Instant ocean sea salt

[philfree]

How much more mix/gallon do you have to use to get 1.026?

i usually follow the "1/2 cup for every gallon" as listed in the instructions on most salts. i find myself only having to add no more than 1/4 cup to get to 1.026. Give or take a bit. i do it 5 gallons at a time. So right away dump 2.5 cups, then a bit till i hit the desired 1.026.
I have SPS, LPS, and softies.

 

[glb]

i usually follow the "1/2 cup for every gallon" as listed in the instructions on most salts. i find myself only having to add no more than 1/4 cup to get to 1.026. Give or take a bit. i do it 5 gallons at a time. So right away dump 2.5 cups, then a bit till i hit the desired 1.026.
I have SPS, LPS, and softies.

Thanks. Your corals are just like mine. With RC, it mixed up at 1.021, so it was a real pain to get it up to 1.026

 

[Daytonareefing]

I used RC for years with great results then more than one batch gave me problems. I switched to a different salt and what a difference like night and day. The person that taught me about saltwater tank about 20 years ago owned a fish store and only used IO with some of the best looking tanks I ever seen. It really works well. Its just not what I prefer and I know she used it for years before I meet her. The only thing she added was kalkwasser and purigen.

 

[DurocShark]

These threads always blow my mind. I happen to use Sea Chem, but that's because I had experience with it years ago, and know it works. In the 90's I had customers running everything from IO to Real Ocean (NSW) to "whatever the fish store sells" to the Sea Chem to really exotic stuff from a university. It all seems to work, and once my 70 is stable, I'm changing to IO just because it's so much cheaper and with a stable system I can monitor easily.

 

[Reefing Madness]

I use Instant Ocean also. Been using it for 15 years, never have any issues with it. Just dose what the tank needs later on.

 

[Paolissimo]

No, that is not true. I've used only normal Instant Ocean on my reef tank for 19 years. I don't think Reef Crystals is better and choose to not use it because I do not want added vitamins and metal chelators.

Randy
are you saying Reef crystal is a chelated salt? Also I honestly don't think that a person can replenish what the aquarium animals are absorbing just by using this salt or that salt. If your corals are growing, the salt you use is not going to replenish what is being used just by doing water changes. having said that, i use reef crystal.

 

[yellojello]

So many threads on this. Search function is your friend.

I've been using IO since starting 5 years ago. Fine for me. Fine for many. Any salt is fine, but IO is the cheapest. Any salt is fine, just as long as you know how to use it by adjusting accordingly by testing your parameters, which will change as your corals grow. Then supplement with ALK, CA, MAG and others if you like, or do more frequent water changes, again, depending on your parameters and their daily changes.

 

[dave171]

Randy
are you saying Reef crystal is a chelated salt? Also I honestly don't think that a person can replenish what the aquarium animals are absorbing just by using this salt or that salt. If your corals are growing, the salt you use is not going to replenish what is being used just by doing water changes. having said that, i use reef crystal.

Someone that understands! God bless you.

 

[iratherBfishing]

I think the only difference is reef salt comes with calcium and all that other good stuff. But it's fixable

 

[akitareefer]

I knew a person that switched to IO because RC had more phosphates. I'm not sure if that's true.

I've been contemplating making the switch to save a few bucks since I already dose.

 

[Makena95GT]

I think the only difference is reef salt comes with calcium and all that other good stuff. But it's fixable

All salts will have calcium & other elements, reef salt just has them in a higher concentration to support more demanding systems.. But even still if you have a system with a ton of coral no salt will be enough to support their uptake alone

 

[glb]

I use Instant Ocean also. Been using it for 15 years, never have any issues with it. Just dose what the tank needs later on.

Exactly. Dosing depends on what you have in your tank. I never need to add mg and alk/ca are maintained with Kalk.

 

[hart24601]

FWIW the last batch of IO I made took 1 bag of salt from the 200g box + 43g of water to make 35ppt. If the other 3 bags in that box hold the same the 200g box should give ~170 gallons of 35ppt. My last 200 gallon box of expensive ESV only made 160 gallons at 35ppt which seemed silly to me as who is going to run a low salinity fish only tank with expensive ESV salt.

