Reefer's Best Salt
 

So I 've just mixed my first batch of this salt, and Ca sits @ 440ppm, Alk @ 11dKh. Pretty happy with that right out of the box (no bucket). This is at 1.026.
Now to see how the corals like it...

What were you using before?

Kent, but became unhappy with it due to the residue left over in my mixing tank. RBS mixed perfectly clear, no gunk. And better levels than Kent. I also heard Kent was sold and is no longer using a base of IO salt, so, figured I'd try something else.

I am also just trying Reefer's Best today for the first time. In order to smooth the transition from Reef Crystals to Reefer's I will mix the two for the first three water changes. Too many horror stories when people just out and out switch.

I'll let you know how it went in about 30 minutes :) Only doing about a 10% change, I don't expect anything bad. But then, I never do...:)

OK, nothing jumped out of the tank, still have polyp extension, mixing bucket is clean, levels are good and I have a new salt. And I transferred it to a bucket, salt in a box is not convenient...

haha... good to hear your tank didn't crash LOL...

Why don't you dump it into one of the many empty salt buckets that you must have lying around?

I think if all of us pooled all of our empty 5 gallon salt buckets we could probably start a pretty good bucket business.

That's what I did.

Welcome to the RBS side.
You should also test your MG and Potassium you will be pleasantly surprised

I'll have to take your word for it, those aren't test kits I have.:)

So far no bad reactions, so hopefully the next 12 hours stays that way.

I have been using RBS for several months and don't dislike it.

:rofl: Now there's an endorsement

I thought you were a reef crystals guy, greg? ;)

A man passionate about his salt!! :)

I have been using RBS for a while now and love it. After using it for a bit I found all of my corals seemed to be happier, and growth has improved as well. I also liked the levels of the MG and Potassium. I have heard that there is another salt company that produces a very similar salt mix for about $ 15 dollars less (RBS @ $85), I forgot the name but am thinking of trying it out and if I see no differences I'll make sure to post.

ive just switched to kent and i dont like that white residue much either hahaha i might be switching to the rbs next bucket now hahaha.

I've found RBS supersaturates very easily compared to most salts and gets white/brown residue frequently. Just a warning. Make sure the water's heated to temperature first and add your salt slowly. It has unballanced calcium and alkalinity because supposedly it's for people with calcium reactors. Mixing it too fast will cause it's 13dkh to precipitate down to 7 or 8 and leave tons of powder in the water.

Using it at home I add calcium chloride to the water as I'm mixing it to prevent this, and then I end up with 400-420 calcium.

Does any body else has to heat up the water and mix RBS slowly to get perfect tests ?

Is RBS salt is loosing its "R" leaving "BS" only in the name title LOL?
:lol:

You should always heat your water to match your tank temp before you mix the salt. Doesn't matter what brand

J

I didn't know this...important info. What happens if you don't heat it first?

For what it's worth, I dumped 8 cups of salt into 15 gallons of room temperature water and had no residue whatsoever. And alk was about 11, not 13 for me.

since this salt is on the pricey side is thier somewhere that might give us a good price on a group buy, if the price droped to the70 dollar range id buy 3 or 4 boxes

Well, since buying it locally for 89, or whatever it was, is probably better than getting a group buy for 70, then shipping it. and since I only use 2 boxes a year, the price is nothing compared to everything else.

id probably use 6-8 a year so for 89 a box i wont be buyin any

many years in this hobby, I had never heated or airated water before mixing salt
i will buy this RBS anyway if it is indeed the best

A box of this stuff says it mixes 150 gallons. What is inside the box? Is it three bags..each to do 50 gallons?

its one big bag...I dumped mine into some old pails I have...

Did you measure your Mg as well?

I don't heat my water or airate my water either, and have never had a problem. With RBS I was told to take the bag out of the box and them mix it (by rolling it around) before using it. It is supposed to mix the salt with the elements better (in case it has settled). I don't know if this actually does anything, but I've been doing it right before I pour out the salt into another salt pail for storage and have always had good parameters when testing. (not quite as high CA readings as Aquatrro though, mine tends to sit around the 400ppm at 1.024)

No, Mg has never been something I've cared about, but I'm told it's at proper levels by someone that does measure it.

Is it really worth the extra money over IO though? I dose kents turbo Ca with my IO just to get it to the 400 mark and for 40 bucks a salt bucket it is hard to beat.

I suppose that depends on what the convenieince is worth to you. I enjoy just adding salt to water, so for me, at maybe 2 boxes a year, it's worth it. People have been using IO for many years, but that doesn't mean that it's the best available now. I'm sure it's good enough for most applications, but this time around I want my tank to exceed my last tank, and I'll look into new technologies and techniques to get there.
As with everything in this hobby, there is the high end stuff and the budget stuff, sometimes of equal quality, sometimes not.
For example, I wouldn't spend a couple of grand on a BK skimmer, my ER does just a fine job, used @ 300 bucks. But some people swear by them. This salt is going to be the same case. Lots of alternatives, but some people will just believe it's better. Maybe it is, maybe not. Time will tell. :)
K, done typing now :)

Good points.

I wish i could get it locally, for J&L to ship one bucket to me is 30 bucks freight!

Well, it is on sale now. So you kinda save quite a bit of that if you shipped it. It seems to be coming down in price, my LFS is now selling it at almost J&L prices. Maybe I should stock up :)

One doesn't need to be using the Zeovit system in order to use RBS do they?

I dont think so....As far as i know it is only "popular" because of the potassium Ca and Mg numbers, but again i am not sure

It would be nice not to have to dose for that.

Chris

No, it's just salt.