Aquaforest Reef Salt vs Red Sea Salt [?]

[Berlibee]

Hello guys,

I can't understand what is the difference between these two salts please:

 

[coralosity351]

Red sea salt actually comes from the Red sea. Most salts have their own additives for different reasons.

 

[Bluefish9]

well I believe you are comparing the wrong two IMO. RedSea makes the blue bucket and the black bucket. The blue most closely resembles natural sea water from the red sea. The black has added elements to aid in crowing coral (elevated cal, mag, etc etc). The same goes for Aquaforest... they have "sea salt" which is similar to Red Sea's blue bucket but with slightly lower levels of certain elements AND its a synthetic salt whereas RedSea is natural.
The aqua forest "reef salt" as you pictured, is more closely similar to RedSea's coral pro or "black bucket"

Its my understanding that Aquaforest differs in that they have a third salt which is the "probiotic" stuff.... which, Im sorry but I haven't really read up on that yet. Im assuming if you use that, you're fish's digestion might be more ..... regular lol

 

[Berlibee]

@Bluefish9 Thank you, but Red Sea PRO is a very different salt. I'm looking for exactly these two salts please.

 

[Bluefish9]

Thought I explained it.
Blue bucket- natural, closest to actual water from red sea.

Reef salt - synthetic, higher levels of elements

(In a nut shell)

 

[jsker]

Red Sea pro has a higher alk and Mg for help corals grow. I use all three and now use the Aquaforest reef salt with great results along with other products with Aquaforest. Aquaforest is a synthetic salt with higher amount of trace elements from what I have found. The reef salt is less expensive this the Red Sea Pro and I find my alk runs about 8kh and my Mg and Ca stay around 1380 Mg and 450 Ca. I all use the AF balling method products 1+2+3+ with a dosing pumps and I change my water a lot less .

You can go here to pull some more information about Aquaforest product and ask more questions

 

[3lusive]

Thought I explained it

@Bluefish9 Thank you, but Red Sea PRO is a very different salt. I'm looking for exactly these two salts please.

Berlibee

Red Sea pro is comparable to aquaforest reef salt
(Higher level of elements mixed in)

Red Sea blue bucket is comparable to Aquaforest Sea Salt
(Closer to natural sea water)

Trying to compare RS blue bucket to AF reef salt is basically the same as comparing RS blue bucket to RS pro.

 

[Bluefish9]

He doesn't want to know about ref sea pro apparently. Only the blue bucket

 

[Bluefish9]

Berlibee

Red Sea pro is comparable to aquaforest reef salt
(Higher level of elements mixed in)

Red Sea blue bucket is comparable to Aquaforest Sea Salt
(Closer to natural sea water)

Trying to compare RS blue bucket to AF reef salt is basically the same as comparing RS blue bucket to RS pro.

Thats what I told him lol

 

[3lusive]

Thats what I told him lol

Lol

I know was just trying to break it down in less words hoping it clicked the second time around.

 

[Bluefish9]

Lol

I know was just trying to break it down in less words hoping it clicked the second time around.

Lol thank you!

 

[Berlibee]

@Bluefish9 @3lusive guys, I must be missing something. I appreciate your input but you do agree that in reefing our main params that we're looking in the salt are Mag. Ca. K. Alk. If we do compare them:

Red Sea PRO at 33 ppt - Mag. 1390 / Ca. 450 / K 397 / Alk 12
Ref Sea Regular at 33 ppt - Mag. 1223 / Ca. 410 / K 403 / Alk 7.5
AF Reef Salt at 33 ppt - Mag. 1350 / Ca. 420 / K 390 / Alk 7.6
AF Sea Salt at 33 ppt - Mag. 1260 / Ca. 380 / K 320 / Alk 8.5

Can you see that Reef Salt and Red Sea PRO are two very different salts if someone like me need Alk around 7.5 I'm choosing between Reef Salt and red Sea Blue Bucket.
AF Sea Salt is totally out of all the ranges and with very big swings in params check this:

Parameters of a salt are presented below:

Temp: 24
Mg – 1200-1300 mg/l
Ca – 360-400 mg/l
K – 300-350 mg/l

There is 100, 40, 50 differences here in Mg. Ca.

And here is Reef Salt:

Mg – 1300-1380 mg/l
Ca – 410-440 mg/l
K – 380-400 mg/l

Much more stable params while mixing. This is what I'm saying Red Sea PRO and Reef Salt are two very different salts for different styles of running a tank. This is why I want to compare the Red Sea Blue bucket and Reef Salt.

Reef Sea Regular at 33 ppt - Mag. 1223 / Ca. 410 / K 403 / Alk 7.5
AF Reef Salt at 33 ppt - Mag. 1350 / Ca. 420 / K 390 / Alk 7.6

Because the main params are close to what I need and to each other.

