Reef Salt Brand

[Tony Vargas]

Originally Posted by marie

For me I started using IO because it was the only thing available to me at the time and I keep on using it because of the price, it is still cheaper then other salts after adding the cost of the extra Mg and cal

Marie,

Thank you for your cander, it’s good to see that it’s all about practicality. It’s all about, what makes it convenient to the hobbyist!

Therefore, your decision is more about price and not about product. If the price were more in line, would you try other salt brands? In addition, if you were to try other salt brands, which would, they be?

[Veng68]

If I knew were to track down all of the components (without buying 500+ pounds of the stuff) ...... I'd make my own salt.

http://www.marinebreeder.org/phpbb/v...hp?f=233&t=271

Cheers,
Vic

[marie]

Originally Posted by Tony Vargas

Marie,

...If the price were more in line, would you try other salt brands?...

Probably not. After all, as I have said earlier, I have been using IO with no problems for 15 yrs and to be honest I'm not sure what "better" results I could get from a different brand of salt.

[Myka]

I'm in the same boat as Marie having used IO since the early 90s. I've tried others, and haven't noticed any improvement in any organisms, so I always go back, plus as Marie said it's still cheaper to buffer the IO than buy premium salt. The only salt that calls my name these days is D-D H2Ocean simply because it is natural seasalt. That is my only draw to it. I am considered trying it out, but I have 1 1/2 buckets of IO to use up right now.

I just moved to this area, and around here D-D is $85 and IO is $65, so the price is closer than BC where D-D $80 and IO is $40-45. Both IO and D-D make similar amounts of mixed product seawater. I know I definitely have a hard time paying $65 for IO!! So I guess that's also a draw to D-D.

[Stuart Bertram D-D]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Tony, Thanks for getting this poll started.
I am happily surprised to see how well D-D H2Ocean pro salt is doing considering it has only been on the market for around 2 years.

Matt time flies when you are working and enjoying yourself - but not that fast.

The salt has actually only been in Canada for about 12 months and in many shops less than 10 months so an even better result to be so high in the poll after such a short time.

I must say that over here in the UK there are not so many people that would use a non reef salt, (pro salt), if they were serious reef keepers and they had loyalty to the Instant Ocean brand they would be using Reef crystals as the pro salt from the same company or Instant Ocean for a fish only tank.

The UK poll only shows 5.75% using Instant Ocean compared with 15.88% using Reef Crystals and this trend is reflectected in the other brands manufacturing both a fish salt and a reef salt.

After 12 months in the UK market H2Ocean is coming in at 36.5% which is an unbelievable result for the salt.

We hope that a few more people over there can get easy access to the product to see how good the results are from their corals.

Stuart

[leducreef]

io is on sale for 38 bucks at petsmart right now

[no_bs]

We use IO with RO. With prety good results.

[BlueAbyss]

Well, I fudged my vote... I had intended on starting my tank with the H2Ocean Pro, but got antsy... and paid 100 bucks for a bucket of IO in Prince Albert. Funny how just over an hour away in Saskatoon (as Myka stated) that same bucket of IO is only 65 bucks... I should have had a bucket of H2Ocean Pro shipped, would have worked out to the same amount as my bucket of IO.

That said, my next bucket will be the D-D product, since my 25% weekly water change amounts to 2 1/2 gallons and I like the higher calcium and mag that it seems to offer... I have yet to start adjusting these with my IO (no livestock yet) but I can already see issues forming with dosing in a small tank, if the tank is a heavy user of calcium and magnesium.

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by steve fedyk

I started with tropic marin but the store I go to dosen't carry it any more. Then I switched to reefer best because I,m giviing zeovit a good try and figure I would follow they're instruction and use all they're product.

Pretty much the same reason here. But I agree with most, if you've been using IO for years, probably no good reason to change. I started this hobby around 1991, and really the only decent salt was IO. I used it, everyone I knew used it, including all the tanks I admired. By the time I learned how to grow SPS, I was in the trend of using IO (switching to Kent every now and then for higher Ca), and I got great results. Most of the longer term members here can recall the stupid growth I got, as well as many of the other SPS guys (Jamie, Marc, Shao, etc). Most used IO and got tremendous growth. Heck, the whole magnesium thing didn't even come about until the last few years. I never supplemented anything in my make up water, doing monthly 15% water changes. My Ca reactor would quickly balance out any defecencies, and my Ca always tested over 400, alk over 9, and Mg was just never a concern.
Based on this experience, if I were not using RBZ to support my attempt at the Zeovit method, I would use IO and not even consider switching.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Tony Vargas

Furthermore, I’m curious as to why is it that some people purchase salt brands that require buffering (be it calcium, magnesium or alkalinity), instead of purchasing a good quality salt that is balanced from the start?

Wouldn’t it be more cost effective to purchase quality salt from the beginning and not concern yourself with products that require alteration of its water chemistry?

because there is no such thing.. salt levels are a personal choice.. find one that is exactly NSW values for a reasonable price and I will buy it. do you know of a salt off hand that is consistantly
380Ca, 1380Mg, 11Dkh alk, for the main levels and then has all the other naturaly orcurring levels in the other traces?

I don't so I buy one that is the closest with the minimal amount of woth.. which is IO . I leave the Ca alone as it is usaly 380. I prefure a higher alk so I bump it up to 12 Dkh and then I make sure the Mg is proper.

all the pro reefs usaly have Ca levels that are to high and have you ever tried picking Ca particles out of salt mix.. its not fun...

also the issue is that all the driferent brands are some ones opinion of what they feel the salt should be alot of them are not even based on real oceans but rather on the latest chemical level trends in the hobby.

Steve