Freshwater: Salt Or No Salt?

This is the best source in my opinion in describing what salt does and why certain freshwater fish need it. It lacks references, but not many other sources have those from what I am seeing.



My tank- 20 gallons planted tank with Pearl Danios, Cherry barbs, Black neon tetras, a Honey Gourami, an Ivory mystery snail, and Otocinclus catfish. My understanding of the website above lead me to use 1 quarter tablespoon of API aquarium salt for every 5 gallons of water I change out.

Is this salt needed? Is it capable of being helpful? Or harmful in the amount I am using? Any opinions are appreciated. This appears to be a controversial topic and I am trying to figure it out.

 

It's not harmful, but it's not necessary either.

 

Salt is definitely a controversial topic. It's certainly not needed, but there are some claims that it can help heal wounds and cure things like fin rot. Snails can be burned by salt and otos are very sensitive towards salt so I wouldn't recommend using it in your tank. I personally would not use salt on a regular basis. It's completely foreign to freshwater fish and something that they wouldn't encounter in the wild. I never use salt unless my fish have wounds or fin rot or some other problem that salt could help with. It's kind of a could help a bit, might hurt scenario, and I choose not to take that risk unless necessary.

 

I accidentally killed one of my mystery snails with aquarium salt, (I only use it for hatching brine shrimp now). While it might have some good qualities it is not needed, not even with livebearers.

 

Scaleless fish like many loaches and others are sensitive. But it can be write helpful in trading several sicknesses. But not necessary for overall health

 

There are some types of fish that this can be helpful for as a treatment but also some types of fish that this is very harmful to. I sometimes used to use salt to treat my goldfish. Most fish that prefer softer water will not appreciate salt.

 

Do not salt freshwater tanks! If you need to treat wounds/illnesses, set up a separate container and put the salt there! By the way, the "salt" used for livebearers and Rift Lake cichlids is not NaCl but a mixture of alkaline earth metals and carbonates.

 

Thanks to everyone for the helpful advice. I will stop using it regularly in mine. I'm glad I was not using very much regularly.