Does salt brand matter that much???

[Gwitness]

I currently use aquavitro salinity and I'm just curious do salt brands matter that much? And would i get better results using another brand? I understand there are a million things that going into a successful tank, but I'm just curious about salt and how important the brand is?

 

[redfishbluefish]

You will find success stories with every brand.....and also similarly disasters. I think it's like the tomato sauce you use on spaghetti....it's what your mom first made for you and therefore, what you are comfortable using.

It also depends on what you target for alk and calc numbers. For me, I prefer my saltwater to be equal to ocean water....I dose daily to maintain alk and calc. Therefore, I use plain old simple Instant Ocean, because it is the ocean, and I've had success using this salt.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Alot of the higher end salts mix out with elements high, usually for heavy coral tanks. Instant Ocean mixes out normal,to some low, then you add the elements that you need to the tank.

 

[Gwitness]

I have a pretty packed out tank...mostly sps now and have my tank pretty consistent with alk between 8 and 9 and calcium at 420 ...magnesium struggles to stay above 1200 which is super annoying because I do 20 gallon a week water changes!

 

[that Reef Guy]

It depends what you are doing.

I use Tropic Marin Pro.

I used to use Reef Crystals (The Best Selling Salt out there for Reef Tanks).

The problem is is that I try to keep my Alkalinity around 8 to 8.5

Well Reef Crystals is around 13.7 which is Insane because nobody keeps their Alkalinity that High!

And I do very large water changes.

So my Alkalinity gets waaay out of wack after a water change.

Stability is key.

Tropic Marin Pro is always in the 8 to 8.5 range so it is perfect for me.

So for me yes salt brand really really really matters.

Alkalinity is the most important thing when choosing Salt Brands.

 

[Gwitness]

See way back when I started I did reef crystals also and anytime I did a water change it would throw off my parameters and it was like starting from scratch again on stability.....I switched to aquavitro and it's been going good and stable from what I can tell but I have seen some bad things about it from people that have used t before and just was curious

 

[Gwitness]

Maybe I didn't mix the reef crystals as I was supposed too and that's why numbers were way off

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I personally don't think it matters much, except by personal preference for certain things being in our out of the mix. You can have a successful tank with almost any mix, and there's no evidence that one or two specific mixes lead to better success.

I personally do not want organics (like vitamins) in my mix, which rules out a few, like Reef Crystals and Tropic Marin Bioactif.

In other cases, I don't like the misleading or inaccurate marketing claims made by the company for the salt or other products, so I won't buy things from them.

 

[Gwitness]

I personally don't think it matters much, except by personal preference for certain things being in our out of the mix. You can have a successful tank with almost any mix, and there's no evidence that one or two specific mixes lead to better success.

I personally do not want organics (like vitamins) in my mix, which rules out a few, like Reef Crystals and Tropic Marin Bioactif.

In other cases, I don't like the misleading or inaccurate marketing claims made by the company for the salt or other products, so I won't buy things from them.

I agree man...what salt do you use? What's your opinion on aquavitro salinity?

 

[pciscott]

I have tried most high end salts and I am having my best results with Instant Ocean and weekly water changes On a 600 gallon system and a 125 gallon system. I like the 200 gallon box, as it comes in 4 50 gallon bags. I do about 46 gallons per bag and this comes out at 1.026. Easy, and I find it inexpensive compared to most other brands. I do 70 gallons a week on my large system weekly and 20 on my smaller. Coraline algae seemed to get much better after switching from ESV, but I did drop biopellets at the same time. I am glad I made the switch and my tanks are very healthy.

 

[Pete polyp]

Can't go wrong with good Ole instant ocean. There's a reason it's the best selling salt and the most used in commercial systems.

 

[shred5]

I personally don't think it matters much, except by personal preference for certain things being in our out of the mix. You can have a successful tank with almost any mix, and there's no evidence that one or two specific mixes lead to better success.

I agree..I used to get almost all my salt for free from Salt companies asking me to try their salt. I never saw much difference. A small weekly water change of like 5 to 10 percent really does very little and I end up dosing no matter what anyway.

