Reefers Best Salt

digital-audiophile · #1 03-14-2008, 07:04 PM

How many of you guys are using this?

I still have 1/2 a pail of Ocean Pure left but I am not happy with it right now (I switched from IO) I am finding really high MG but super low ALK (I'm testing between 4-6DKH)

I'm tempted to turf what I have left and bite the bullet for a box of KZ salt but it sure is expensive.

Trigs · #2 03-14-2008, 07:21 PM

i personally like red sea coal pro it has treated me well

michika · #3 03-14-2008, 07:37 PM

I went from Red Sea Pro to Ocean Pure Pro. I am debating the switch to RBS when I finish my bucket. I would love to see what kind of changes you see with it.

digital-audiophile · #4 03-14-2008, 07:45 PM

The zeoheads seem to love it, and I'm just not happy with ocean pure pro (the only reason I switched from IO was that when I ran out Golds only had the OPP instock)

I'm just blown away by the $99 price tag for RBS though... I guess only doing ~5Gallon water changes every week now with zeo it should last 6 months so maybe it's not so bad after all?

Brent F · #5 03-14-2008, 07:46 PM

This week's water change will use up the last of my Ocean Pure Pro. I picked up a box of Reefer's Best and will start using it next week. I didn't want to turf what I had left so have been using up the remainder of my last box before switching.

Having a nano tank means I don't go through very much salt so the total cost for me isn't that high.

They recommend a low Alkalinity (under 7 DKH) with Zeovit so I would guess Reefer's Best will test fairly low for Alkalinity.

I could test the freshly mixed salt during my next water change if that would help.

michika · #6 03-14-2008, 07:47 PM

I hear the same. I used to pay $79-85 for a pail of Red Sea Coral Pro in Edmonton, so I don't see it as quite the big jump as you do.

digital-audiophile · #7 03-14-2008, 07:55 PM

Under 7DKH? hmm I'll have to do a little more reserch on that. My tank water tested at 5DKH last night (using two different brand test kits) and I started to panic a bit.

When you mix up your first batch I would be interested to see how your tests come out.

Delphinus · #8 03-14-2008, 07:57 PM

The zeo guide does suggest if you use RBS that your weekly changes can slide to every 2 weeks ... so it might not be too bad.

Delphinus · #9 03-14-2008, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by digital-audiophile

Under 7DKH? hmm I'll have to do a little more reserch on that. My tank water tested at 5DKH last night (using two different brand test kits) and I started to panic a bit.

5dKH might be a little low. Guide says to have it 6.5-7.5 and that any higher "shows no advantage" (which I take to mean, "not detrimental"). Coming from a few years ago when the recommendation for alk was to be 1/10th the Ca in meq/l (ie., 400Ca, 4.0meq/l -> ~11-12dKH), it's hard for me to wrap my head around low Alk numbers.

Nevertheless my alk tests at 8dKH, and unless someone comes out and tells me that it's bad, I'm leaving it there. It's such a pain to dial in different target numbers from my calcium reactor and kalk reactor that I would prefer to leave things the way they are. Plus, rapid changes in Alk I have found to be bad (worse than say low Alk, or high Alk, all on its own .. it's like the change or swing from one value to another is worse than whatever the old value was). So adjust your Alk slowly would be my recommendation.

digital-audiophile · #10 03-14-2008, 08:04 PM

Any advice on how to raise my alk level.. without resorting to even more equipment in my fish room