Beginners Salt

[schmittym7]

Hey everyone. I'm looking for a good salt to make my first batch of saltwater for my 130 gallon tank. Trying to find tropic marin pro reef but impossible to find. I've seen my lfs stores and other sites pushing red sea salt. I prefer the pharma grade and someone mentiond hw marine mix reef. Any recommendations on good quality salt mixes readily available?

 

[MnFish1]

Hey everyone. I'm looking for a good salt to make my first batch of saltwater for my 130 gallon tank. Trying to find tropic marin pro reef but impossible to find. I've seen my lfs stores and other sites pushing red sea salt. I prefer the pharma grade and someone mentiond hw marine mix reef. Any recommendations on good quality salt mixes readily available

1. You can get it on the internet - if you buy enough you'll get free shipping (Tropic Marin Pro)
2. Having tried Multiple salts - I like Brightwell Neomarine.
3. Im not sure what you mean about 'beginner salt' - do you mean you are going to do fish only? etc. BTW - many people would say Instant ocean - either regular or reef - depending on what you're putting in the tank is a good option

 

[Rmckoy]

Not sure where you are but I use salinity ( aqua vitro )

works great , and guaranteed to mix as what’s on the label

 

[Gtinnel]

I use reef crystals, and other than having to periodically scrub out my mixing station because of the brown stuff that it leaves, it works just fine for me.

 

[MARK M. DAVIS]

I have been using the Red Sea Coral Pro for around 5 years. My tank is SPS dominant. I also Triton test, dose and use a calcium reactor. Most salts are fine. It’s really about consistency.

 

[mike550]

@schmittym7 I started with TM Pro but as you’re seeing this past year has been very hard to find the salt. I’m definitely thinking about switching.

There are a ton of great salts out there and BRS has some nice video comparisons. Best advice I can offer is to find a salt that’s close to the parameters you want, and start with that.

 

[Ippyroy]

I use HW marine. It mixes clear and holds for a month no problem. If you just doing it for the cycle, I'd use IO and save a ton of money. After the ammonia cycle and before you add fish, I'd switch over to TM Bio Activ for a month or 2. This salt will help with keeping N and P in check. Once you are ready to add corals, pick the salt that lines up best with your parameters best. Just so you know, you can boost Alk cheaply with sodium bicarbonate, which is just plain baking soda. It is a much cheaper than trying to boost Calcium or Mg. I don't use Soda Ash to raise it until it is in my tank.
Any salt mix will work.

 

[Sarcazian]

As Mike mentioned, it's worth watching the BRS video on salt and choose the one that meets your needs. It seems like they recommended BrightWell given the parameters, how it took 8 hours to fully dilute (I think) and how long the parameters stayed level when being stored. It may have been the cheapest gallon for gallon as well since the quoted dilution is to 1.025 or 1.026 unlike IO that is 1.024 I think. IO did fair, but needs 24 or so hours to fully dilute.

I personally use IO Reef Crystals since I used it most over the hobby and I had a lot left lying around. In the past, I used TM and loved how quickly it diluted when compared to IO. But, as Mike said, TM seem to have inventory issues so I purchased more IO.

That said, I am considering switching to Brightwell at some point since I am really liking some of their additives.

 

[schmittym7]

Than

I use HW marine. It mixes clear and holds for a month no problem. If you just doing it for the cycle, I'd use IO and save a ton of money. After the ammonia cycle and before you add fish, I'd switch over to TM Bio Activ for a month or 2. This salt will help with keeping N and P in check. Once you are ready to add corals, pick the salt that lines up best with your parameters best. Just so you know, you can boost Alk cheaply with sodium bicarbonate, which is just plain baking soda. It is a much cheaper than trying to boost Calcium or Mg. I don't use Soda Ash to raise it until it is in my tank.
Any salt mix will work.

Thank you.....this is some great advice! I'm going to most likely follow this path.