On (27 Aug 96) Susan Lepri Rambled On  To Nick Engels...
 SL> I thought I'd add a few pennies to this as well...
    a no no, copper pennies poison the  tank 
 SL> We run about 40 fw tanks here and use aquarium salt in all of them at
 SL> the rate of 1 tsp. per 10 gal.  The mollies get double that for their
 SL> tanks..we also use them to cycle full salt tanks and they thrive. We
 SL> don't have any problems with the fish and the salt seems to help them
 SL> with any minor abrasions or the like that they might encounter, or
 SL> getting a fin nipped. It's pretty much the standard practice in this
 SL> area, but there's probably lots of places that never use salt.
   Salt is in ALL  waters, even freshwater, but it can be
   tricky to ADD salt to FW tanks,  put just too much in and some
   intolerant species will die, Mollies are closer to being
   classed BRACKISH water fish then Freshwater, same with a few others,
   I do wonder how  long lived the fish you keep might compare
   to those kept in tanks w/o added salt, again salt is too easy
   to over do, and especially in community tanks it is harder
   not to hurt the more sensitive fish.
   Perhaps you have the experience to not over do the adding
   of salt, but I have to fear about those who say " the Store told me
   to ... etc"  indicating that they are new to fishkeeping and so
   more likely to put too much salt in a tank, myself 1 tsp/10 gal seems
   high for water ALL types of FW fish might be kept in,
   and we have not even touched on the effect on LIVE plants.
   I also wonder on how many dump in IODINIZED salt.
 
 
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