Salt: Reef Crystals vs H2Ocean

[Myka]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

solution, change less of the water but more often.

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.

[fishytime]

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!!!

[daniella3d]

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?

Originally Posted by fishytime

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!!!

[daniella3d]

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??

Originally Posted by Myka

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.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

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

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.