what kind of salt should I add to my AP?

[germanbull]

I looked at some bags of salt that don't say what the chemical makeup is; some say they are potassium chloride. Is salt meant for water softeners OK? Morton pool salt?

[urbanfarmer]

Why are you adding salt? Table salt is sodium chloride.

[foodchain]

This is a loaded question UF and I have gone rounds on already.
Salt can do a great many things....some good and some bad. What is it you are trying to achieve? What's the desired result? I have used a lot of salts, some as aid, some to treat, and some to disinfect.

In referance UF to our previous thread on this, I am testing both salts currently to guage the results. Nothing really interesting to report as of yet. Both swimming around like nothing is different. In consulting with my chemistry proff I had in college, he confirms your data (this is a good thing). Fisheries Biologist I know confirms your thoughts on using the wrong salt too. So I am diving deeper into this. So far, more than a month into tests and I am not detecting any problems. Doesn't mean there aren't any...I just haven't found them yet.

WARNING: I am not advocating anyone to just dump salt into their system. Educate yourself with your own research. That's what I am doing, and if it goes bad, you can only blame yourself. But if it goes great, you only reward yourself.

Best of luck.

[germanbull]

I see a few white spots on my goldfish. I think it could be fish ich. I read that salting the water may relieve stress on the fish and help their immune system. I want to try that as a minimum.

[urbanfarmer]

I see a few white spots on my goldfish. I think it could be fish ich. I read that salting the water may relieve stress on the fish and help their immune system. I want to try that as a minimum.

If it is ich, you can just raise the temperature over 85 Fahrenheit for the life cycle of the parasite and it will be dead and gone.

[keith_r]

i use water softener salt and avoid "table salt"
pool salt is inexpensive and is ok as well..
aquarium salt (even when it's the same stuff as pool salt) will cost more

some plants will suffer at 3ppt, but most will be ok

a hospital tank that you can salt higher is nice to have

[foodchain]

a hospital tank is nice....but...
IF it's ich, removing the fish for treatment won't solve the problem as the ich lives in the water column, and subrates as well.
IF no plants are present, raise temp to speed cycle of ich, add salt and wait. Then do large water change, and repeat. After about 4 days, I usually don't have any problems left.
Look to the cause. Ich rarely goes after happy healthy fish. But loves stressed ones in my experience....unless I added a new fish without quarantine first.

[davidstcldfl]

Just my 2 cents....in my home system I used sea salt, at a rate of a < 1/2 ppt. I don't know if the 'extra' minerals, sea salt is supposed to have, helped any ...but my plants seemed to really grow well and I never had any sick fish.

[urbanfarmer]

Just my 2 cents....in my home system I used sea salt, at a rate of a < 1/2 ppt. I don't know if the 'extra' minerals, sea salt is supposed to have, helped any ...but my plants seemed to really grow well and I never had any sick fish.

Yes, common table salt contains sodium and the plants will take that in place of potassium, which is what they are commonly most deficient in, in an aquaponic system. They will also appear more succulent.

When people talk about adding salt to a tank, they are talking about sodium chloride or common table salt. I believe keith is making reference to additives found in different salt products, but the "salt" part of anything used is sodium chloride.

[germanbull]

thanks for the replies. This is an outdoor system with about 500 gallons of water at 55 deg F. I wouldn't be able to heat it to 85. The temp was down to 47 several days ago, but our nights haven't been as cold lately.

I read on wiki that the parasite can only survive about 2 days without a host. I'd rather not try to remove the goldfish for a few days. I'll add some salt and keep an eye on them. They don't appear stressed - just noticed the white spots on a few.