Hey I've been using insta ocean since I started my tank. I now have three Corrals in there and live rock. Can I switch over to Reef crystal salt. Will it help. I read that if you have live rock and coral you should be using reef crystals.
Reef crystals.
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Thomasplatts1
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How do I find that ?
My levels are great .But the reef crystals says it has more minerals and metal detoxifying agents .Also I already bought the bucket .I cant just switch the salt when I do water changes ?
Thomasplatts1
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No I dont but I thought I was going to have just fish in the tank but I ended up putting 4 corals .The research I have done recommends reef crystals if you have coral and live rock .So I guess I am just asking if I start using reef crystals now since my insta ocean is almost gone will it have a bad effect .I am almost out of insta ocean and bought reef crystals insta ocean to start using .Can I just switch ?
I switched from IO Purple to Reef Crystals and had no issues. The transition was this: I wound up with enough purple for about half my usual water change, which is a little shy of 10%. So I used Orange/Reef Crystals to bring the new water the rest of the way up to my target salinity. Have sed 100% RC thereafter.
No problems.
personally I wouldn’t worry too much unless you’re doing a major water change, in which case you might want to phase it a little bit.
I have been slowly reducing my aquavitro salinity (can't get it where I'm at) by mixing it with a 50/50 of reef crystals and IO purple bucket. Gives me the ALK/Cal that I am shooting for. When I run out of salinity it will be a 50/50 of Reef Crystal and IO regular.
Interesting. I was desperately seeking coralline algae when I switched. And lo and behold, it started growing soon after. But I had also changed my lighting. Plus, the tank was more than a year old. So I can’t be sure RC was what did it. I tend to prefer to build up from basic DIY, so may switch back to IO purple.
Ashish Patel
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It really depends on how large of water changes your going to do in relation to your alk levels and what you plan on keeping. For SPS which need steady ALK I would not recommend it unless your keeping your Alk over 10DKH. I keep my alk 7-8dkh so when I used to use IO I was doing a 30% waterchange which would increase Alk to 8.8DKH. Then I'd have to adjust my dosing accordingly which is not ideal for SPS. For softies and LPS go for it they would probably benefits but I use Fritz now and never concerned about doing 50% waterchanges or even few 30% back to back (in case of emergency).
NeonRabbit221B
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Do it gradually with 5-10% wc and adjust dosing. Reef Crystals mixes with very high numbers as others have mentioned. Offhand its something like dkh 11, cal 500 and magnesium 1400. Switching salts is fine but keep in mind that stability is key. Test frequently
I've never had regular IO mix up over 8dkh. It does have under 390 calcium and around 1050-1100 mag though. From several buckets. That's why I mix 50/50. Puts me around 8.5-9 dkh, 410-440 calcium, and 1300 + mag. Which is perfect for me.
It’s all a balancing game! The high Mg in RC along with my modest Alk demand means I rarely have reason to add Mg. And I usually skip supplementing Ca/Alk the day after a WC with RC, although as things grow out maybe that will change.
firmefatboy799
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ive literally bought saltwater from multiple LFS every time when I first started and would do 5 gallon water changes in a 10 gallon AIO tank with 2 underpowered white/blue/green/red amazon lights every time I went through a 5 gallon jug of rodi from topping off and never had issues, I guess if you have a multi thousand dollar tank full of whatever the latest cool kid bounce mushroom, soul torch or walt disneys mickey mouse acro then I would slowly switch over since that sensitive tank has been bread to not be able to survive a 1 degree water temperature change or a piece of salt creep falling into the water table but if you're a basic reefer just switch, you know what's funny I changed LFS at one point to an ollllld shop in fontana California that had been ran by the same old Asian couple for as long as I could remember and they only sell Catalina real ocean water, they have it trucked in and I did a 5 gallon water change along with sand siphon and continued to use his water for the next couple months and instantly a mushroom I had the entire tank life started growing and bringing out new colors and the coraline exploded i mean grew on top of old stuff almost overnight along with my pod population exploding and I've tried fritz,RC,red sea, tropic marin etc all the science fancy salts but low and behold the real stuff pumped from the ocean and skimmed worked the best and to top it off my tank was always around 1.029 just cause when I started that's how the water was and I didn't know better but it worked, obviously every tank is different I had some olllld established rock and media but I digress, just switch the salt, I've noticed a lot of "proper reefers' harp on levels of this and no swings allowed etc but remember where this hobby came from, metal halides and tanks not getting water changes for 10+ years, just a rant that's been bugging me so I figured time to vent and I have the time to keyboard warrior it out hahaha happy reefing yall, let that tank do its thing!!!!
Randy Holmes-Farley
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I do not see any reason to switch. I used normal IO for my reef tank for 20 years, and do not prefer Reef Crystals.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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I think that is the result of low salinity or precipitation of calcium carbonte in the mixing barrel. The company target specifications for normal IO at 35 ppt are substantially higher.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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I cannot agree with that. That is just a marketing claim, not anything substantiated by the known contents.
Nope, that's at 1.026 with a clean mixing barrel with a calibrated refractometer. My first bucket of reef crystals also never mixed above 8 dkh but my last box mixes around 11dkh
