# Salt and Plecos



## Immus21 (Jun 14, 2010)

Until recently I've been under the impression that since our water was so soft adding some salt to a freshwater aquarium was a good thing. So for the last few years I've been adding 1 tablespoon for every 5 gallons in my tanks. All my fish seem fine with this in fact the seem to flourish the one exception being I've had a hard time keeping Plecos alive. I've recently read in a few places online that Plecos and salt are a very bad combination and maybe this is the reason I've had such trouble keeping them ovet the last couple years. What do all you Plecoholics out there think? Salt or no salt???

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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

What type of salt are you dosing?
I've been dosing all kinds of salts (magnesium sulfate, calcium sulfate....) without any issues. 

Others can add to their experiences. I'm still a novice Pleco keeper.

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## Immus21 (Jun 14, 2010)

I use the salt sold for salt water aquariums. I think it's called instant reef or something... 

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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

1 tbsp for every 5 gallons is a lot of salt for plecos. Even 1 for every 10 gallons is a lot of salt. I would only ever add that much to treat infections. If you're going to add salt to buffer GH, the salt you want is Epsom salts.


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## Immus21 (Jun 14, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> 1 tbsp for every 5 gallons is a lot of salt for plecos. Even 1 for every 10 gallons is a lot of salt. I would only ever add that much to treat infections. If you're going to add salt to buffer GH, the salt you want is Epsom salts.


Epsom salt won't have a negative impact on Plecos at the same levels I use now? Or should I still scale it back as well?

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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Have you measured your GH? If this is for your 75 gallon, that's 7 tbsp of Epsom salts for that tank. I use 1 tsp(teaspoon) of Epsom salts, 1 tsp of plaster of Paris and 1 tsp of K2SO4 in my 125 gallon after every water change of up to 75%. I don't think your plecos would appreciate such hard water, never mind the salt. I'd take it down to 1 tbsp in your 75 gallon.


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## Immus21 (Jun 14, 2010)

My Gh is only at 2 or 3 even with the salt. I'll try not adding any salts for the next couple water changes then I'll try the trace amount of espon salt after another w/c. I'm really interested in trying new types of Plecos but have been frustrated by the loses. Hopefully this will help my success rate out! It's worth noting that you don't see alot of info online in relation to salt and plecos. I wish I'd known this alot sooner as it probably would have save a few nice specimens... 

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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

There was a discussion on this on planetcatfish so they added a FAQ here: PlanetCatfish • General Articles • About • Catfish FAQ

Here's the discussion: View topic - is salt bad for corys and plecos?

I'm surprised that with 7 tbsp of salt that your GH would be 3. Based on this calculator for a 75 gallon, for every tbsp you add for Epsom salts, you'd be adding 1.2 dGH so to get your GH to 3 I guess you'd need 2 tbsp assuming you're only adding Epsom salts and your water was 1.


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## jobber (May 14, 2010)

salt for salt water tanks? If I was a pleco, I sure as heck wouldn't want to be living in reef water. 
Try epsom salt as previously mentioned.


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## Immus21 (Jun 14, 2010)

jobber604 said:


> salt for salt water tanks? If I was a pleco, I sure as heck wouldn't want to be living in reef water.
> Try epsom salt as previously mentioned.


It just has other trace elements as well. Shouldn't have been a problem except I decided to keep plecos that, as I've found out, don't like salt period.

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## Immus21 (Jun 14, 2010)

2wheelsx2 said:


> There was a discussion on this on planetcatfish so they added a FAQ here: PlanetCatfish • General Articles • About • Catfish FAQ
> 
> Here's the discussion: View topic - is salt bad for corys and plecos?
> 
> I'm surprised that with 7 tbsp of salt that your GH would be 3. Based on this calculator for a 75 gallon, for every tbsp you add for Epsom salts, you'd be adding 1.2 dGH so to get your GH to 3 I guess you'd need 2 tbsp assuming you're only adding Epsom salts and your water was 1.


Thanks. I will take a look at the thread when I get home. Just actaully joined planetcat just a few days ago. I think that I'll be buying a new gh/dh test kit soon as I never really liked the one I have....

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## Jasonator (Jul 12, 2011)

2wheelsx2 said:


> Have you measured your GH? If this is for your 75 gallon, that's 7 tbsp of Epsom salts for that tank. I use 1 tsp(teaspoon) of Epsom salts, 1 tsp of plaster of Paris and 1 tsp of K2SO4 in my 125 gallon after every water change of up to 75%. I don't think your plecos would appreciate such hard water, never mind the salt. I'd take it down to 1 tbsp in your 75 gallon.


Plaster of paris?? what the...? Can you explain?


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Jasonator said:


> Plaster of paris?? what the...? Can you explain?


It's for dosing Calcium. Plaster of Paris is CaSO4·½H2O
You can dose CaCl (the stuff from dehumidfiers), or carbonate in powder form, or egg shells, aragonite, what have you, but planted tanks need Ca and Mg as well as NPK in fairly large amounts. I do this in my biggest tank as it's lower light and I'm growing plants to manage waste products. In other tanks I am dosing Equilibrium, or GH booster from Pat.


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## bunnyrabbit (Jul 28, 2010)

There was a post on PC that I found interesting........View topic - what are some good medications so have on hand?


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