Water for hatching brine
 

Wondering on water mixtures people are using to hatch brine.

i just use 2 parts reef water (out of tank) and 1 part FW (out of tank)

I am just looking for options to try and see what yields the highest hatch rate.

I just use water out of my reef tank, no fresh water added and the brine hatch within 24hrs.

I grow brine shrimp to adult and therefor go through a lot of salt water to raise them in the four 26g containers, and also for the nannochloropsis that I grow to feed them for the first couple of weeks.
I use a sodium chloride water softener salt that has been purified by evaporation, and mix it 10 parts to one part of epsom salts, diluting the mix to a specific gravity of 1.017.
Brine shrimp will grow at a VERY wide range of specific gravity and I didn't find over the years, that a range of 1.010 to 1.030 made any difference in hatch rate.
I chose 17 merely because the nanno I grow crashes less at that s.g. than at higher s.g. so I make one water to do both and when I add the nanno to the brine it doesn't change the s.g. of the brine culture.