Coral pro salt is the worst.

[Shaddow_wolf169]

Should I start dropping it or should I just wait I did throw in 14 gallons of fresh water yesterday slowly to drop my SG to 1.025

 

[Z3speed4me]

I've had no issues so far with Coral Pro. Went through 3 smaller buckets on my cube, and one big one on my 75 so far.
So far I have only mixed overnight and added to the tank the next day, as mentioned earlier, this mix seems to get a little unhappy when it sits too long mixing in a bucket for some reason.

 

[Sharvey103]

Never had a problem with it so far in the 3 years I have been using it. It mixes up perfectly. I check parameters of the mix before adding to the tank.

 

[Dancingmad]

Yep - dont overmix this salt or let it sit too long. It usually mixes to clear in 15-30 min. Love it!

 

[trido]

Yep - dont overmix this salt or let it sit too long. It usually mixes to clear in 15-30 min. Love it!

I dont think I could use this salt. I typically do a 10% WC (50Gs) every two weeks and have for nearly 12 years. I do a WC and then make 50Gs of RO, then I add salt and walk away. Two days, or a week later I check the SG and add more salt if necessary. A few days later I do my WC and repeat the process. My make up water can and will sit for up to three weeks at a time before I use it.

It seems really odd that the chemistry would change while its sitting with a pump and heater in the make up bin. Does it change chemistry once its in the tank too?

 

[hybridazn]

So I took my water to be tested at my buddies coral shop. Didn't trust api kit CA alk mag I got 510, 13 and 1600 maxed out. So he checked my water with the red Sea kit and got 540 13.5, and 1680 my sg was 1.027 Lil high I keep it around 1.025 I always mix my salt before adding to water. Tank is 160 gallon total. If I use instant ocean regular salt to drop levels how big of a water change can I make without messing stuff up. My wall hammer coral is looking bad heard they hate high mag. I also flushed my salinity down to 1.025 over a 6 hour period. Tested Ca with my api kit now I got 520 tested 3 times. How can I drop my levels safely?

while those readings are a bit higher than advertised it shouldn't be enough to cause the issues your having. How big of a water change do you do weekly? Are you dosing as well? If your dosing how much 2 part are you going thru daily

 

[Dancingmad]

It seems really odd that the chemistry would change while its sitting with a pump and heater in the make up bin. Does it change chemistry once its in the tank too?

I just love the salt: mixes up clear quickly b/c I don't have the setup to have SW on standby. I'll usually get my buckets mixing while I do the water change - clean the glass, pick at some rocks, siphon out water/crud and by the time I'm done with that BAM(like Emril) my saltwater is done mixing. Quick test on salinity to confirm its where I need it and I'm pretty much done. I have a soft coral / Nem tank - not even SPS/LPS and my reef has no issues.

Really could only speculate on the changes to chemistry while its mixing - if I overmix I do get rusty colored exceptionally fine precipitate throughout the bucket stuck to the walls. I don't get that in the tank

 

[CastAway]

Over three years use, and I love it. Never any issues, levels perfect, 10% water changes on 210G total volume.

Tagging along.

 

[cromag27 Verified Sponsor]

I ditched rscp because of inconsistent batches and the crazy way you have to mix it.

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

while those readings are a bit higher than advertised it shouldn't be enough to cause the issues your having. How big of a water change do you do weekly? Are you dosing as well? If your dosing how much 2 part are you going thru daily

I change 30 gallons every 2-3 weeks I do not dose at all my tank has 2 nems and about 40 lps frags. My mixing Time is 30 to 45 min on wc. After reading the bucket the values for the trace elements is for 1.022 or 23 makes since if your sg is made to 1.026 your trace elements would be increased. I will be keeping my sg at 1.023 for now on per the bucket for lps corals and softys. I will keep you guys posted.

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

I dont think I could use this salt. I typically do a 10% WC (50Gs) every two weeks and have for nearly 12 years. I do a WC and then make 50Gs of RO, then I add salt and walk away. Two days, or a week later I check the SG and add more salt if necessary. A few days later I do my WC and repeat the process. My make up water can and will sit for up to three weeks at a time before I use it.

It seems really odd that the chemistry would change while its sitting with a pump and heater in the make up bin. Does it change chemistry once its in the tank too?

What kind of salt do you use?

 

[40B Knasty]

READ THE DIRECTIONS. MIX FOR 0.5 - 2 HOURS. The thing with this salt the longer you mix it. The more it loses its minerals. Seen a video by that kid George. Looked at my bucket, because it was a highly recommend salt from the guy I ONLY trusted for a LFS and I have been from ME to OH. Here is a picture of it.. I was doing it wrong for a year. So it happens. No one died do to it or my corals.
Here is a graph I found someone did a writeup about while digging around the internet a few months ago about salt. I just switched to Reef Crystals. I didnt do the write ups. Just screen shot them. I am sure this helps.

