Coralife Marine Salt

Neo Jeo · Mar 22, 2018

I have been using Coralife Marine Salt for about 6 weeks. I only have a few corals.

My alk is at 6.6 it has been around 7... I don't understand why it's so low, even after water changes.

Coralife Marine Salt should be great salt! They have been making it for a long time with great reviews. Do I really have to switch salt? Would this really fix my alk problem?

I think Ill try Reef Crystals. Anyone have any thoughts?

Neo Jeo · Mar 22, 2018

Salt Product
Calcium
Alkalinity
Magnesium
Aquatic Gardens
430
8
1240
Brightwell Neomarine
370
11
1140
CoraLife
560
9
1380
Crystal Sea Marinemix
340
9
1050
Crystal Sea Marinemix Bio-Assay
340
9
1050
D-D H2Ocean
450
10
1380
Instant Ocean
400
11
1350
Kent
540
11
1200
Marine Environment
480
7.5
1450
Oceanic
580
8.5
1650
OceanPure
510
10
1320
Red Sea
400
8
1300
Red Sea Coral Pro
470
12.5
1400
Reef Crystals
490
13
1440
Reefer's Best
420
11
1200
SeaChem aquavitro salinity
422
9.8
1336
SeaChem Marine Salt
500
10
1400
SeaChem Reef Salt
540
10
1450
Tropic Marin
375
10
1230
Tropic Marin Pro Reef
450
8.5
1380
Tunze Reef Salt
420
9.5
1350

Neo Jeo · Mar 22, 2018

Looks like my prob might be with Corallife salt. Ill be picking up RC today and doing a water change.

S-t-r-e-t-c-h · Mar 22, 2018

Just be careful about pushing the alkalinity up too fast. Honestly, I wouldn't go chasing 7 if the corals are looking good at 6.6.

IMO, Reef Crystals is a better salt than Corallife, so that's probably not a bad move, just try to go slowly...

Neo Jeo · Mar 22, 2018

Should I just mix the RC and CL? Or do a WC with just RC? And on and off back until my CL salt is gone?

andrewkw · Mar 22, 2018

I have been using coralife on and off for 10+ years. I haven't used a different salt in the last 2 at least. While I don't test every single batch I've never had an alk issue. It routinely does mix in the 9 range. This is why I prefer it to IO/RC as I keep my tank 7.5ish. The calcium does mix very high 500+ but imo it doesn't matter if you keep your calcium at 400 or closer to 500.

Flippers4pups · Mar 22, 2018

Yep, I've used it pretty much the whole time I've been reefing without issues. Doesn't mean there couldn't be a bad batch. Same can be said about any salt mix.

Midrats · Mar 22, 2018

20 year Coralife fan here, no problems and very consistent and clean. No more T shirts though

tthouston · Mar 22, 2018

I have been using Coralife too, and I don't have any problem with it. I can add some "Bake" baking soda in the reservoir tank to increase alk to 9 or 10. IMO, I like Coralife more than IO.

Neo Jeo · Mar 22, 2018

I liked CL salt but after reading it seems CL salt is around 9 alk and RC is around 13. RC has a little lower calcium. Im going to switch to RC and see if my numbers improve.

Js.Aqua.Project · Mar 22, 2018

S-t-r-e-t-c-h said:
Honestly, I wouldn't go chasing 7 if the corals are looking good at 6.6.

I agree with this statement, rather than basing your reefing goals off of a number base it off how your tank looks and behaves. Stability is far more important than any particular number (assuming we aren't so high/low to cause degradation of course).

If you are going to base your reefing off of a set number, pick a salt that mixes as close as possible to that number. I personally use RS Coral Pro as it has been the most consistent for me and my tank.

Neo Jeo said:
Should I just mix the RC and CL? Or do a WC with just RC? And on and off back until my CL salt is gone?

I wouldn't mix the salts together. In the past I, when I switched salts, I just waited to run out of what I already had then switched maintaining my normal water change percentage.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Mar 22, 2018

I think you be better off (and spend less money) just dosing calcium and alkalinity rather than trying to get there by water changes, unless you would be doing those same size changes anyway. Alkalinity dosing is almost free. [emoji23]

Flippers4pups · Mar 22, 2018

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
I think you be better off (and spend less money) just dosing calcium and alkalinity rather than trying to get there by water changes, unless you would be doing those same size changes anyway. Alkalinity dosing is almost free. [emoji23]

Sodium bicarbonate (good ole "Arm and Hammer") cheap!

vetteguy53081 · Mar 22, 2018

Coralife has good reputation. I would question amount of air going into tank, type of bedding ( sand? crushed coral?) and type of water used which are factor affecting ph. Also, do you dose alk or similar?

Karl M · Mar 23, 2018

squareriggersailor said:
20 year Coralife fan here, no problems and very consistent and clean. No more T shirts though

Or Buckets. I wish Coraline would bring them back

Flippers4pups · Mar 23, 2018

Karl M said:
Or Buckets. I wish Coraline would bring them back

Yes the tee shirts were nice.

Midrats · Mar 23, 2018

I'm pretty sure my wife is happy the T shirts are a thing of the past. She called jeans and a Coralife T my uniform ;Smuggrin

andrewkw · Mar 23, 2018

I think I still have a few of the tshirts. A long time ago a friend of a friend was getting into the hobby so they came over. My friend knew I had a bunch of saltwater tanks but never saw them. They were blown away by everything in the basement and when they were done joked about where the gift shop was. I pulled out some new shirts and they all left with some.

505kind · Mar 15, 2019

My first real tank and reef back in 2004 was all Coralife salt and the tank was outstanding for the two short years it was online. It's probably one of the best deals in the world for salt with Reef salt parameters.