Is salt a must ?

[Dave in Innisfil]

I did the water test thing this morning. We've had intermittant rain for a week now, and I recently did about a 20% water change from our deep well a few days ago.

Ammonia 0 (Yipeeeeeeeee)
GH below 20mg/L
Nitrate 0
Nitrite 0
pH 8 (isn't that normal after prolonged rain ?)

..... and a 0 reading on salt.

Do I HAVE to add salt ? I know you told me to do it when my fish were dying, but now everything else is showing almost pure water, I'm second guessing the sanity in adding a few hundred pound of water softener salt to what I think is now a pretty healthy pond.

[jack]

Hi Dave ,A few years ago ,it was decided salt was a necessary item in the pond ,for many reasons . Now the decision has been made by the higher ups ,that it should be used for fish illness only .Sooo i tend to agree that its a good medicine for fish ,but only when necessary .No salt,unless there is trouble..
Regards....Jack

[Terri]

I agree with jack.

But salts are essential to all life. Dave what type of salinity test kit did you use? I assume it was a liquid drop kit. If so then your "0" reading is fine.
A digital meter would give you a more precise reading of the salt level. Our water out of our well is 0.04% or 0.4ppt. My feeling is that salt levels under 0.1% (1ppt) are sufficant for electrolite/osmosis balance for the fish, some might disagree.

[Jackie Ramo]

My tap water reads 0.01% with the meter and the fish do just fine in it. Now R/O water is bad for pond fish as it needs to have everything added back into it. The r/o water I have won't even register as wet with a moisture meter...

[Dave in Innisfil]

I'm using a Pond Care Salt Level Test Kit by Aquarium Pharma, and it's one of those liquid drop kind of kits. The fish seem rather healthy, and the initial die-off of some of the feeder goldfish seems to have subsided. I lost about a dozen the first week, and now only the occassional one floats to the surface. I have no emotional attachment to them, so if they become "rose food", no heartache. No dead shubs and Roy the Koi is friskier than ever. The pond is somewhat murkier than last year, but the plants are flourishing. I'm thinking it's one of those "inaction is the best action" scenario's.