Aqua forest reef salt

[kyl]

I switched from reef crystals, overall I'm happy:

Alk is pretty consistent between batches, hovering around 7.7-8, not the lottery that RC seemed to be. Boxes seem more readily available too, but their buckets are an odd size and the lid is kind of a pain to remove. There's also far less sludge/residue after mixing and storing it for a couple days, if that matters.

Some people are stating they've had cyano / dinoflagellate issues after switching, not entirely sure what would be causing that though.

[albert_dao]

Originally Posted by kyl

I switched from reef crystals, overall I'm happy:

Alk is pretty consistent between batches, hovering around 7.7-8, not the lottery that RC seemed to be. Boxes seem more readily available too, but their buckets are an odd size and the lid is kind of a pain to remove. There's also far less sludge/residue after mixing and storing it for a couple days, if that matters.

Some people are stating they've had cyano / dinoflagellate issues after switching, not entirely sure what would be causing that though.

You can get cyano/dinos from trace element imbalances. I'm not saying it's endemic to the salt, but it's something that happens.

[1bigfish]

I have been reading of a few people having diatom cyano problems with using aqua forest reef salt also. I just picked up 2 pails after reading a bunch of great reviews, and am now second guessing my choice.

[DKoKoMan]

Originally Posted by 1bigfish

I have been reading of a few people having diatom cyano problems with using aqua forest reef salt also. I just picked up 2 pails after reading a bunch of great reviews, and am now second guessing my choice.

That is exactly what I did, started nice and slow and wham-o got purple brown slime in LR. Then it got worse and dinoflagellates started and stringy goo was everywhere. I ended up losing 4 coral frags, a colony and some I'm not sure will pull through. May not be the same for everyone but It was very disheartening for me and not worth the lower parameters.

[1bigfish]

That sounds awful....sorry for the loss. Nothing worse then battling Dino cyano, might just stick with RC. Maybe someone will want to trade me 2 pails of AF reef salt for RC.
Thanks for sharing your experiences everyone.

[DKoKoMan]

Originally Posted by 1bigfish

That sounds awful....sorry for the loss. Nothing worse then battling Dino cyano, might just stick with RC. Maybe someone will want to trade me 2 pails of AF reef salt for RC.
Thanks for sharing your experiences everyone.

It's just like anything in this hobby, every tank responds different. I initially made the switch to AF eager as I had heard nothing but good things. Since my experience I have saw similar circumstances posted with using the AF Reef Salt so now it seems more then a coincidence.

[Skimmer Juice]

I also ran into some issues with my dendros after switching to af reef salt . Got a white film over some of the heads ended up saving a couple lost over 25 heads . Ended up switching back to h2ocean and tank is stable again . Just going to stick with what I normally use unless a switch is %100 necessary in the future .

[Frogger]

I have had nothing but problems with Aqua Forest products. Had a bad dyno outbreak on one of my tanks after I started using the reef salt. Really bad.

Then I tried using some of the additives (reef build etc) on my other reef tank (never had a problem with dynos, cyno or algae before and since) Using at half the recommended strength started to have what appeared to be dynos growing on the sand after about 3 weeks, could have been diatoms but didn't wait around to see, stopped using did a major water change and it went away. This was about 6 months ago.

I think each tank is different and it can cause problems on some tanks and for some tanks its the miracle drug.