Salt: Reef Crystals vs H2Ocean

[daniella3d]

solution, change less of the water but more often.. I now change 15% every 2 weeks instead of changing 30% once a month. just 15% does not change the alkalinity too much and I stop dosing for a day since I don't need to for a day or 2, then I resume my dosing pumps.

The more I got in alkalinity raise was 8.5 and I keep mine at 7.5

Originally Posted by lastlight

This is the one issue I have with RC... the Calcium spike because as you said it tests at 450 (tests even higher for me). My 400 tested at Ca 480 and I've yet to begin dosing Ca due to this as levels are dropping much slower in 4x the volume.

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

solution, change less of the water but more often.

Yeah this is only a minor complaint of mine because normally I only do 10-15% weekly and factor the small increase into my dosing schedule.

Every now and then I like to do a larger change though and this is when It's a bit annoying.

[daniella3d]

Yes I have the same thing hapening when I do a large water change and I have to cut off my dosing pump for a few days until things gets lower. But if your alkalinity is 7 and you change 50% or the water with alkalinity 11, that should bring it to around 9, so if you change 25% it should only be around 1 point so not that big of a change.

Still, one point is sometime enough to disturb sensitive coral but I had swing going from 6 to 8 in one day before I was using dosing pump and I never lost a coral from that.

I too wish RC would be more around 8 in alkalinity since I am dosing.

Originally Posted by lastlight

Yeah this is only a minor complaint of mine because normally I only do 10-15% weekly and factor the small increase into my dosing schedule.

Every now and then I like to do a larger change though and this is when It's a bit annoying.

[lastlight]

It's the high Calcium I'm referring to actually. Mine usually tests 450 - 480. Sometimes as high as 500.

[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.