Whats your take on salt

[thorace]

Hey whats everyones take on adding salt to your tank, not the aquarium salt but the african mineral salt from API or the cichlid lake salt from seachem, and Seachem Liquid Malawi/Victoria Buffer, or anything else that i forgot or don't know about......thanks

[angel]

I had thought they all might be the same as aquarium salt.

[thorace]

no the aquarium salt is a whole other type thats used in tropical fish tanks for other reasons

[angel]

Well aquarium salt is all I have used. That and epsom now and then. Some use rock salt.

[sirknight]

I for one would not waste my money on these buffers, additives, etc. you can make them very easy.

Make sure you need them before you start adding chemicals to your water. Your water out of the tap maybe just fine after removing chlorine with maybe some Epsom salt. I always add some to my water.

Use/get test kits before any additions.

If you must use salt let say for tangs,

you can add one table spoon of marine salt per 5 gallons of water. This is for trace elements (I don't use it)
For raising magnesium use Epsom salt, one table spoon per 5 gallons
For alkalinity/hardness use baking soda, one teaspoon for 5 gallons and
For calcium use calcium chloride, one teaspoon per 5 gallons.

[jon carman]

I use rock salt because it is cheap, and a little baking soda and epsom salt for the reasons Joe mentioned

[tnnsman7]

I used to use salt religiously several years ago. I don't use salt anymore. My fish look just as good without the salt, but I'm thinking the spawning was a little better back when I used salt. Hard to say for sure because it was a different house and different water well. It may have just been the water. We have liquid concrete up here in western Michigan. PH of 8.3 out of my well. Great for africans, which is one reason I stick with them.

[jtrotter77]

the rift lake salts are a waste of money.

[angel]

I've never even tried them. It's gotta be a gimmick. Mine do fine with plain ol' aquarium salt and it looks like I'm spending too much buying that, since rock is ok too.