salty water..
Mr.Nice.
can someone tell me, in simple terms, the difference between:
1) tropical freshwater,
2) tropical freshwater with cooking salt added,
3) saltwater,
4) marine,
5) rainwater,
6) tapwater,
7) that water lapping at the beach near my house (cornwall coast).
I was recently advised to add 5 or 6 tablespoons of cooking salt to
solve a problem with my black mollies, and was also told that nellie
my elephant nose would prefer it like that too, and everything else
would be fine.
I added the salt a week ago and everything is indeed fine, it even
solved my PH problem (8.5 now 7.0).
--
Regards.
Mark.
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Nathan
Tropical refers to the temperature, and freshwater means it doesn't contain
Sodium Chloride (Salt). So Tropical Freshwater is water at a temperature of
roughly 22+ degrees celsius. It may contain calcium and magnesium salts, but
that's to do with hardness.
> 2) tropical freshwater with cooking salt added,
Cooking salt is basically sodium chloride, so the water is as above but
containing sodium and chloride ions.
> 3) saltwater,
Water containing sodium and chloride ions (as above) but any temp.
Well that is strictly speaking, but in the aquarium hobby, the term
saltwater is usually used intechangebly with marines (below)
> 4) marine,
Salt water (as above) but also containing low levels of many many other
elements, and high levels of a few elements such as magnesium and calcium.
To count as "marine" the specific gravity (amount of dissolved solids) is
between roughly 1.021 and 1.027.
> 5) rainwater,
Water which falls from the sky :)
Will be almost pure H20, but will be slighlty acidic due to dissolving of
gasses in the atmoshpere as it falls.
Where the water is collected from can have a huge difference on what is
actually in the water though.
> 6) tapwater,
Depends on the area in which you live, but basically it's freshwater with
significant levels of chlorine and chloramine.
> 7) that water lapping at the beach near my house (cornwall coast).
'Tis marine water :)
> I was recently advised to add 5 or 6 tablespoons of cooking salt to
> solve a problem with my black mollies, and was also told that nellie
> my elephant nose would prefer it like that too, and everything else
> would be fine.
When you add just a bit of salt, the water is then salt water, but with a
specific gravity much lower than marine water. The reason the salt has
helped you're mollies is because they are actually brackish water fish -
meaning they live in waters with low levels of salt, and they even venture
out into marine waters. They can even be kept in marine tanks.
> I added the salt a week ago and everything is indeed fine, it even
> solved my PH problem (8.5 now 7.0).
Haven't got a clue how that would happen!
Hope that helps
Nathan
Mr.Nice.
<nat...@LaLabiotopeaquariums.co.uk> put finger to keyboard,
producing....:
Thanks for the reply, the one I forgot to mention was brackish.. so
thats freshwater with less salt/dissolved solids that marine?
If (in theory) I tipped cooking salt into my aquarium until the
specific gravity was between 1.021 and 1.027 could I then add marine
fish? and would my tropical community survuive? (milly, platy, tetra,
gourami, betta and suchlike).
Nathan
> thats freshwater with less salt/dissolved solids that marine?
Yep, I think it's usually taken as a specific gravity of about 1.015 which
counts as brackish, but it's a large range.
> If (in theory) I tipped cooking salt into my aquarium until the
> specific gravity was between 1.021 and 1.027 could I then add marine
> fish? and would my tropical community survuive? (milly, platy, tetra,
> gourami, betta and suchlike).
Well I'm pretty sure most of you're existing fish would not survive, appart
from the molly (as it is actually a brackish/marine fish) and possibly the
platy. The other fish are adapted to soft water which is low on mineral ion
concentration. Such a high concentration of salt would probably cause major
problems with metabolic processes.
As for keeping marine fish, some of the hardier species would probably be
fine, but there would still be a lot of missing elements so I'm not sure how
well most would fare. Also, most cooking salts have chemicals added to stock
clumping etc. so I'm sure they would cause problems.
Interesting question, try posting it on www.ultimatereef.com.
Nathan
Dave Gunter
> specific gravity was between 1.021 and 1.027 could I then add marine
> fish? and would my tropical community survuive? (milly, platy, tetra,
> gourami, betta and suchlike).
answers in order of questions
no, there is a huge difference between keeping marine and freshwater fish,
it's not just a case of one living in salt water and the other in fresh.
no, osmotic shock if nothing else would kill them all.
Cooking salt should never be used in an aquarium for any reason, if you need
to add salt, then use proper aquarium salt cooking salt has other additives
that you do not want.
Dave
Gimli
> > specific gravity was between 1.021 and 1.027 could I then add marine
> > fish? and would my tropical community survuive? (milly, platy, tetra,
> > gourami, betta and suchlike).
>
> Well I'm pretty sure most of you're existing fish would not survive,
appart
> from the molly (as it is actually a brackish/marine fish) and possibly the
> platy.
IIRC Platies are very sensitive to salt, so they'd probably be the first to
croak.
I was also told to use marine salt if you need to put salt in a tropical
freshwater tank because, rock salt has too many other minerals in it and all
salts, intended for table or cooking use, tend to have anti-caking agents
added. Perhaps the anti-caking agent in your cooking salt has acted as a
buffer and adjusted your tank pH? I wouldn't necessarily take that to be a
good thing until you determine what the agent is.