Freshwater Salt

[potato344]

i am hearing and reading many conflicting opinions on the use of salt in freshwater tanks. i have some mollies and some barbs in my 55 gallon tank right now. i have an established tank and the fish have been living in the tank for about 2 weeks now without salt. the fish seem to be heatlhy with the occassional slow movements or low activity. whats your guys take on salt in freshwater tanks? yes or no?

 

[neilanh]

Welcome to AA!

It's unnecessary for those fish IMO. Only true brackish fish need the addition of salt from my understanding - the fish you listed are not in need of it.

 

[amosf]

It depends. If you have a fungus problem or something - tropical area where it's hot especially - then maybe you use salt. 1 gram/litre is enough, 2 g/l max. same sort of dose for ich treatment.

but if the fish are fine, don't worry.

 

[BillD]

I don't use salt, and most experienced aquarists I know,don't. While it was accepted as fact once upon a time that it was good for all fish, the consensus now is that it isn't necessary or even good to use it regularily. Some fish do not like it at all. It does have it's place in treatments.

 

[HooKooDooKu]

I did a little research on this today.
The first thing I learned was that salt seems to be a good CURE for some diseases (like ick). The second thing I learned was that if you have any live plants, you don't want any salt.
So it seems to boil down to:
If you have live plants, NO SALT. If salt is needed for a disease, then use either a salt bath or a hospital tank with salt only in the hospital tank.
If you have fake plants, you can use salt. It's sort of like taking daily asprin. It might help, and it might not. So you are likely just wasting your time if you are taking proper care of the fish.

 

[amosf]

salt at 1 g/l here causes not problems with the planted tank.

 

[Opheliac]

I use freshwater salt and have no problems. However I use less than what it says on the directions and I boil the water, add the salt wait till it cools then pour it into my two tanks.

 

[crazyfishlady]

From what I always understood I thought mollies were a brackish water fish. Now that I'm doing more research I'm not so sure. I have balloon mollies and velvet swordstails along w/ a few other fish in my planted 46G. I only add a little bit of aquarium salt after water changes. If you're interested, here are some more informative sites:

Brackish Water fish V -- Mollies, swordtails, platies with pictures
Animal Library: Fish: Mollies
Livebearing Aquarium Fish | Guppies | Mollies | Swordtails | Platies
The great molly-salt debate