couple questions

[nixer]

ive had fish pretty much my whole life (parents took care of them until i was responsible enough.. same as most people i guess lol) that being said i know very little about past.. sifon gravel, change 30% and put a few pinches of food in lol

ive had this tank for about 5 years and was populated with like 12 fish (mostly different tetra) they died off one at a time over the years so last week i decided to break the tank down and replace everything, gravel, plants external filter.. everything

the fish i had left was 2 neon tetras and a ridiculous 13 inch pleco

ive since 3 Australian rainbow fish, 3 dalmatian molly, 3 Opaline Gourami, 2 zebra danios, and an african dwarf frog just because ive never had one

i have a 35 gallon tank and the pleco is 13 inches and from what i understand he could get quite a bit bigger..is he too big? hes been in it for like 3 years now and and seems to be fine.. but ive heard they need atleast 55 gallons and i have a 55 gallon tank in my garage that i would rather not use simply because it weighs a ton and would take some serous rearanging of my room so if it is bad for the pleco to be in a 35 ofcourse ill spend the 4 hours it will take setting it up but if not ill keep him in the one i have so is it cruel to keep him in such a small tank?
and does the "fish only get as big as their environment allows" apply to plecos? it doesnt seem to lol

and i know how everyone feels about petco and petsmart and i definitely dont trust them with my snake but the guy at petsmart told me not to use freshwater aquarium salt and the guy at petco said its the number 1 thing he would recomend for a tank with new gravel, water etc. so aquarium salt yes or no?

salt is not needed and your pleco will not like it. also live plants wont like it. mollies like some (not aquarium salt though)but i wouldnt add it specifically because its a new tank.
fish can and will get bigger than their environment. dont go by those size cards in pestsmart most are grossly wrong!

As far as the pleco being in a 35g, he might be okay for a little while, but ideally, he should be in a bigger tank. Common plecos can reach up to 2ft in length but a length like that is not all that common in home aquariums. Still, he would appreciate the space.

Invest in a test kit. Not the crappy strips but the API masterkit if you can. It makes a world of difference when you know how much ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are in your tank and you can make sure your pH is stable. I test with this kit at the very least, once per week.

those plecos will and can get 2' in an aquarium. it takes a very long time for one to get this size many die long before it happens and after about 6" or so they dont really eat much algae anymore anyway.

ive used many tests and api is hardly a very accurate test kit, but for normal people the strips are better than nothing.

I use aquarium salt. You have to think that in the wild there would be some salt in the water that naturally occurs.
I have a huge pleco in my 75 gallon. He just keeps on growing. It sounds like a 13 inch would be too big for a 35 gallon. But I would think as long as he has plenty of room to move around and there is enough algae then he should be fine.

sure there is many different salts in freshwater, but just think of whats already in your tap water. now if you were using ro/di water youll want to add somethings to the water, but aquarium salt is not the same salt that occurs naturally.
those big plecos dont eat much algae at that size