Salt: Reef Crystals vs H2Ocean
 

For salt... Instant Ocean Reef Crystals vs D-D H2Ocean. Comments?

You should have success with either one... Pick one that fits your budget :wink:

In case you need some reading material to aid in your decision, these articles may help.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/11/aafeature1
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/12/aafeature1

taste the same to me;)

Is one better than the other? (The H2Ocean usually has a premium price no matter where I see it. So does the price make it better than most of the other brands out there because it has something or can do something the others can't or don't have?)

I tried H2O for a few months because I was told that I would not have to dose anymore...wrong..I had to dose the same amount. So not only did I have to pay 32$ more for the H2O bucket but I had some zoanthids starting to shrink and melting. I switched to Reef Crystal and no more problem with my zoas and all my coral are happy.

I have been using Reef Crystal for about a year and will stay with it. I pay 56$ for a 160 gallons bucket vs 89$ for H2O and I get better results with RC.

you can also just grab instant ocean (RC is made by IO) and buffer it with calcium chloride + baking soda to bring the levels up. and it'll work just as well as RC at an even cheaper price.

$38/bucket of IO
2-3+ yrs supply of calcium and alk to buffer the water ($20) it'll buffer a good 3-4 buckets of 160g buckets

salt is salt, IMO someone can argue that there's extra trace elements in the more expensive ones but unless we can test it for cheap we'll never be able to tell what those trace elements are.

if RC or H20 are the only two you are looking at my vote is RC as well

One of my friends who is well known for her coral growing abilities has always used IO with great success.

There is no salt that you will 'never have to dose again with'. The reality is that if your going to be hardcore, your going to have to dose something no matter what salt you use.

I've always used H2O in my Reef System, everthing has been great...I tried switching to IO once when I was out of H2O and couldn't find any locally, everything went sideways for a bit until I switched back...I really don't believe it was the IO's fault but rather the sudden change that my system didn't like, now I keep a large supply on hand so I don't have to change things up at the last minute.

I was using io for a while then switched to RC and my tank liked the change.

You shouldn't need to add sodium bicarbonate to IO, but you will need to add magnesium and calcium! IO usually tests at 11 dKH for me, only 1150 ppm magnesium, and only 360-380 ppm calcium. My only real complaint about IO is the alkalinity is too high for my liking. I keep alkalinity in my reef 7-8 dKH, so if I do a big water change I get a big alkalinity swing. That was one of my main reasons for switching to H2Ocean. Even though the numbers of the H2Ocean are nicer I didn't notice any benefit in my reef after using it for 14 months. My reef is back on IO. I have tried most of the salts on the market, and I have never found my inhabitants to care which salt I used. That's the ultimate factor I think.

I mix IO and RC. As Myka mention IO calcium is around 360-380. RC calcium is about 450. mixed at 50/50 calcium comes out at 410 but Alk is still a little high for my liking at 11 dKH.

Warning: I have heard that mixing salts can cause "stuff" to precipatate out but so far IO and RC mix just fine.

Oceanic salt is cheap, has a lower dKH but is also high in calcium. I may try mixing Oceanic with IO but the closest I can find Oceanic salt is in Bellingham.

*I'm gonna try bringing 100lbs of white powdery stuff across the border and tell the gaurds it is for my fish tank

This is the one issue I have with RC... the Calcium spike because as you said it tests at 450 (tests even higher for me). My 400 tested at Ca 480 and I've yet to begin dosing Ca due to this as levels are dropping much slower in 4x the volume.

solution, change less of the water but more often.. I now change 15% every 2 weeks instead of changing 30% once a month. just 15% does not change the alkalinity too much and I stop dosing for a day since I don't need to for a day or 2, then I resume my dosing pumps.

The more I got in alkalinity raise was 8.5 and I keep mine at 7.5

So is there much of a difference between IO salt, and IO Reef Crystals salt? (Reef Crystals being the more expensive of the two options).

Yeah this is only a minor complaint of mine because normally I only do 10-15% weekly and factor the small increase into my dosing schedule.

Every now and then I like to do a larger change though and this is when It's a bit annoying.

