Salt Mix advice

Savant · Apr 10, 2013

Hmm pretty sure this is a question with as many opinions as there are members in this forum but here goes.....

Is there one brand of salt that does better for softies & zoa's as compared to SPS type corals?

My tank will be starting off with the softies and such with an eye to changing to a more SPS focused tank in several years. So do I need the "best and most expensive" or does price not even equate with quality?

mike007 · Apr 10, 2013

Its more of a personal choice which salt to use. There are so many good salts out there. