What Salt do you use?
 

I know this one has been flogged to death, But I'm currently running Ocean Pure Pro and am finding the Alk to be around 4Kh. I have an amazing Oregon tort that is RTNing as we speak so I thought I'd see what every one else is using for salt

I use Tropic Marine Pro which isn't on your list.

Sorry Ron I should have put that one in there but I didn't know anyone had that kinda cash LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

J

LOL Ya it is a bit pricier than Instant Ocean that's for sure but it has good levels of magnesium, alk and calcium.

I use Red Sea which I don't see either :mrgreen:

Tropic Marine Pro here too,it was interestin to observe coral when changed from Instant Ocean.
However now its just "a" salt, so whatever works, not much difference

I also use Tropic Marin Pro salt on most of my tanks. Also use Seachem Reef Salt on another (190g) but when the 6 buckets :mrgreen: of that salt are gone I will use Tropic Marin Pro on all my tanks.

Really Ok Let me ask a question.


IO sells for $39.00 and TMP $90.00

Is it really worth 2X the cost.
I'm doing 40G water changes/week so I'm going through a bucket of salt a month. It would be hard to justify double the cost per month

J

I do about 70g a week water changes and IMO it is worth it. I had the misfortune to get in on the bad batch of IO salt a couple of years ago and it wiped out my entire tank. Then there was the Kent salt fiasco of last year. Compared to some other things I buy for my obsession salt is really a small fraction.

I use SeaChem Reef Salt, not on the list either.

I normally use Reef Crystals but bought a bunch of Reef Pure Pro at a boxing day sale. I generally mix the two as I don't notice much difference between them.

Used to use Kent until the low alk issue. That made me leary of their QC, so I switched to Reef Crystals. I found that the MG, Alk and CA levels are sub standard in it, so I'm looking for a new brand again. If the Tropic Marine Pro has decent levels of those elements (not to mention who knows what else is lacking in some brands) then the extra cost will be saved in all the additives needed to bring the other cheaper brands up to standard.

Anyone have another good reccomendation and place to purchase in Calgary. I'm pretty much out, and will need to pick up a bucket asap.

i am using oceanpure pro,,,and i too am having high alk

High Alk? I'm having very low Alk 4Kh is what I get from a fresh batch mixed to 1.026sg

J

I waffled between Kent and IO mostly due to availability on the island. I missed out on all those problems they were having <whew!>I usually bought IO because I hated those Kent lids (fingernail busters :razz:) but since they've switched their buckets to something easier to open I'm back to Kent (for now) :biggrin:

i just started using this stuff and get a Ca of 370 and alk of 6.2dKH. i emailed them telling them i was pretty disappointed that i have to supplement before i use it and they told me they'd send me a new bag.

Really, I would be very interested in your results from the replacment bag.

J

tropic
 

I too use Tropic Marine Pro. Great salt and well worth the extra cost. I have tried all types of salts over the last 15 years, and this is the best I have ever found (in Canada). When I started in '92, I remember having to pay $50 for a bag of IO that made 50 gallons! Salt prices are cheap considering it is the most important element we add to our reefs. For me $90 for 200 gallons is cheap cheap cheap. All my corals love it too!

Phil

reply
 

Ocean Pure Pro for me, highest Mg out of any salt I've tried.

What is your ALK?

J

reply
 

Never tested ALk right after a water change to see how much it is raised. I just might have to do that this weekend for Ca, Alk & Mg.

Im useing ocean pure pro.Anytime Ive tested the alk of a fresh batch,its up around 11-12 dkh.Thats after a day of mixing.But I haven't tested the new stuff in over a month so maybe things have changed? Dont know.My tank alk is reasonably steady.

I use Red Sea Coral Pro, I never have to add anything to freshly mixed salt. I've gotten great growth since I switched from regular Red Sea to Red Sea Coral Pro. Only one store in town sells the stuff, and both types are $69.99.

I also use Tropic Marin Pro, it dissolves completely, no precipitates covering everything in the mixing barrel, and I'm sure it was one of the factors in beating hair algae in my 120g.

i swiched from reef crystals to crystal sea and hav been having really high alk and white film on rock about 2 days after water change going to switch back to reef crystals and see if there is any diff.

my alk is 14 dkh,,,which would be 5 meq/L ...are you meaning 4dkh or 4meq/L??,i would agree 4 dkh is really low, wow, but do keep in mind i am using API test kits!

*EDIT* also that is mixed @ 1.023 (coralife deep 6 hydrometer)

I'm using an Elos KH test kit (and verified by Salifert) to be 4kH @ 1.026

I'm buying a pal of TM tomorrow

J

when I mix ocean pure pro in a new batch at 1.025 salinity, I get 420ppm calcium, 7dkh ALK, 1550 mag. Sometimes I get around 6 dkh/380 calcium, so I just add a little two part using a calculator before-hand.

I test all my change water before adding it to the tank. I also make sure the water is aerated/heated for a day before I add the salt, then aerate/heat it for another day. I think quickly heating the water while dissolving the salt lowers it's levels, or adding it to freshly made RO/DI water is detrimental because of the high CO2 content causing an out of whack pH. Plus it doesn't hurt to do it the slow way :)

reply
 

I tested my tank levels last night before and after a 20% water change and here are my results with OPP.
Before/After
CA 460ppm/520ppm
MG 1310ppm/1380ppm
Alk 7.4KH/7.4KH
PH 8.035/8.12

I was surprised that my ALK didn't change after the water change, but reading above that OPP tests at 7KH itself makes my results valid IMO.

Danny

Well I bit the bullet on Saturday and picked up a bucket on Tropic Marin Pro.
I'll be using it from now one.
ALK 8.2DKH
CA 420
PH 8.3
MAG 1400

J

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

reply
 

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)

reply
 

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.