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Re: Salt



> Date: Wed, 8 Jul 1998 07:50:58 -0500
> From: "Kudzu" <Kudzu at airnet_net>
> 
> I am trying to keep some particularly delicate native fish. I have
> found that I need to add a bit of salt to the water to help with some
> problems. If I remember right I read that most plants can't tolerate
> salt even in low concentrations?

How about another approach to the problem. What is it about adding salt that is 
beneficial to the fish?  It simply becomes sodium and cloride ions in the water. 

If sodium is the key, perhaps another sodium compound would do the trick without 
hurting plants. Is it chloride?  Or is it just an increase in Total Dissolved 
Solids?  Perhaps increasing the Ca/Mg hardness would help. Or do the Na or Cl 
ions combine with something else for a beneficial effect?  If we understood the 
"cure", perhaps we could think of a more plant-friendly alternative. 

On the opposite side of the thought, what is it about salt that is bad for 
plants?  I would guess it's not the sodium. If so, the addition of sodium 
bicarbonate for buffering would have fallen from favor a long time ago. So how 
do the Cl ions hurt plants? 

George Booth in Ft. Collins, Colorado
 Do you want to know how I did it?
  http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~aquaria/AquaticConcepts