To salt or not to salt
 

so lets do a littel poll
ok so hears the ?
how many here add salt to there freash water setups?
what are the benifets that you have seen by adding salt?
and how much salt do you add per gal?

I add a couple shakes to my 150gal for the turtles but other then that i don't add it to other tanks

I never add salt.

It acts as an irritant to increase slime coat production, but it also causes stress to the fish. Stress invites disease. For non-brackish water fish I don't think you are ever supose to do long term salt.

I only use it to help with diseases and the healing progress. Reading this article can help http://www.tropicalfishkeeping.com/f...quarium-97842/

NO - not in nature, not in your FW tank.

Agree. A previous member provided the link to my article on salt, so enough said.;-)

I read an interesting article on PFK that long term salt actually helps certain diseases (forget which). But they are external parasites that feed on slime coat. They become salt resistant and then the salt helps because it causes the fish to overproduce slime coat (it's food).
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I'd like to read that, if you can provide me with a link. I have a PFK article by then-editor Matt Clarke which cites some professional biologists like Dr. Peter Burgess, and they clearly advise not using salt on a long-term basis but only temporarily to treat immediate health issues.

Byron.

I do not salt at all. I heard doing so with sick or hurt fish can help but other then that i have never used salt and never will unless i keep brackish fish(or salt water lol) :P

I've read on a few sites to use salt with live bearers.
I dont use salt either