 

[Gwitness]

Can't go wrong with good Ole instant ocean. There's a reason it's the best selling salt and the most used in commercial systems.

What does instant ocean usually end up at alkalinity, calcium and magnesium after mixing up? And just curious what is your process of mixing it?

 

[that Reef Guy]

I personally don't think it matters much, except by personal preference for certain things being in our out of the mix. You can have a successful tank with almost any mix, and there's no evidence that one or two specific mixes lead to better success.

I personally do not want organics (like vitamins) in my mix, which rules out a few, like Reef Crystals and Tropic Marin Bioactif.

In other cases, I don't like the misleading or inaccurate marketing claims made by the company for the salt or other products, so I won't buy things from them.

Why don't you want Vitamins?

Seems like a good thing to me?

What Vitamins does Reef Crystals have that Instant Ocean does not have?

I thought that they were pretty much the same salt just that Reef Crystals has higher Alkalinity, Calcium, and Magnesium.

What else is Different about the Two Salts?

 

[that Reef Guy]

I have tried most high end salts and I am having my best results with Instant Ocean and weekly water changes On a 600 gallon system and a 125 gallon system. I like the 200 gallon box, as it comes in 4 50 gallon bags. I do about 46 gallons per bag and this comes out at 1.026. Easy, and I find it inexpensive compared to most other brands. I do 70 gallons a week on my large system weekly and 20 on my smaller. Coraline algae seemed to get much better after switching from ESV, but I did drop biopellets at the same time. I am glad I made the switch and my tanks are very healthy.

Why didn't you like ESV

Everyone always tells me it is the best Salt out there.

And you can mix it to what you want.

You can do low or high Alk, etc.

I have never heard of any other Salt giving you this option.

I have never heard a bad thing about the Salt besides Price of course.

 

[that Reef Guy]

Can't go wrong with good Ole instant ocean. There's a reason it's the best selling salt and the most used in commercial systems.

I would argue that it is the best selling salt because it is the cheapest (most important for the large commercial systems that you mentioned because those people save the most money since they use a ton of it).

Not that there is anything wrong with it.

I am just saying it is the best selling because of price and it is easily available.

Anywhere that sells Salt has Instant Ocean (Even PetSmart and PetCo).

I have to special order my Tropic Marin Pro because nobody carries it.

If ESV were the same price as Instant Ocean then everyone would switch to that.

I think it is mostly due to price followed by availability.

Not that there is anything wrong with it like I said.

I just do not like it because it has High Alkalinity.

If the Alkalinity was Low like Tropic Marin Pro then I too would use Instant Ocean.

 

[that Reef Guy]

What does instant ocean usually end up at alkalinity, calcium and magnesium after mixing up? And just curious what is your process of mixing it?

The last time I tested Instant Ocean these were the readings.

Alkalinity - 13.9 (Ridiculously High)
Calcium - 455 (Almost Spot on to the Recommended 450)
Magnesium - 1380 (Higher than the Recommended amount of 1350 but much lower than where I like it).




In case anybody wants to know about the Salt I Prefer (Tropic Marin Pro) this is what the last Bucket was.

Alkalinity - 8.8 (Almost Perfect for me and the Lowest Alkalinity Salt that I have ever tested - Which is why I use it).
Calcium - 485
Magnesium - 1410

 

[Saltwaterwill]

Actually not dosing anything and using reed crystals everything good so far hopefully nobody dies on me.

 

[Gwitness]

Why don't you want Vitamins?

Seems like a good thing to me?

What Vitamins does Reef Crystals have that Instant Ocean does not have?

I thought that they were pretty much the same salt just that Reef Crystals has higher Alkalinity, Calcium, and Magnesium.

What else is Different about the Two Salts?

I'm curious about that same thing

 

[Gwitness]

What about just regular Red Sea and not Red Sea pro?? I guess the reason I started this was to see if I should switch from aquavitro or if anyone had any knowledge or experience with the aquavitro salinity brand...and would it benefit my tank more with a different salt....