 

[CodyRVA]

Not to sound harsh, but really read what you're buying. This is a potent salt... if your system doesn't need it, you will have issues. There's nothin wrong with this salt; you may have gotten a bad batch, but I've been using it for a long time and never had a single issue. I usually mix up 5 gallons at a time and sometimes it does sit for a while, still no problems.

 

[Shaddow_wolf169]

Not to sound harsh, but really read what you're buying. This is a potent salt... if your system doesn't need it, you will have issues. There's nothin wrong with this salt; you may have gotten a bad batch, but I've been using it for a long time and never had a single issue. I usually mix up 5 gallons at a time and sometimes it does sit for a while, still no problems.

I love the salt aswell when I start using it. You get a bad batch it does tend to leave a sour taste in your mouth. When you're Coral start looking like crap and your chemistry is all out of whack. My coral guy has issues with the salt as well sometimes. He told me it runs high at times.

 

[Water Dog]

Curious question for those that use RSCP... Do you guys run your tanks at 12ish dKH? If you run lower, do you get alk swings on water change day? Do you do any supplemental dosing to maintain your levels?

The reason I ask is that I used to use RC which would mix up to 12 dKH. Running my system between 8-9 dKH with supplemental dosing to account for daily uptake, I'd get alkalinity swings upward on my weekly water change day because of the high alkalinity of the newly mixed salt water. I've since switched to AF Reef as it mixes to around 8 dKH. Looking at Fritz RPM too.

I guess basically my question is, when using a high alkalinity salt like RSCP, do you maintain your tanks at that high alkalinity level as well? If you don't maintain at that high level, do you worry about alkalinity swings on water change day?

 

[CodyRVA]

Curious question for those that use RSCP... Do you guys run your tanks at 12ish dKH? If you run lower, do you get alk swings on water change day? Do you do any supplemental dosing to maintain your levels?

The reason I ask is that I used to use RC which would mix up to 12 dKH. Running my system between 8-9 dKH with supplemental dosing to account for daily uptake, I'd get alkalinity swings upward on my weekly water change day because of the high alkalinity of the newly mixed salt water. I've since switched to AF Reef as it mixes to around 8 dKH. Looking at Fritz RPM too.

I guess basically my question is, when using a high alkalinity salt like RSCP, do you maintain your tanks at that high alkalinity level as well? If you don't maintain at that high level, do you worry about alkalinity swings on water change day?

I've iterated my filtration and system over time and no longer perform water changes except when doing maintenance; even then the total volume is very small.

When I was performing routine water changes I still saw no difference. Maybe because my system utilized a lot of ALK? My ALK is at 7 dKh.

I would assume the larger the water change, and the greater the difference in ALK, the more of a difference you'd see; so if you don't need a potent salt, don't use one.

 

[jmp21677]

I had the opposite issue with red sea pro. Was great for two buckets...bought a big bag and alk wouldn't get about 6

 

[40B Knasty]

Hope no one minds me asking this since you all have a great amount of experience total in this thread. Has anyone every noticed with the label on Reef Crystals by Instant Ocean. It says "No Phosphates & No Nitrates." Does that mean Instant Ocean the purple box & cheaper of the two has phosphates & nitrates? Just they are not saying it does have phosphates and nitrates and they don't label it on there so it is not a turn off for marketing. I have been wondering this for awhile now.

 

[Murftoo]

I'm in the exact same boat, OP, and will be switching salt after reading this. Don't think my tank needs it. In the meantime, how do we safely bring down Mag levels (1600) and Cal (480) if there isn't enough coral to uptake the existing elements? Am thinking of grabbing a bucket of tropic marin since the chart shows it to be lower than average in both and just do frequent, small water changes. Any other suggestions to speed that process up?

 

[CodyRVA]

I'm in the exact same boat, OP, and will be switching salt after reading this. Don't think my tank needs it. In the meantime, how do we safely bring down Mag levels (1600) and Cal (480) if there isn't enough coral to uptake the existing elements? Am thinking of grabbing a bucket of tropic marin since the chart shows it to be lower than average in both and just do frequent, small water changes. Any other suggestions to speed that process up?

Let it fall naturally, asking for a sudden shift in your parameters will do nothing but cause problems. Don't even shoot for the "magic number" in regards to your chemistry; stability trumps the magic number.