Made A Few Changes...And Some Questions

[SweetException]

I have been telling you all about all the problems i have been having and i took your advice. I got a heater for the size of my tank. And i also got an air pump that blows air through a long pipe thing. It looks really nice in my tank. The fish seem to be more active as well. I also got salt for it too. I put the two table spoons in it said to...Do you all use it? Does it work?? And how often do i have to do that? Hopefully my fish do well now. One more question....Have any of you bought fish offline? I seen a lot of different fish i have never seen in stores. Thanks

Christine

[TheOldSalt]

I only use salt for those fish species that need it. Don't add any more until you make a big water change, abd be careful not to add too much, because you'll only remove so much with the old water.
As for buying fish online, no, I haven't. I sold a few online and shipped them out to buyers, but I've never actually bought any. I guess I just like to see what I'm getting first.

[SweetException]

My fish seem to be doing much better since i made all the changes. They are more active and seem happier. Hopefully it continues this way. I would like to get a bigger tank now. And have two i think that would be nice

[garfieldnfish]

Whenever you do water changes you need to replace the amount of salt you removed. So for every 5 gal you need to add one rounded tablespoon of aquarium salt back in. As far as ordering fish on line. I have ordered Siamese Algae eaters from Aquariumfish.net and was very pleased. I also won some fish on aquabid, again, I was happy with the transaction and the fish I received. But unless it is something you just absolutely cannot find at you LFS or they cannot get for you via special order, I would rather see the fish myself like OldSalt. Most specialized petstores (not chain stores like Petsmart and Petco, I know they do not do special orders) will try to get you the fish you want. I managed to get 4 L46 and 7 zebra otos thru special orders from my LFS and they turned out to be in great shape.

[Vivid-Dawn]

About the salt ...since it doesn't seem like anybody pointed this detail out. The reason you don't need to add it unless you take water out first, is it doesn't evaporate with everything else.
I do water changes bi-monthly, so that's the only time I put salt in. If I'm just adding a half gallon or so, to make up for evaporation, I just use the conditioners for the water.
Also, since I only have a 10 gallon tank (which only will hold 8, for some reason!), and only change 1.5 or 2 gallons at a time, I've made adjustments to the measuring of salt. Technically, for each gallon, it's 0.6 teaspoons...but I just use a rounded half teaspoon (or 1/4 for the 1/2 gallon), as that's easier. If I need to do something else, I hope somebody will tell me ^_^ But my fish seem fine, so far.