What kind of salt
 

Hey guys, I just bought some Instant Ocean Reef Crystals from Elite Aquatics here. Colby said that he uses it in his whole system and I plan on a reef tank.

Ive read that regular instant ocean needs to be supplemented, whats the case with the reef crystals ones?

Reef Crystals need to be supplemented as well. IME alkalinity is good but calcium and magnesium is low.

what salt
 

marine enviroment or bio sea salts work the best they score 90% AND 100% ON TEST CHARTS. check it out. dan

Just finishing my bucket of R/C and I;m going back to just regular I/O salt. Found had to suppliment just as much, and Alk was high on my bucket, really high

I would stick with IO, one of the best all round salts. you need to bump the Mg and Ca up a bit but thats it. lots of people have switched to others and a good chunk have gone back to IO.

Steve

It depends what you want. If you want plug n play salt, Reefers Best, for me, doesn't need supplementing. It's expensive though. IO is a good standard salt that has topped the popularity charts for 20 years. It's not expensive, but you might need to add stuff. When I used it, I ran a large Ca reactor, and never added anything to my salt. My tank did fine. So maybe go with IO, see how it works for you, then decide if something is missing.

Yeah I would have to agree. I think IO is popular because it's cheap, available everywhere and always around and probably always will be. However I personally don't care for it because essentially every element is low including Ca, Mg, K, and so on. So when you want to use properly you got to mix up a large portion in a container then aerate it overnight, then supplement, and then verify. RC is essentially the same as regular IO, it's not worth the extra money IMO.

I prefer the plug and play, RBS. I add it directly to the sump and use the top off to add the make up water. The levels are good and consistent and I've never had a problem. If I did this with other salts I would be having huge problems. RBS also doesn't leave the white residue behind like other salts including IO.

Anyone have any idea what the K measures out of the bucket for IO and RC?

I believe it's around 300

Thanks guys, I'll have to get a couple more test kits and maybe some supplements. Which ones do you guys suggest I get if I have IO Reef Crystals?

I find it weird that a fish store uses it exclusively with really nice results but there are these problems. I'll ask Colby if he supplements next time Im there.

You'd be better off getting the supplements from the Chemmaster than the LFS. It will save you alot of money.

Lots of fish stores use lots of different salts with really nice results. Regardless of salt you choose, you'll need to supplement somehow just to accomodate consumption by corals. Ca, alk, and some people are concerned with MG, all get depleted, regardless of what salt you use. Now if your supplementation program (reactor, balling method) can compensate for the lower levels in your change water, it doesn't matter what the salt comes with, for the most part.
Example. I used IO for years, Ca about 360 out of the bucket. My tank was constant at about 430ppm Ca. I change 10% with a water change, my Ca drops to maybe 420ish. Still well within acceptable range, and my reactor compensates and raises the tank back to 430 in a day or two. So monitor the levels that are important to you, and figure out the trend of your tank. If your reactor/balling/dosing regime handles the difference, you don't need to worry about what is in the bucket, other than a quality salt.
To keep a nice tank does not mean having to complicate things, keep it simple, watch how the tank reacts, and adjust technique accordingly.

So how important is a Calcium reactor for a reef tank? Does the reactor actually dose in calcium like you described above?

Currently I wasnt planning on getting one in the initial setup of my tank. I'll have a 165G reef tank with 20G Sump/10G refugium (all in one 30 G partitioned aquarium).

I won't be getting corals until my tank is more established in 3-4 months or so. I am hoping to fill it in the next 2-4 weeks depending on when its finished being built, really....

A reactor is only one method of delivering calcium and IMO wouldn't be necessary for a new tank. I have a tank with dozens of stony corals and have no problem with simple 2 part dosing. A reactor may be something to look into down the road but I wouldn't worry about one yet.

Ok good. What is simple 2 part dosing? I assume calcium just comes in two parts and I put a portion into the sump?

Here is a good article about how to make your own calcium and alkalinity supplements and will help you determine how much to start dosing.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-02/rhf/index.php

Agreed. There are lots of ways to dose Ca/Alk, and it's not something to worry about for some time. In the beginning, once you have corals that are growing, water changes will suffice. After that, several commercial or home made 2 part products are available.
Once you have a tank full of corals and you can't keep up, you can look at some of the automated methods of dosing.

According to some water tests done on various brands of salt mix the Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium of Reef Crystals is 490, 13, and 1440 respectively at a salinity of 1.026 which looks just fine to me. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...readid=1287118

To those of you who said that this salt mix would have low levels and needed to be supplemented, what levels were your test kits reading? Has Reef Crystals recently changed their formula or do you target even higher levels than those?

Thanks whatcaneyedo, I saw that thread. I guess I didnt read down to the reef crystals section as I thought it'd be titled "Instant Ocean Reef Crystals".

Those levels do look good, and substantially different than regular IO. I'll see how my livestock/corals do in it before I start dosing.

These aren't "problems" really, most salts (like 95%) need to be supplemented in some form. It depends how anal you are as well. For beginner reefers there is really no reason to use anything other than IO. For more advanced reefers who are looking to perfect every little thing in hopes of accomplishing "perfection", then one of the "designer" salts might be a wiser choice just because you would spend quite some time supplementing a salt like IO.

Personally, I don't think Reefer's Best salt is the best choice for those who are not employing the full ZEOvit system as this salt is specifically designed for this purpose with a lower alkalinity.

D-D H2Ocean seems to be the most complete and easily available salt around.

Personally, I use IO although I'm starting to dose potassium, and starting to strive more for perfection, so I am considering trying out D-D, which is quite a leap for me, as I have tried many different salts since the early 90s, and always go back to IO. IO is cheaper even after dosing it, and I have yet to notice a difference in my livestock from using different salts. If they don't care, why should I?

but it wasn't cheep when it became popular, it was one of the more expensive ones 8 or 9 years ago, I started using it as it was tried and true.

personally I don't want to use anything that has a Ca level over 400. it is easy to bump it up if need be but hard to remove. I wouldn't touch anything that has a Ca level of 490.. thats for sure.. way way to high..
I like IO as it just really needs a Mg bump up, once you correct the Mg the Ca settles out at around 380 to 400 which is perfect..

Steve

This, ultimately, is what one needs to ask when changing anything.

I have a very good experience with oceanic and red-sea pro! Other excellent brand is tropic marine buy where I come from it is very expensive.

The last salt I have used was the new Deltec H2O very good balanced salt!