changing salts

[reefboy]

Has anyone ever had a problem a few months after changing salts? Here my problem I still have a problem with my Valida types either losing color in spots or whole coral then either they recolor or recede same goes with prostrata or milli types but they usually die when once before they grew like weeds so everything checks out Cal,Alk,Stro,Pho,Id,Ph, ext ext.So only thing left is salt brand I switched to a few months back(pacific coast marine mix) just very aggravating when 95% doing well but 5% is not or the 5% that you know was and you know somethings not right.

 

[demonsperm]

Do you premix the new batch overnight?
SPS perfer good flow and food source over salt brand and the only way you can judge your salt is from the levels .
Bleaching sounds like lack of flow or lighting or food source.

Whats the salinity level?
What size tank and age and whats used for flow?
What food do you add and the scedule?

 

[Tankguy001]

I switched from Reef Crystals to Seachems Reef Salt with no problems

 

[I-K@ndY]

Same here swicth from Rc to Seachem. I was doing it slow on the water change. I do about 20gallons WC everyweek and when I switched I did 10g everyweek for 4 times and now I am back with 20g using Seachem and never had a problem... hope all goes well Jody

 

[reefboy]

Do you premix the new batch overnight?
SPS perfer good flow and food source over salt brand and the only way you can judge your salt is from the levels .
Bleaching sounds like lack of flow or lighting or food source.

Whats the salinity level?
What size tank and age and whats used for flow?
What food do you add and the scedule?

1.Yes I premix at least 24hours.
2.I have plenty of flow and 70 other acro types and sps doing fine so doubt its lighting and flow.
3.Ok I kinda thought that as well
4. 1.025
5.close to 3,000 gal and over 5 years old in current room and as far as pumps main pump is a 5000 gal hour dolphin then on the two larger systems they each have 2400 gal hour sequence pumps on ball vavle wave maker thats on there own closed loop.
Feeding is once a day with my own coral and fish mixture lets just say its better then "Rods" I run Kaulk reactors,Cal reactors and use ecosystems "Reefsolution" for the rest.

 

[Poseidon]

I lost stylo's and Milli's a few years ago going from SeaChem salt to Crystal Sea Bio Assay.... I am on IO now, and couldn't be happier. I too run Kalk and a HUGE Ca reactor that holds 50 POUNDS of large Gen-X media. Suffice it to say that I get EXCELLET growth, even from slow growing SPS like Tort and Gomezi.

 

[Eklikewhoa]

I think the problem is probably a change in the parameters between the two salts.

But if it's a few months after I would probably look into other things.....

bulb life
water parameters
something died
chemical filtration getting old
etc.

 

[reefboy]

All good thoughts but bulbs are new(changed as I thought that could be it) as said water checks out even had a friend test it to get a diffrent point of veiw everything checked out Havnt seen any deaths other then receding sps but just a chosen few and only chemical filtration I use is iron oxide for phosphate removal.

 

[oceanparadise1]

Some times i have seen people have a lot of problems from Changing salt mix. Some one on reef central lost all his sps, just from changing saltmix.

 

[reefboy]

Yea I'm going back to my old mix just so I can take that possibility out of the equation.

 

[oceanparadise1]

Thats smart!

 

[Nate82]

but going back to your old mix would only be changing it again...

 

[mpoletti]

The whole changing salts IMO, is overrated, and I believe there are more issues to someone losing corals than just changing salts. People might believe it has to deal with the changing of salts, but it could be residual problems of corals and the salt just pushed them over the edge. I just mention this as I am currenty using 4 different types of salts

 

[reefsponge]

not to derail this thread but would mixing of 2 different salts be a bad idea? I was thinking of doing a 50/50 on tm pro and coralife to cut down on the cost of tm pro.

 

[Reef Pets]

I change salts whenever something else is on sale. Within the last 3 months or so I have used Reef Crystals, Seachem, Instant Ocean and now Kent. I have never seen a change in coral from changing salt. I have a wide range of coral. About 40 SPS colonies, 18 Ultra Grade Acans, several different LE Zoa/Paly colonies, many other common Zoa colonies, a couple hundred heads of Duncans, Hammer Coral and so on...... You get the idea, a wide range of coral.

I have been changing salt for years and so far I have never seen a difference. Think of when you purchase a coral from a reef store, site or trade with someone on R2R. There is a good chance they use a different salt than you do and the coral do not die when they enter your tank.....

 

[dots]

The whole changing salts IMO, is overrated, and I believe there are more issues to someone losing corals than just changing salts. People might believe it has to deal with the changing of salts, but it could be residual problems of corals and the salt just pushed them over the edge. I just mention this as I am currenty using 4 different types of salts

I agree with you on this one. I would think minus the fact of a buildup of a certain parameter over time because the use of a certain brand......and that has been found as a source of a problem, perhaps switching or blending could resolve such.....but I think people are too quick to blame the products versus themselves in a downward spiral or less that stellar results. We as SPSers are quick to try new bulbs, salts, skimmers.....etc in search of perfection.....which is admirable, but sometimes we just need to chill out and wait.

Though using a blend can even out all the "deficiencies", (how do we know what is "deficient" when we still don't know "what" and "how much" we need to begin with?), and go for an "average" but this can open one up to increased odds of batch errors increased x fold per number of brands used. It looks like we are just making things more difficult for ourselves in the longrun.

I find it hard enough to stay in supply of the one salt I use as is......say there is a backorder and you can only get 3 out of your 4 salts and you have a large WC planned......a change in chemistry like that could mess with your stability big time, causing months of browning.......or worse.