Safe to change salts every few months?

[LeChef]

Hi I started up my aquarium about 3-4 months ago using reef pro mix for about $70. I’m a student and don’t have tons of money to buy $70 salts every few months (I will of course buy them if necessary). But I was wondering if it’s okay to use Instant Ocean® Reef Crystals Aquarium Reef Salt too and switch the salts whenever I run out. (For money saving purposes) Or could that affect the tank switching salts every few months?

 

[DeniableArc]

Hi, as long as your salt parameters are close to your water parameters I don’t think it will be a problem.

 

[agame2021]

Well you are gonna have to do it slowly if you want to stay stable. You need to watch your alk, PH, and temp and all that fun stuff. If you already got corals I would do it with small water changes(like 5-10%) every week. If you got fish only you could just take the fish out and do a 50-100% water change and just drip and temp acclimate the fish. It’s all up to what you feel comfortable with.
Again main thing is keeping everything (more than just the salinity) balanced so as not to shock the tank/rock/fish/corals.

 

[LeChef]

Well you are gonna have to do it slowly if you want to stay stable. You need to watch your alk, PH, and temp and all that fun stuff. If you already got corals I would do it with small water changes(like 5-10%) every week. If you got fish only you could just take the fish out and do a 50-100% water change and just drip and temp acclimate the fish. It’s all up to what you feel comfortable with.
Again main thing is keeping everything (more than just the salinity) balanced so as not to shock the tank/rock/fish/corals.

Okay I usually do a 10% water change every week so thanks for the help!

 

[Floyd-]

I did the same. Went from reef pro to crystals and I saw no issues with fish or my corals. I just straight switched over. No little by little.

 

[nereefpat]

Brand of salt won't matter, if only doing 10% water changes weekly.

 

[Arego]

I mix various salts to get the levels I want if one mix isn't quite where I need it to be. As I do not dose anything to modify the new water.

As of right now it's just RC and plain IO that I use in different ratios together. I have never encountered an issue in years doing this. Granted I've been doing this since day one on my 250.. I didn't just start doing it.. I don't recommend anyone do what I'm doing but it works great for my needs

 

[outhouse]

It will not matter at all, been doing 1/3 total volume water changes with different brands for decades. 100g water changes have never had any kind of negative effect. Only positive.

 

[Tamberav]

Hi I started up my aquarium about 3-4 months ago using reef pro mix for about $70. I’m a student and don’t have tons of money to buy $70 salts every few months (I will of course buy them if necessary). But I was wondering if it’s okay to use Instant Ocean® Reef Crystals Aquarium Reef Salt too and switch the salts whenever I run out. (For money saving purposes) Or could that affect the tank switching salts every few months?

You could use regular instant ocean (not reef) if you wanted and your tank would be fine. I use it since it is the cheapest. Lots of people use IO with great success. Public aquariums use it too!

As far as changing. I would not worry if you generally do 10% changes.