Salt choice for alkalinity

[CamoFan]

I've been using Red Sea coral pro salt for 4 months now. Went from instant ocean reef crystals to RS salt and it's almost night and day. My alk was always on the low side around 7-dKH and now it stays around 8-9dKH. I'm also using seachem 8.3 buffer which also buffers the alk a little bit.

In my experience, it dissolves fairly easily but I'm also mixing 5gal at a time so it's not much salt. The water mixes clear and always comes out to 1.025 when I mix it. I add the fresh saltwater a few cups at a time and it doesn't cloud my tank water nor do I see a lot of particulate matter floating around after addition.

Although my corals are all easy stuff (a Duncan, an acan, 2 zoas and a GSP rock) along with an anemone, I'm seeing some nice growth on the duncan and the zoas, one of which has come back from the dead, only had 4 heads and now has 7-8 heads in about 2-3 months. GSP has taken over the rocks I gave it and is attempting to grow over the sand. Acan is happy as I can see all the heads growing bigger and the feeder tentacles are out

 

[areohen]

I've been using Red Sea coral pro salt for 4 months now. Went from instant ocean reef crystals to RS salt and it's almost night and day. My alk was always on the low side around 7-dKH and now it stays around 8-9dKH. I'm also using seachem 8.3 buffer which also buffers the alk a little bit.

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Not sure why you were getting only 7 dkh with IO reef crystals. im pretty sure reef crystals has one of the highest DKH of any salt mix. I've actually done the opposite going from Red Sea to IO. Im getting 10 dkh with reef crystals. Plus i like the increased cal and mag over RS and not to mention it is so much cheaper.

 

[nothing_fancy]

Reef crystals, it will spike alk directly after a WC if my trident tests around that time but will not maintain alk in any way for me. Drops back down in less than a days time. Soda ash works for me

 

[acropora4u]

Reef crystals, it will spike alk directly after a WC if my trident tests around that time but will not maintain alk in any way for me. Drops back down in less than a days time. Soda ash works for me

does soda ash lower alkalinity in fresh saltwater? where do you get it?

 

[ScottB]

It has been a few years, but I split a pallet for something like $22 a box - we got a couple. Not hard to get a few other locals onboard with this at 10-12 boxes at a time. I have never seen this with other salt brands. In case anybody was wondering, and I know that you are, a minivan full of IO barely makes it down the street - felt sorry for that dude whose tires were almost rubbing in the back. Bring a truck to a IO pallet party.

Yeah last time it took two (short) trips in my wife's X3 to get it done. I do miss my truck sometimes.

 

[Uncle99]

5 year old mixed reef using Red Sea Black.
Always available in my area in every store.
I dose to 10.5dkh and it mixes to 11.5dkh.

 

[lilzbra]

Started with Instant Ocean/Reef Crystals early on in my reefing hobby (40 yrs ago...). Transitioned to Tropic Marine Pro Reef around 20 years ago when I started making a bit more money, and never looked back... until... the Turkey bucket incident that caused a massive RTN situation for most of my acropora. I went through about 4 buckets of that salt until I realized what was going on. After that I switched over to Brightwell and have had great results. I suffer from MTS like many folks here, and keep a few reef tanks from softies, mixed SPS/LPS, to acro dominated. I try to keep alk around 7.5 dkh using a combo of calcium reactor and kalkwasser in my top off water. The Kalk is mainly to keep the PH around 8.4-8.5 range. I do not dose anything else.

 

[rtparty]

does soda ash lower alkalinity in fresh saltwater? where do you get it?

Soda ash raises alkalinity. You want something like muriatic acid to lower alkalinity in new salt water. You need to heavily aerate it after adding though.

 

[Devisissy]

Nyos.

 

[Perry]

Aquaforest salt is great for sps/acros. I use the Reef Salt, it mixes clear in under 5 minutes, no residue, and balanced with trace. ICP small batch verified, it mixes exactly where I set my parameters, large water changes do not impact chemistry adversely, as they are matching.

 

[jhadaway]

I use HW Marinemix Reefer. The Alk is close for me so I only need to spike it to get to 9 where I maintain it. It mixes clean and it seems to be on sale whenever I need it lately. I used Red Sea for a bit but I didn't like the red sludge that it left.

 

[twentyleagues]

I've used rc forever. It's easy to get for me, price is decent and I like the fact it mixes at higher levels. In the past I had a calcium reactor and topped off with kalk. Call it a mixed reef I guess. The three main viewing tanks were sps, lps and zoas, and a nps lps tank, odds and ends here and there all tanks were connected via a sump system so all had the same water parameters.
Just started back in feb-march 30g currently mixed.

 

[Doctorgori]

I got no brand loyalty but have been buying IO for decades … RC or purple top, I will mix em no rhyme nor reason, as I’m only changing max 20% - 25% at a time, the final levels aren’t going to affect the display tank that much ….
I’m not a fan of high alk anymore ,,,just anecdotally /unscientificly anything under 9 seems less problematic