Aqua forest reef salt

[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 .

[iceman86]

I've had good results with it. Are you guys that are getting the white film using the probiotic salt?

[devocole]

Just wanted to chime in that I'm confused with my cyano issue as well. My nutrient load is very low. I use Probiotic AF. If I switch salt and it goes away I'll post again.

[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.

[DorySaid]

For everyone complaining about using AF probiotic salt causing issues in your tank, don't expect to add a new product without having some adverse effects. You cant change something as significant as your salt mix and think its magically going to make your reef better or solve problems without understanding probiotics. If the salt contains a carbon source for bacteria and you make a huge 75 or 100% water change its pretty obvious you could face immediate problems. Not to mention messing with the general water chemistry in which your reef was used to.