 

[mr.reeferman]

i now run a fowlr but in my old tank i used instant ocean boxed premaid water and it worked great i can only find it at petco but its always constant no matter what so theres no worries topped off with tap but my tap is pretty pure judging by tests and i always added epi water treatment and then let sit in a bucket with a heater and pump over a 24 hour period just to make sure everything was good and i never had any problems or fluctuations in my tank untill i moved ... moving is why i have no corals now sold them just for reassurance fish i can move but not corals it scares me

 

[GainesvilleReef]

I started with "reef" salt mix and switched to regular IO. I had two issue's with "reef" salts. One was the super high alkalinity. Of course this is what you are actually paying for. But I run my tanks at 7.5 to 8 and water changes caused me problems. The second the higher levels make them more susceptible to precipitation and sometimes after mixing I would end up with too low parameters. Fresh IO is still at 10-11 but that is easier to deal with than 14. It also is more stable. I never have precipitation with IO and it's parameters are much more repeatable from batch to batch for that reason. You also can store it a long time without aeration. Another big reason to use it is that it is more widely available. You can buy it at the big box pet stores if you need to. I also maintain a 30G tank with only water changes. If the parameters need adjustment I just increase the frequency of my water changes. I won't use "reef" salts again because using the "regular" salts is so much easier.

 

[dave171]

Opinions will not give you results, expert advice will. This advice and expert status is tricky and I recommend doing a little research or reading up on a member before you take their advice. On top of that the proof is in the pictures. If you have never used IO salt than why even answer this thread? I have ended up using IO myself and the Reef is thriving. I am no expert, but it took me along time to figure out not to take advice from those that have opinions and not results. Tap water in a reef, Really? That is not good advice and while I try to be polite, that will not be good for anything alive in your reef!

Tap water in a reef horrible? Yes this is true but to top off every once in a while. Or if you are using salt that can be mixed with tap and are in a pinch it's not going to kill your tank. Okay as stated above the person uses tap water to top off and never had a problem. I actually have done 10 gal reef tanks only with tap as a test and there was no difference at all. It does have to do with how clean your water is but more than likely you have decent water and will be fine. I agree that ro/di water is best but not 100% essential.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Randy
are you saying Reef crystal is a chelated salt? Also I honestly don't think that a person can replenish what the aquarium animals are absorbing just by using this salt or that salt. If your corals are growing, the salt you use is not going to replenish what is being used just by doing water changes. having said that, i use reef crystal.

It is not a "chelated" salt in the sense of the calcium or other primary ingredients, but it does contain a metal chelator (last time they told me, anyway, in 2010) that is intended to "detoxify" the water from heavy metals.

 

[dave171]

It is not a "chelated" salt in the sense of the calcium or other primary ingredients, but it does contain a metal chelator (last time they told me, anyway, in 2010) that is intended to "detoxify" the water from heavy metals.

Pretty sure this is because it is intended to be used with tap water. And there obviously are metals in tap water. Correct me if I'm wrong Randy?

 

[Makena95GT]

Tap water in a reef horrible? Yes this is true but to top off every once in a while. Or if you are using salt that can be mixed with tap and are in a pinch it's not going to kill your tank. Okay as stated above the person uses tap water to top off and never had a problem. I actually have done 10 gal reef tanks only with tap as a test and there was no difference at all. It does have to do with how clean your water is but more than likely you have decent water and will be fine. I agree that ro/di water is best but not 100% essential.

I use tap in my 40g reef. Havent had any issues but I also havean oversized skimmer and run purigen and phosguard to combat the small amount of phosphates I have tested from the tap. No algae issues as of yet.

I also used tap before i upgraded.. In a 10g. Didn't have algae probs till I got lazy with water changes and had health issues and stopped caring for the tank at all for over a mo th

 

[bairdimusprime]

I personally use reef crystals. nothing but on my new tank for 2 years+ now. I get great growth and healthy fish. when i started in the hobby in 1999 i started with instant ocean.. its a great product and i always get consistent readings with my mixes.
Tap water i used when i started... get the normal diatom blooms from it... a good clean up crew strong skimmer and some purigen and you're fine...

now i have my own purifying system with a 5 stage RODI as well...