Ben can you tell me what it takes to make up a 20 gallon tub of water for supplements
IE how much Magnesium
how much Calcium

I thought about doing that what you do. take the RO/DI water add so much magnesium? mix it for 24 hours
then you add Calcium I can't remember how much.

For IO salt this is what I do (I mix 40 gallon drums, but I will do the below assuming a 20 gallon container):

For 20 gallons of water:

-fill container with 20 gallons of RO/DI water
-start mixing with pump (will also heat water, so a big pump is good, then you don't need a heater!)
-add 27 tsp of magnesium, will bring IO salt from about 1200 to 1380 ppm
-mix till it is all dissolved
-add 4 tsp of calcium (Calcium Hydroxide Dihydrate [DOW's flake]), this brings up level for IO salt from about 360 to 430 ppm
-mix till it is all dissolved

-then add the salt to bring specific gravity up to about 1.024-1.026
-wait for at least a few hours.

DONE!

Hmm... so if starting a NEW tank, most people would choose... Instant Ocean?

I wonder if the Tropic Marin Pro (which is probably what I'll start with) is more expensive because they can guarantee the purity of their salts? I've been reading some salt horror stories lately and I'm a little scared that if I don't use a salt that I've NEVER read anything bad about, I might end up with an expensive mess on my hands.

For cycling a tank, I would say you should save the money and cycle with a bucket of IO or another cheaper brand... then switch to your preferred Salt before you start stocking corals heavily... This should help avoid any shock to the system (horror stories)..

KZ reefers best.

Same here, KZ reefers best.
Just switched from Tropic Marine Pro.

KZ reefers best works great for me as well.
I've tried Aqua-medic before, but found I had to dose too much. I now don't dose anything.

Just switched a couple of months ago from the remainders of my Reef Crystals to KZ Reefers Best . (I was only keeping fish and LR previously)
Way less/no dosing when compared to RC and it was a great price at the time.:biggrin:

+1

Up until about a year ago I always used IO with good results. For some reason I decided to give a bucket of kent a go and around the same time I also went skimmerless. Soon after, red algae started to show up; sensitive corals died and hardy corals just stopped growing.

Thinking that nutrients were piling up due to the lack of skimmer I jacked up the rate of water changes. The problem got worse fast: carpets of red algae everywhere. Obviously something was in the salt. I bought a bucket of IO and after 4-5 25% water changes over a couple weeks and the tank is finally looking healthy again.

So what gives? Pay more for a competitor's product and get crappier quality?

If I understand correctly Instant Ocean is a very large company relative to other marine salt makers. Theoretically this gives them economies of scale (e.g. better quality to cost ratio). Not only that but if they are indeed supplying commercial facilities then they are more likely to be concerned about brand reputation and hence devote more resources to quality control.

So it is no wonder that the concensus seems to be that to improve on IO reefers have to look at one of the premium brands made by smaller companies, that cost around twice as much.

As an aside, IO also has a premium product (Reef Crystals) at a reasonable price point. Given the reliability of IO I would think that this would be a popular choice yet I don't see it stocked at the big stores that I visit in the GVRD. Anyone know why?