Kent Marine Reef Salt

pshootr · Oct 28, 2018

Hello all, I am still in the planning stages for a nano reef round 30 gallons in size.I was window shopping for salts at liveaquaria.com, and it appears that Kent Marine Reef salt provides the perimeters I am after. But I have not seen much feedback about this salt from other members. It appears to be a quality salt mix with desirable perimeters at a decent price. Does anyone have experience using Kent Marine Reef salt?

pshootr · Oct 28, 2018

pshootr said:
Hello all, I am still in the planning stages for a nano reef round 30 gallons in size.I was window shopping for salts at liveaquaria.com, and it appears that Kent Marine Reef salt provides the perimeters I am after. But I have not seen much feedback about this salt from other members. It appears to be a quality salt mix with desirable perimeters at a decent price. Does anyone have experience using Kent Marine Reef salt?

https://m.liveaquaria.com/product/3909/kent-marine-reef-salt-mix?pcatid=3909&c=3753+3756+3909

Bpb · Oct 28, 2018

The calcium is really high. Not sure why they formulate it like that

pshootr · Oct 28, 2018

Bpb said:
The calcium is really high. Not sure why they formulate it like that

I also noticed that, and had originally intended to mention that.Otherwise everything else looks to be in line, and I like the fact that it comes packaged with four separate bags. I wonder if it is actually considered to be potentially problematic for calcium to be in that range?

pshootr · Oct 28, 2018

I am thinking since calcium levels will drop naturally overtime. That perhaps the elevated calcium level could keep you in the correct range by doing regular water changes, rather than having to dose calcium or at least as much.

Provided that regular water changes would also keep alkalinity in check, this could be a good thing. Of course this idea would likely only apply if you had a fair amount of LPS, or SPS.

pshootr · Oct 30, 2018

Afterthoughts

Since the tank I am planning 4 is rather small, (30 gallon) and I will likely be starting off with small soft corals and LPS,I am thinking that regular instant ocean will be just fine for quite some time. And if at any point I notice calcium/alk levels not being sufficient, then maybe I will consider switching to a salt with higher calcium/alk levels to start doing water changes with.

Rjukan · Nov 16, 2018

pshootr said:
Afterthoughts

Since the tank I am planning 4 is rather small, (30 gallon) and I will likely be starting off with small soft corals and LPS,I am thinking that regular instant ocean will be just fine for quite some time. And if at any point I notice calcium/alk levels not being sufficient, then maybe I will consider switching to a salt with higher calcium/alk levels to start doing water changes with.

Hey pshootr,

After my experience with Reef Crystals I would say just get plain ol IO and buy a good two part for dosing calc and alk. You don't need to bother with a doser, manual is fine especially for this system you're planning on that's not overloaded with corals.

I switched to Red Sea Pro after not being happy with RC (my alk and cal were always low). But I ended up getting seachem 2 part before using the RSCP salt, and I'm really happy with the results. Had I known it would have been so easy I would have just gotten IO instead and kept up dosing.