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Aquarium Salt |
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Aquarium
Salt is a very important part of
the Recommended Treatment that we strongly
recommend. This page explains how to
use Aquarium Salt, and then goes on
to explain why Aquarium Salt works.
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Several people
have emailed and asked for an explanation of why
ordinary salt is useful in treating fish with Signs
of Stress and Disease. Here are a few more facts
about adding Aquarium Salt to the water in aquariums.
We are talking here
about Sodium Chloride with symbol NaCl, which is
the main chemical in table salt. Table salt also
usually contains small amounts iodine and calcium
silicate. The iodine prevents goiter in humans that
eat the table salt, and the calcium silicate prevents
the table salt from caking.
Some people have added
table salt to their aquarium water and had no problems.
But other people have had trouble after putting
table salt in their aquarium water. Therefore it
is usually recommended that table salt NOT be added
to aquarium water.
Aquarium Salt
has no additives such as iodine or calcium silicate.
Small one-pound boxes of Aquarium Salt, like the
one shown at the top of this page, are sold in most
places that sell freshwater fish. A one-pound box
of Aquarium Salt is very inexpensive.
Salt, NaCl, does not
change the pH of water. It also does not change
the hardness.
A few fish do not tolerate
aquarium salt. Corydoras catfish and many live aquatic
plants do not do well with salt in their water.
In my aquariums both Corydoras and many
plants will tolerate 1 Tablespoon of Aquarium Salt
per each 5 gallons of aquarium water, and they do
poorly with 2 Tablespoons of Aquarium Salt per 5
gallons.
Salt lessens the number
of pathogens in the water. For example very few,
perhaps only one or two groups, of freshwater bacteria
tolerate aquarium salt well. My experience is that
salt is slightly effective in preventing fish trouble
in freshwater aquariums but only slightly.
Salt is most effective,
when the concentration of salt changes. So I keep
my freshwater fish in water with very little salt.
If I see one or more of the Signs of Stress or Disease,
such as clamped fins, I immediately do all six steps
of the Recommended Treatment, which includes adding
1 Tablespoon of Aquarium Salt per each 5 gallons
of aquarium water.
Click
here to read more about the Signs of Stress
and Disease, and click
here to read about all six steps of the Recommended
Treatment.
Marine Aquarists often
give their marine fish a freshwater bath, and this
is the same principle of changing the concentration
of salt, but in this case by lowering rather than
increasing the concentration of salt.
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The advertisement, shown below, links to
this advertiser's web site. |
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Here is a plausible theory about how changing
the concentration of salt in the water helps the
fish. The pathogens, such as bacteria and protozoa,
are simpler forms of life that have no internal
organs to compensate for the change in salt concentration.
But fish have organs,
such as kidneys, that enable them to adjust to a
small change in the concentration of salt. So changing
the concentration of salt weakens the pathogens
without harming the fish, and this gives the fish
a better chance to recover.
Before
people had refrigerators and freezers, they used
salt to preserve various foods especially meat.
When meat was packed in salt, bacteria usually could
not grow and cause the meat to spoil. Salt was very
valuable to people. In fact in some areas of the
world, salt was the most valuable substance.
I was in
a Home Depot store yesterday and saw a 50 lb. bag
of water-softener salt. I estimated the price per
lb., and I couldn't find anything else in the store
that was less expensive. Even the bags of manure
cost more per lb. than the salt.
When I
was very young and got a sore throat, my grandmother
would put a teaspoon of salt in a big glass of warm
water, give it a good stir, and then tell me to
gargle with the salty water in my mouth. She believed
that the salt would help cure my sore throat, and
the salt may have killed many of the pathogens that
were causing my sore throat.
Summary
Salt has
been used by people for a long time to stop pathogens
from growing in their foods and in their throats,
and now we still use salt to stop pathogens from
growing in our aquariums and on our fish.
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Customer Comments
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hi, i was reading the section
about aquarium salt and
i would like to point out
one minor detail. the author
pointed out his grandmother
gave him/her water and salt
to cure a sore throat b/c
this killed the pathogens.
this is not true. the relief
of a sore throat in this
case is due to osmosis.
when one gargles salt water,
this called a hypertonic
solution. meaning, the water
has more solute (salt) than
the sections in your throat
that are inflamed (with
water) and this causes soreness.
in a case like this, water
inside the inflamed areas
of the throat leave the
tissue and "go" towards
the salt water in order
to form equilibrium and
the sore throat subsides
because there is no more
inflamation.
thanks,
jared r.
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Reply. Hello
Jared and thank your for your interesting comments.
In our experience salt does more than reduce the
inflammation and pain. In many cases aquarium salt
is an essential part of the treatment.
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Click
here to go on to another page in this web
site with Customer Comments and our Replies about
the use of Aquarium Salt. |
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About our Photographs ...
Almost all the
photographs and videos, shown on this web site,
were taken of our fish by DrTom Bailey, one of
the owners. Compare the fish in these pictures
to the fish in our competitors pictures. Their
fish often have clamped fins and poor color,
while our fish look healthy, energetic, and
colorful! We buy the highest quality fish,
produced by the best fish farms and
caught by the best collectors of wild fish, then
we take incredibly good care of our fish in our
advanced facilities. If you compare the fish
shown in the pictures on this site to our
competitors, you can instantly see, ours are
better! ;^ }
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