I'm sorry. It never occurred to me that references to salt would no longer be available on this forum. Kalevi, salt has been used as a remedy and a stress reducer for a long time. You have been on this forum long enough to remember posts from David and Horton as well as many others. The folowing exerpt is from the website "The Pond Doc". Wxman5 after a while you learn who to trust on most subjects. "Salt Salt (sodium chloride) can have several therapeutic effects on fish and is used quite regularly by some koi keepers. It has effective antiseptic properties and can be used as a tonic in mild concentrations to stimulate the fish's metabolism. It can also be added to ponds or aquaria to reduce nitrite toxicity. Used as a dip or a long-term bath, salt can be used as a treatment against external parasites such as Trichodina, Argulus and Lernaea. In stronger concentrations, salt is believed to have a 2-fold effect on parasites. Acts as a skin irritant increasing mucus production, throwing off skin parasites. The high sodium ion concentration is toxic to external parasites. If treating ulcerated fish, the addition of salt to the water also reduces the influx of water into the fish, taking pressure off its kidney functions. It is important to remember that salt is persistent in a system until it is removed with a water change. As it can be seen, the mode of action of many fish medications is at the cellular level, attacking cell membranes or activities within the cell. Medications are not usually selective in their action but quite crude, with fish surviving by virtue of their size and complexity in relation to the susceptible pathogen. Consequently, pathogens of just 1 or a few cells in size are easier to treat than the more complex and larger parasites. Medications are nearly always toxic to fish and humans and administered on the basis that at the recommended dose rates, they are more toxic to the pathogen that the fish. This is why medications should never be overdosed. It is essential to acknowledge that while most disease problems are the result of a water quality problem, aquatic medications will not solve a water quality problem but only treat the disease. Therefore always try to identify and solve the cause of the problem before treating it." A 1 to 3% level of salt is usually what is recommended. Tests for levels are commonly available. There's more on Koivet but I have to get dinner on the table. I'll post more later. Sandy

steelhant, A lot of factors go into the decision to use salt. Size of pond, types of plants (if any). I attached a good article on why to salt. I ran my 6000 gallon up to .30%. It kill the WH and one of my early lotus plants bit it; but all in all, it's good. LP Here is a link that might be useful: Salinity

Ion exchange softening resins (cation) couldn't care less what type or brand of salt is used. The resin uses only the sodium part of the salt (sodium chloride). Now if you use salt substitute potassium chloride, the resin wants sodium because ALL cation resins are made in the sodium form and you are feeding it potassium. Then you have to use more of it than sodium chloride and in high salt efficiency softeners, up to 27-30% more. And it costs up to over twice for the same size bag of sodium chloride. Yes pellet salt is said to be purer but... all the excess sodium and ALL the chlorides are flushed to drain during the brining position/cycle of the regeneration. So is any 'dirt' sucked out of the salt tank during brining. You must ask yourself, does 'purity' really matter to the resin, NO! So marketing and uninformed gossip has you paying more for pellets when solar crystal always costs the least of all types of 'salt' and does not cause this rock hard "pulverized" stuff in your salt tank that requires lots of hot water and more than a bit of effort to get rid of it at least once every year. And when you do that cleaning and your softener doesn't work right afterward, it may cost you a service call. Kinetico's water powered control valve doesn't like any amount of 'dirt' so they say to use pure salt and a prefilter is required but... then go on to hide that negative about their control valve by saying ALL softeners should use the same. Ecowater makes the big box store brand softeners and the mortonsalt.com softeners... they have a sweetheart deal with Morton and always suggest the use of Morton pellets. Solar crystal salt causes the fewest if any salt related problems for a softener period. That's because it totally dissolves and it's the only type that does. Its one negative is that it leaves a dirty ring around the water line in the brine tank. When that bothers you or she who you love and admire and MUST obey, wipe it out with a wet paper towel. Do you want your softener to work with the least salt use, cost and maintenance or to be sucked into sales hype feel good catch phrases like the word pure? Actually they say their salt is 99% PURE SALT, not that the salt is pure or purified healthy nonharmful etc. etc.. And all you're doing is flushing it down the drain and throwing this rock hard stuff in the garbage anyway.

This is from Goldline: "It is important to use only sodium chloride (NaCl) salt that is greater than 99% pure. This is common food quality or water softener salt and is usually available at building supply stores in 40-80 lb. bags labeled coarse or fine "Solar Salt". It is also acceptable to use water conditioning salt pellets, however, it will take longer for them to dissolve. Do not use rock salt, or salt with more than 1% of yellow prussiate of soda, salt with anti-caking additives, or iodized salt."