Hi

Is it okay to use Rock salt the kind that melts ice on the street (100 percent rock salt) instead of the aquarium salt. Since they are so much cheaper?

thanks

Absolutely. I do. Salt shuld be 99.97% NaCl and should not contain * YPS or the anti caking agent *cyanuric acid.

100% rock salt is fine -as are solar salt, some reef salts, sea salt, kosher salt, water softner salts and some table salts that do not contain the above 2*.

On a side note make sure you have zero ammonia before adding salt as salt can make ammonia even more dangerous.

Hi Lranchu,

I always use the grecery store brand sea salt. No caking agents in it. And it works just as well as any other brand name aquarium salts.

Our club buys the rock salt in 200 pound bags. If we contribute to the cost, we get all the salt we want.

In the larger grained stuff, I find that it dissolves better if you pound it out to a fine powder. Dissolve it well before adding it to the tank.

I always just read the ingredients and make sure the only thing listed is SALT (unless it is aquarium salt of course).

I have seen some sea salts that do have anti-caking agents and other things in them, so I always check those. But yes, rock salt is great and much cheaper, albeit a little harder to dissolve. Crushing it up is a gerat idea daryl.