Rich, I'll buy the rest of your salt at half price and pro-rated if you like. :lol: :lol:

naa, I ment I spent to much money on "new" types of lighting instead of just starting out with MH and actinic.. mind you I had fun doing it, and I learned alot :wink:

Steve

Steve ... nobody is saying IO is no good ... at least not here I dont think ... but as somebody responsible for providing the best environment for the creatures in my care I have to look at what is available and weigh the pros and cons ... now as far as anecdotal evidence goes 64ivy at RC has started using it with no ill effects so far and he has arguably one of the coolest tanks going that I have seen ( a 500G monster of technology ) so looking at this objectively I would have to say that the evidence clearly shows that " healthy " tanks are doing well switching over and those that are having trouble in some cases have been reckless in their transition procedures.

As far as Dr Ron's testing goes ... I have not seen anything to dispute the results he achieved so far ... sure there are " other variables " that could be explored but the bottom line is that urchin larvae are more sensitive to toxins than corals and thus the perfect subject for the test ( which was for metal toxicity )

It is puzzling how some have such adverse effects and others dont and yet still some have mild bleaching but then the corals recover and then achieve even more growth and even richer colours ?

I think it is viable to test slowly ( personal opinion ) ... I have had some feedback from the manufacturer as of this posting and they will give a hefty discount for 50 boxes ( 150G box ) ... in the neighborhood of C$45 - $50/box delivered

Cheers

Don't forget Joe Burger's (JB NY) awesome tank too (RK 09/2002 TOTM). Quoting Joe "I'm going to stay with it for a while"...."I measured the Ph and Ca of Crystal seas, and it was 8.32 and 410. much better than the 8.0 and 360 I was getting from IO. I've noticed a considerable change in color with many of my SPS corals. A few corals that sort of went dormant and were hardly growing at all, have started to get better color and noticeable growth. "

He did experience some problems as well but is sticking with the new salt as he likes what he is seeing.

Here is a interesting reply after using CS for a while ...

I have been using IO for a long time and have had no problems. But when I am done with my current supply of IO I will be switching to Crystal Sea. The reason is I will never know what I am missing unless I try. It is my belief that a healthy reef is as diverse and full of life as possibe, and if this salt is more condusive to that then I think it is worth a try.

i guess my feelings in the long run are that most of the salts are fairly close to the composition of NSW, they seem to work fairly well, and if one seems to kill sea urchin larvae and another makes corals grow slower, so be it. i wonder if there were confounding variables that may have caused the death of the urchin larvae. and you can't tell me that in the ocean, a. all the water is of the exact same specifics (becaues we know it's not), and b. urchin larvae aren't invincible :razz: there are plenty of other, bigger problems in the hobby that have a higher chance of killing off or at least slowing growth. in the case of corals, wouldn't lighting have more importance than salt mix? in the case of fish, feeding? people have used IO for years. it obviously works. why switch if it is a. more expensive and/or b. going to cause livestock to go through a stressful adjustment phase?

Teevee, the CS bio assy is cheeper than IO. (about 1/2 the price in the US) so if it works good all the better, thats why we have Rasta and SamW to be guinny pigs :mrgreen:

Steve

edited out what i had before. stir, sounds like a plan :cool:

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You should follow up with this guy. I've had anemones spawn several times and it is SEVERE water pollution...man the house smells like a whorehouse... :eek: A massive water change is in order after an anemone spawn.

Also, in reading that post (among others on RC), if you did a water change and algae died...would that not be alarming to you in any way ? It would be to me.