Table salt, rock salt, sea salt?

[Nano_reeflover]

Let me start off by say that this is a HYPOTHETICAL question. I dont want to do it, I was just curious as to what the effects would be.

Now the question. Say you had a tank with a SG of 1.023 and you wanted to raise it to 1.026, but you ran out of salt. What would happen if you used any of the above salts to raise the SG? Would it have a negative affect on any inhabitants? Would it somehow contaminate the water? I would think that it would be ok because you already have all the minerals and such from the artificial sea salt already in the water. I thought it would be interesting to find out the answer. If anyone has any thoughts on this, post 'em.

 

[Nano_reeflover]

nobody?

 

[chucksta1]

It may work on a technical level as far as the salt is concerned, but why risk contamination from other ingrediants to the inhabitants?

 

[rayjay]

Table salt is iodized and should not be used.
Rock salt has too many contaminates.
If the sea salt is pure sea salt and had nothing added to for the benefit of other usages like sauna's, hot tubs, etc..then it will work.
They will change the ionic balance of the chemicals in the original mix though, depending on just how much you use.

 

[Sk8r]

Salt is one of those things you should never let yourself run out of. Keep either a ro/di unit or extra water and keep spare aquarium salt, and try not to get into a fix where you need to sub something less. Murphy's law dictates that when you have an emergency that absolutely needs it---a fish in crisis, a contamination of your tank---it will happen at 10pm Sunday when the fish store will be closed for days.