Red Sea Salt vs. Instant Ocean

[ashl_86]

Hello my name is Ashley and pretty soon I will be setting up my larger tank . Currently in my smaller tank I'm using Instant Ocean Sea Salt. Im planning to set up a reef tank and was looking into Red Sea Pro Coral Salt. I've seen video post in youtube and have read a few different forums and I've noticed many people are using Red Sea but never said why. I've looked at the Rea Sea website and so far like it.So my question is...Has anyone noticed any great differences between using the two? Rea Sea isn't sold at my local pet shops so I just weighing my options.

Thanks in advance!

 

[reefwiser]

It depends on the local shop. One of the reef shops here in Louisville sells Red Sea Tropic Marine and Instant Ocean. You will get a thousand people telling you all kinds of reasons they use a particular salt. IO is a real basic salt and you can buy it real cheap and that is it's appeal. I used Red Sea is a good salt I use the blue bucket as it is designed to mix up at NSW(Natural Sea Water) levels. It also mixes fast and you can mix up a batch of fresh salt and use it once it is fully dissolved. I also love that the Salt mixes up clean IO don't do that you get a gritty and dirty bucket and heater and water pump when you mix up a bucket. I am not a fan. After using a good clean mixing and stable parameter salt most people will stick with it.

 

[ashl_86]

It depends on the local shop. One of the reef shops here in Louisville sells Red Sea Tropic Marine and Instant Ocean. You will get a thousand people telling you all kinds of reasons they use a particular salt. IO is a real basic salt and you can buy it real cheap and that is it's appeal. I used Red Sea is a good salt I use the blue bucket as it is designed to mix up at NSW(Natural Sea Water) levels. It also mixes fast and you can mix up a batch of fresh salt and use it once it is fully dissolved. I also love that the Salt mixes up clean IO don't do that you get a gritty and dirty bucket and heater and water pump when you mix up a bucket. I am not a fan. After using a good clean mixing and stable parameter salt most people will stick with it.

Thanks for the response. We'll be buuing Red Sea for the other aquarium.[emoji2]

 

[Salty1962]

It depends on what you're going to keep in your tank. If you go with a FOWLR or softies then the IO is great salt. If you're going keep SPS then the Red Sea is better, IMO, because it has elevated Ca, ALK and Mg. Also I liked the Red Sea because I could mix it up in a couple of hours and use it, where as IO is better mixed over night. Hope this helps some and not confuse more.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

IMO, both of those salts will be fine. With the IO you may need to dose a bit more calcium, depending on how you intend to supplement calcium and alkalinity. I used just IO for more than 20 years.

 

[AdamNC]

On both there are things that need to be done before changing water I've noticed. With the Red Sea I tend to keep my levels a hair lower and I have to turn off my dosing pumps as not the overshoot my levels. With the IO I always have to supliment the mix to match my levels but I don't have to turn off my dosing pumps.

 

[PatW]

Instant ocean can need some dosing for calcium. It does leave a bit of sediment in the mixing can. But after using it, I rinse it out with RODI and it is good to go.

 

[saltyhog]

I have used Reef Crystals and HW Reefer before switching to IO several months ago. With RC I got a small alk spike due to it's super high alk and my choice to run my tank about 8.8-9.0 dKh. With IO I do have to dose Mg a bit more often but otherwise it is closer to the parameters I choose to keep.

If you intend to keep high alkalinity RSCP or RC is great. If you want to keep it a bit lower IO will work fine and save a bit of money, especially in a big tank. I like saving the money on salt to spend on corals or fish!