WORRIED! Platydorus Armatulus and aquarium salt???

[hisplaceresort]

Good evening, and thanks in advance to anyone that reads this...
I have a 75 gallon African cichlid tank. I have recently been adding aquarium salt.
Approximately one slightly rounded tablespoon per 5 us gallons.
It keeps the algae blooms down, and seems to be good for the cichlids, anyway.
They (the cichlids) fight a lot, and the salt helps them heal up quickly.
Anyway, by chance, I read that salt is bad for catfish in general!
I have 2 ea striped raphael catfish, approx 4 inches long, and 1 pleco, approx 8 inches long in the tank.
The pleco has been exposed to the aquarium salt for about a month (he used to live with my Koi.)
The striped raphael catfish have been exposed to aquarium salt, although at a slightly lower concentration, for about the same amount of time before moving them into this 75 gallon last week.
My water parameters are:
ph - 8.2
temp - 78.5
ammonia - 0ppm
nitrite - 0ppm
nitrate - 10ppm (4 days after WC)
gH - 21 degrees
kH - 17 degrees
Dissolved Oxygen - about 8ppm

Aeration is very good, I do 50% water changes every week. My tank is cycled. I run 2 ea Cascade 1500 canister filters, one with a spray bar, and a large bubble wand for additonal aeration.

I have also read that although my water parameters are great for cichlids, my water is 1.) too high in pH, 2.)too high in gH and 3.) too high in kH for my raphaels... I hate this because I really love these guys...

So, here are my questions:

Do I need to move my catfish immediately because of the salt?
Should I rehome them long-term because my water parameters are just too far off from what they need?
Does anyone keep these successfully in similar water parameters?

Thank you for your advice!

[Bas Pels]

I have kept my 3 Platydoras for years together with central American cichlids, in similar water, with no ill effect. I got them in 1988 and 1 died in 2012. The other 2 are still alife.

The thing is, although I sometimes used salt, this salt was flushed out by water changes - generally speaking, the water was similar to the water from the tap. This water does, however, contain some NaCl, but I can't find any figures.

I can confirm Platydoras, and Pterophyllum, can withstand 2 g/l NaCl, for a while, say a few weeks. I don't know about longer periods.

[Divemaster]

Params are fine for raphs, they're very adaptable in my experience. However I'm not sure how they are in salt long term, I used salt baths to treat my raph for parasites and he healed up nicely but that was just 15 minutes a day for 3 days.

[hisplaceresort]

Thanks Everything Fish & Bas Pels...
I'm definitely going to ramp down my salt usage.
I do 50%-60% WC every Saturday, and this week, I will not add salt to the change out water. Then, I'll watch to see how that affects the cichlids. Then, the following Saturday, I'll do the same. So, in 8 days, I'll take the salt content down to 25% of what it is now and watch.
Thanks for the good advice!

[Viktor Jarikov]

I used to think raphs and salt were rather incompatible because I had problems (described here http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... hilit=salt) but now, with great help of this forum, I am convinced that those observations were false positives, simply put, coincidental. Something else was making my raphs ill and killing them, not salt.

Still, there could have been a combination of factors, one of which could indeed have been salt but this is way too speculative. We better stick to Occam's razor.

[Bas Pels]

Still, there could have been a combination of factors, one of which could indeed have been salt but this is way too speculative. We better stick to Occam's razor.

Actually, I think adding salt to the water makes the Platydoras spending energy in order to adapt. That is, one could call the salt a stressfactor, which healthy Platydoras can cope with.

However, if a fish is already sick, or facing other problems, the new stress could make the bucket overflow. Then one could, rightfully, say that adding salt killed the fish

OIne could also say that the combination of all factors - which individually would not have been a problem - turned out to be lethal. Other factors could be pH, water temperature, cleanliness of the water, deseases and, perhaps, toxic substances in the water. Copper is found in most tapwater, and can, in rather small doses, be lethal

We humans tend to prefer having one cause and one effect, but the reality does not always work that way.

[Viktor Jarikov]

Thanks. Good food for thought.

Both approaches have their use, value, and place, of course - simplification and minimizing speculation as well as paying attention, and hence, learning about possibly more complex pictures.

[hisplaceresort]

update for all the nice folks that responded...
last Saturday I did a 60% WC, and the Raphs really responded positively! much more active, and even observed them coming out of their cave in the daylight to eat, which I had not seen before.
Tomorrow is WC day again. I will do approx 50%, and will not add salt to the change out water. I will see how that works for everyone...
So, whether or not it will kill them, I can deduce by observation that they definitely do not like salt... or at least not as high a concentration that I had.
Again, thanks all!