Will adding aquarium salt mess with my cycle?

[chaos theory]

I have a fully cycled 2.5 gallon planted tank that houses my halfmoon Betta.

He managed to rip his fins on one of the rocks that I had in there for his hide-y hole.

He has very clean water and I've been doing partial water changes every 3 days and adding some stress coat. The fins are looking better but I want to make sure that it doesn't turn into something worse (i.e. fin rot).

I was advised to add some aquarium salt to his water but I'm not sure about doing this as his tank is, like I said, fully cycled (ammonia-0, nitrite-0, nitrate-2.5).

I can move him to a non-cycled heated bowl and do 100% water changes daily but I think that would just stress him more.

Will adding the salt screw with my cycle any?

[lauraleellbp]

Not as long as you don't have live plants. As long as you don't go over the recommended dosing and don't use iodized salt, the N-bacteria should be fine.

If you do have live plants, I'd cut the dose to 1/2 tsp./gallon and try not to treat for much more than a week before doing several 50% water changes in a row to clear out most of the salt (since this is more a preventative measure).

[chaos theory]

Thanks for the info.

The tank does have a few live plants (some Java moss and Anubis on driftwood) so I think I'll just move him and treat him separately.

His fins are getting much better so maybe I won't even have to treat him. The water changes with the stress coat seem to be helping a lot.

Thanks again!

[lauraleellbp]

Yup- clean water is always the best cure, better than any med in the first place