for the fish. Tetras thrive in pure waters with GH levels of 1ppm or less, as well as Discus and Angelfish. Other fish may require higher GH levels, particularly larger cichlids such as the Central American varieties.

The bottom line is salt is a waste. It may not harm, but it doesn't help either. With the exception of extreme circumstances (rare), I don't know why anyone would want to use it.

 

[sombunya]

Interesting opinions keep rolling in.

In another forum a fellow commented he used salt in conjunction with a treatment for ick.

Your advice sounds very informed Avalon. I'll probably do a little more research on the subject and see if any kind of consensus arises.

 

[sombunya]

Been looking at various websites that seem to be objective.

There were a couple "pro salt" commentaries, one seemed 50/50 and 4 more were against its usage.

I think for now I'll probably stop using it and let it slowly get less and less as I gradually change out the water.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Surprise_Clown_Loach]

Boy do I have much to learn.

I also just purchased a "pillow" that gets recharged using salt water. The reason I am doing this is the test kit states KH and GH need to be relative low for live water plants and can be reduced using this "pillow". The LFS told me the pillow acts like a water softener, which helps soften the water.

Now whether I really need this for live plants.. Imma keep on reading.

 

[Avalon]

Planted tanks are an entirely different animal altogether. Interestingly, plants are to freshwater fish as corals are to saltwater fish and hard-waters are to African cichlids. Each type of fish has their own environment. It's not necessary that every fish have the perfect environment though, and in many cases, we do more harm than good in trying to achieve the 'perfect environment. Fish are very adaptable.

Surprise_Clown_Loach, if you have questions about planted tanks, feel free to start up a thread with your questions in the planted tank section.

 

[Macfish]

Well, the pillow doesnt add salt to the tank, it leaves sodium ions in the water while removing calcium & magnesium allowing your PH to be lowered (also collects metals). The non-iodized salt is safe to use.

On a side note, adding regular fresh water aquarium salt (non-iodized) to your fish can help reduce stress caused by the nitrogen cycle. Nitrites hampers the fishes gill function causing them to extract less O2 from the water, adding salt provides a slime coat for the gills to function more normally, not making nitrites less harmful, but less hazardous and less stressful to fish.

 

[DesignsOnYou]

That's interesting Macfish. My LFS adds in a small amount of aquarium salt with the RO water they sell. They described it as a small amount of fish valium, that it just keeps them slightly calmer and helps their stress levels, which would match what you're saying. I haven't put any in mine, because I want pictus cats, and then reading this thread reaffirmed that maybe it's not necessary at all, but I think the small amount they'll be getting with the changes with the RO water might help with what you're talking about. Interesting. I love this web site.