Yes I have the same thing hapening when I do a large water change and I have to cut off my dosing pump for a few days until things gets lower. But if your alkalinity is 7 and you change 50% or the water with alkalinity 11, that should bring it to around 9, so if you change 25% it should only be around 1 point so not that big of a change.

Still, one point is sometime enough to disturb sensitive coral but I had swing going from 6 to 8 in one day before I was using dosing pump and I never lost a coral from that.

I too wish RC would be more around 8 in alkalinity since I am dosing.

It's the high Calcium I'm referring to actually. Mine usually tests 450 - 480. Sometimes as high as 500.

hahah!!!

I change 20% once a week and I have not been dosing alk since starting I also haven't done a test in a while so on Sunday-mon when I do my w/c I'll test tank currently test new water and test the tank after the change and I'll post my findings All I know is my tank has visibly improved since switching so it obviously likes the salt more then standard IO

Thanks Myka for pointing out my mistake, ya I meant Mag not sodium bicarb lol..I have find IO to be fine as water change water. My Kh is at 8 and I have been using IO for the last 3 years. My issue is that the magnesium is constantly too low. I too have tried a few salts on the market from seachem to coralife and even a box of reefers best and IMO all my corals reacted the same so back to IO I went after you buffer everything of course. I find when you buffer IO with MgCl first followed by the calcium chloride the alk usually falls back down to 8-9kh range due to bi carb ppting out the calcium.

aftering buffering IO with mag chloride and calcium chloride with measured amounts in grams my weekly water changes come out to

Ca:440
alk: 8.5-9
mg: 1350

and thats for a salt that is less then $45 for a bucket

This is not efficient. You export more nutrients by doing bigger waterchanges less often, obviously the most efficient would be doing 100% waterchanges, but that would be a bit shocking for the system! I have found over the years that doing 20% bi-weekly is more beneficial than 10% weekly. You use the same amount of water and salt, but get more benefit IMO. This is why I don't care for the high alkalinity of IO.

well heres my little, go against the grain bit of anecdote.......Ive used nothing but H2Ocean for a year on this version of my tank(Ive actually used the salt for about three years straight all together)....the thing that draws me to this salt is the fact that it is a naturally evaporated salt, not a synthetic...I couldnt care less what the levels are because no salt is perfect.......they all lack something......That being said, I have not dosed a single one of the big three (Ca, Mg and DKH) in the whole year + the tank has been running.....I have no Idea what my parameters are, as I havnt tested the tank either.......those of you that have seen pics of my stuff or have seen my tank in person know that my corals arent suffering........for those that havnt seen it, its heavily SPS and zoa dominant.....Im not getting huge growth in this version of the tank....I didnt really want huge growth after the last version, so this doesnt bother me.....my corals color is good and thats all that matters to me.........go H2Ocean!!!:mrgreen:

yes of course if you have nutrient problem it's not ideal but if you don't then it is more stable that way.

According to this though, it would be better to do one big water chance 40% per month??

wow, that must produce some major swings.

If you are doing this and having zoanthids, don't you have colonies melting away? Some zoanthids are very sensitive to alkalinity swing so by doing only water change and not compensating for alkalinity I am guessing there are large swings between the moment right before the water change and right after....no good.

What type of zoanthids do you have? and what have you lost if you have lost some?

Doug, that's what drew me to H2Ocean as well, the fact that it is a natural salt and has lower alkalinity than IO. You're nuts for not dosing and testing...I think you're looking for V3, but for your sake I sure hope not! :eek:

I figured you meant Mg. :) That's an interesting observation with the magnesium. I have never tested the alkalinity afte adding the calcium and magnesium chlorides. I do use a bit of magnesium sulphate as well.

Well, waterchanges export more than just nutrients, and import more than just clean water. You have to find the happy medium. You will get cleaner water with more minerals and such if you do bigger waterchanges, but you have to think about minimizing the changes to the tank as well as cost. As I already stated, for me this happy medium is 20% bi-weekly. A couple times a year I will do a 50% waterchange and I find my tank responds to this big change in a positive way rather than a negative way, so I don't think it is getting "shocked" by the changes.

Absolutely! I would prefer to do a larger change myself once a month, but I can only mix 50g at a time. If I could make 100g of new water, I would do a 50% monthly instead of 25% bi-weekly.