WILL ADDING AQUARIUM SALT HARM LIVE PLANTS ?

[Bert B]

I have a good question, My 100 Gallon F/W tank has been in use for 17 years. It has been set up here in Nevada for the last 4 years. I have always had great success with this tank. (MAGNUM 350- POWERHEAD WITH SPONGE FILTER submerged ) I decided to start adding some guppies to my tank so the wife and i could watch the babies grow. I bought 12 at a time from a Reno dealer and lost most of those within a week, purchased 12 more here in Carson city fiquring the water chemisty is is a match . lost those within 2 weeks except for 2 of them. I aclimate my fish at least an hour and water is pristine. My heater is unplugged due to high outside temps. and no A/C in the house. I have never had fish loss like this EVER :wall: My other fish were just fine ( tetras, loaches, 4 OLD tiger barbs, corys, 2Blood parrot fish ( very peaceful even at night): Small chocolate albino pleco. headbang2: I went to my fish dealer here and found out that their Guppie tags on the tanks say needs aquarium salt. I found out that ALL of their tanks Have added salt to them, so i am thinking that this is why the guppys died off. ( no evidence of bullying ) OK, here is my question-
AQUARIUM SALT, I have never used it but i am told it is very benificial in a freshwater tank at an amount of- 1 teaspoon for each 5 Gallons of water, TRUE OR FALSE ?
Will this aquarium salt ( top fin conditioning salt for F/W aquariums ) be ok for all of my fish ?
will it be OK for my live plants ? ( 4 amazon swords & 2 onion plants. I want to make sure this added salt doesn't cause unwanted problems with my fish OR live plants.:eek3: I would like to get some more guppies and let them have lots of babies. I really appreciate all the help.

[Zagz]

Guppies in general do not need aquarium salt. I would recommend QT'ing the new fish for at least 2 weeks before adding to the main tank. Aquarium salt is not needed in a FW tank unless treating for illnesses. The plants will not like the salt, nor will your pleco, loaches or cories.

[Jchillin]

Aquarium salt is not necessary for FW tanks but it is useful for treating ich and as a therapeutic addition when needed.

[jsoong]

Salt is not needed, but some lfs use them in all their tanks to cut down on ich, etc. (All they are doing is selecting for salt resistent strains, which YOU will have to deal with...)

And most plants will not do well with any smount of salt...

Many fish cannot tolerate rapid shifts in salt conc., so you need to change the concentration slowly (no more than 0.1% every 12 hours). I would agree with the mods & put your new fish in a QT at their "normal" salt concentration, then gradually lower the salt with pwc's over a week or 2 (maybe 10-20% every other day). You can lower the salt conc. faster, but if you are QTing the fish, may as well leave them in there for the full 2 weeks so you can catch any nasties before introducing them into your main tank.

BTW, no need for fancy QT tanks ... I use a clean plastic bucket & a spare filter (a cheap sponge filter will do for small fish) ... put the filter sponge in your main's filter for a few weeks so there will be lots of cycling bacteria & use that in the QT so you don't get a cycle & stress the fish. <Actually I keep the filters in the main all the time so I always have a cycled QT at a moment's notice.>