[Myka]

Originally Posted by RuGlu6

Ah, sorry no IO for me:
To much dirt and still need to supplement, this means more testing, more time and more money involved.

Too much dirt? Say what?

To quote myself:

Originally Posted by Myka

I use Instant Ocean salt. When mixed up to 1.026, IO usually has readings of 365 ppm calcium, 11 dKH alkalinity, and 1280 Magnesium. This means that you will need to bump up the Calcium and Magnesium to the proper levels before doing your waterchange. Even though I have tried many different brands of salt I always go back to IO because I haven't seen a difference using "better" salt, and IO costs WAAAAY less, even after supplementing.

To get the proper readings, for every 5g of water change water I make with IO salt I dose:

15mL Kent Liquid Calcium (everyone knows liquid is expensive to supplement)
1 tsp SeaChem Reef Advantage Magnesium
Alkalinity is ok

So, if my calculations are right I will go through 1 1/2 of the 16oz Liquid Calcium jugs (about $15), and about 1/2 of a 600g container of the SeaChem Magnesium (about $4) for each bucket of salt. So that's a total cost of about $19 of additives for each 160 gallon bucket of IO salt. So that makes each bucket of IO cost me about $59. Any other $59 bucket of salt you have to put additives into it too, so that makes it cost more. SO...at $59 per 200g bucket of salt with additives included, IO is the cheapest.

Plus, if you use cheaper additives (which would be smart!) it could cost 1/4 of what it costs me to supplement the IO.