 

[jsker]

@Bluefish9 @3lusive guys, I must be missing something. I appreciate your input but you do agree that in reefing our main params that we're looking in the salt are Mag. Ca. K. Alk. If we do compare them:

Red Sea PRO at 33 ppt - Mag. 1390 / Ca. 450 / K 397 / Alk 12
Ref Sea Regular at 33 ppt - Mag. 1223 / Ca. 410 / K 403 / Alk 7.5
AF Reef Salt at 33 ppt - Mag. 1350 / Ca. 420 / K 390 / Alk 7.6
AF Sea Salt at 33 ppt - Mag. 1260 / Ca. 380 / K 320 / Alk 8.5

Can you see that Reef Salt and Red Sea PRO are two very different salts if someone like me need Alk around 7.5 I'm choosing between Reef Salt and red Sea Blue Bucket.
AF Sea Salt is totally out of all the ranges and with very big swings in params check this:

Parameters of a salt are presented below:

Temp: 24
Mg – 1200-1300 mg/l
Ca – 360-400 mg/l
K – 300-350 mg/l

There is 100, 40, 50 differences here in Mg. Ca.

And here is Reef Salt:

Mg – 1300-1380 mg/l
Ca – 410-440 mg/l
K – 380-400 mg/l

Much more stable params while mixing. This is what I'm saying Red Sea PRO and Reef Salt are two very different salts for different styles of running a tank. This is why I want to compare the Red Sea Blue bucket and Reef Salt.

Reef Sea Regular at 33 ppt - Mag. 1223 / Ca. 410 / K 403 / Alk 7.5
AF Reef Salt at 33 ppt - Mag. 1350 / Ca. 420 / K 390 / Alk 7.6

Because the main params are close to what I need and to each other.

Great comparison, the AF has less binders in it and it mixes clear in about 10 minutes.

 

[Berlibee]

Thank you again @jsker anything else you have noticed or maybe there is something about the production of these two salts ? I saw on an EU forum that in the AF salt they include a quality control list with tested salt params. But some people reported that fresh mix doesn't match the quality list in these cases some people got new buckets for free but some not. You haven't trying to test our fresh mix and to compare to the quality list ? Also like I understand Ref Sea salt is 70% real red sea salt and Reef Salt is 100% synthetic ?

 

[jsker]

Thank you again @jsker anything else you have noticed or maybe there is something about the production of these two salts ? I saw on an EU forum that in the AF salt they include a quality control list with tested salt params. But some people reported that fresh mix doesn't match the quality list in these cases some people got new buckets for free but some not. You haven't trying to test our fresh mix and to compare to the quality list ? Also like I understand Ref Sea salt is 70% real red sea salt and Reef Salt is 100% synthetic ?

Your welcome.
I was and still am a big fan of Red Sea, I was turn on to the AF products and the result were far better then Red Sea and easier to use. I was using coral pro and doing Reef colors, Ca, Mg, NoPox. Now just the Reef salt, 1+2+3+ and a small amount of NP pro and Pro bio s.

 

[Anirban]

How did I miss this????lol...
Hey Alex can you explain what you are exactly looking at? The reef salt is very much like the tropic marin pro as far parameters go. I tested iit few times out of the box and generally it is very close to the batch results which comes with it. Some people reported that it doesn't match with the results because like other salts it needs a bit of mixing in the bag. As my friend @jsker said it comes without or very less amount of binder so it become like roc if you keep the bag open. But it mixes like a charm. Its kind of custom made for the AF programme but you can use it independently too.

 

[jsker]

How did I miss this????lol...
Hey Alex can you explain what you are exactly looking at? The reef salt is very much like the tropic marin pro as far parameters go. I tested iit few times out of the box and generally it is very close to the batch results which comes with it. Some people reported that it doesn't match with the results because like other salts it needs a bit of mixing in the bag. As my friend @jsker said it comes without or very less amount of binder so it become like roc if you keep the bag open. But it mixes like a charm. Its kind of custom made for the AF programme but you can use it independently too.

@Anirban thank you for mentioning to keep the salt bag closed up with a tie. I learned that the hard way .

 

[Anirban]

@Anirban thank you for mentioning to keep the salt bag closed up with a tie. I learned that the hard way .

Me too....lol

 

[Berlibee]

Thank you @Anirban, yes Tropic Marine is nice as well I know it because I'm using the regular Tropic Marine now no questions here. I'm asking because of a few things:

1. 70% of real red sea salt in Red Sea sounds like really cool !
2. AF products are nice products and new and many people have success with it I was wondering maybe that salt have something specific and new on the market that Red Sea salt doesn't have.
3. Tropic Marine PRO - just a quality nice salt, but doesn't have these nice marketing things that first two have.

So I'm just wondering if something worth a special attention to the one of products or they're all the same just a little different with the marketing. Doest it make sense ?

 

[Rick.45cal]

FWIW Berlibee, Red Sea has a feature on their website where you can look up the lot number of your salt and it pulls up their testing data for that lot.

I've used the Red Sea blue bucket exclusively for my tank so far. I don't have any complaints.

Another viable option in your search since you are looking for a salt with an alkalinity of 7.5 is Brightwell Aquatics NeoMarine salt. It's an all synthetic near NSW level salt. I've got three buckets of it and I am going to start giving it a shot.