Picked up a bag of OPP, was on sale at Hidden Reef. be interesting to see how it turns out... I'd like to say I test like crazy, but I'll just see what my corals think ;)

so how come so many people use instant ocean? is it the brand name being around longer as a quality product? I could see lots of people using it because it's been known for a long time as a good quality salt.

It's the free t-shirts or the plastic plants :)

J

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For some people I'm sure the price is the big selling point for IO salt. My thoughts are that I pay a bit more for a higher quality salt, and do less water changes because of it, so the price thing is relative IMO.

cheap salt and supplement
 

I'm cheap. I buy cheap salt (whatever's available and cheap on boxing day sales or whatever/wherever salt sales) and I use the reef calculators to bring the numbers up to what I want them to be.
I follow Ben's suggestion http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=26590

I instantly increase Mg by about 200ppm, then Cal by about 100 ppm, then add salt to 1.023. Then I test and bring the alk up to 9-10 at the end. The numbers end up being a little higher than the numbers posted and it doesnt' affect my tanks when the water change is only 10% of the total water volume.
With the above noted method, I had used up 6 buckets of the bad batch of Kent salt, right now I'm using up the 6 replacement buckets of good batch of Kent salt. I've recently bought 10(+1) bags of Oceanpure from Hidden Reef and I'll be using that up next.
I cannot justify spending $90 for a bucket of salt when I'm unable to visually see any side effects of the method I'm using. So for me, its whatever is cheap and available (although cheap does not include the Red Sea Marin brand)

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I suppose if I had a larger tank like yours Chin, I'd be inclined to use a lower priced salt as well. I'm assuming that you use a Calcium reactor too, which I don't have, so supplimentation is a must.

Dude, those plastic plants were sweet! I think at one point I had 6 or 7 of those minijet pumps too :razz:

I use IO/Kent because of availability on the island (Nanaimo). The only thing I could get in Nanaimo for the longest time was the 50gal bag of IO for like $30. Hence the car trips to Van every 3 months or so (or hardly doing water changes) :razz: Now there are other stores (new to me) and such that carry other brands but I'm fine with Kent.

Don't you feel in the long run with all the testing and addition of supplements and your time it ends up costing you more.

I was of the same mind set as you, until I started to read about the fillers that are in the salts that may boost measures numbers like CA or ALK but have no benefit to corals. I also took a close look at the amount of time I spend getting my water change water perfect. 3 or 4 tests for Mg, ALK and CA while adjusting between each.
What prompted this thread was a need to find out what everyone else was doing (It was successful) but the reason I was wondering was because despite my best I still had a display tank that was reading 4KH. This was do to the inconsistency of the salt I was using. So I'm assuming now there is no way I can read my make up water 2 or 3 times and if it's good Assume it will always be good.
I'm on Tropic Marin now and will measure the 3 basics each time I make a new batch but if I'm forced to add any supplements I will return to a cheaper salt.

I've used IO for the last 15yrs and have never had any issues that would make me want to change. I do bump up the calcium a bit but I don't bother with Mg. For some reason magnesium has not been a big issue in my tank, I think I've only had to supplement once on my 175g because it dropped below 1250 :biggrin:

measuring already
 

Jason
If you are measuring the basics each time, i don't see any real benefit over the use of one of the cheaper salts. I also measure the basics each time to determine if there are any deficiencies. I then use the supplement calculators to bump it up accordingly. After I add the supplements, i don't re-measure and its pumped into the sump during the water change.

To save time, I've written up on the wall above my 60g water tanks on how much of each supplement to add to increase 10ppm in 60g of water. So if I'm 100ppm short on Mg, I multiply that number by 10, measure that amount of Mg, and dump it into the water. (2 minutes maximum for bumping up one supplement)

On $40-50 difference per bucket in salt prices, thats enough Mg/Ca from Mr. ChemMaster to boost the Mg/Ca for 20-30 buckets of salt (no i'm not getting any commission on sales :biggrin: i just feel that his product is very good quality stuff).

In addition, $40-50 for 5 minutes of your time is really not that bad of a trade off. I know I don't even make close to $40 in five minutes even on overtime wages (that $9-10 per minute). On the other hand, has Tropic Marin made an additional $40-50 for the 5 minutes that you've saved?

Since we may have thousands invested in livestock and taking into consideration the number of bad batches of salt by some bigger salt manufacturers, i strongly believe that testing the alk/mg/ca is always required on all salts regardless how much we've paid for it. I guess my point is:
if we are testing once already, and to save $40-50, why not add the supplements (if required and especially if you have a quick reference system set up already).

If I were to pay an extra $40-50 per bucket of salt, I would expect the following from the salt manufacturer:
- no need to measure the basics
- guaranteed %min. on the good elements
- guarantted %max. on the bad elements
- livestock replacement guarantee if any of the % min/max analysis was not met and the use of the salt caused the death of the livestock(s)
Otherwise, i'll take that $40-50 to spend on something else with this hobby.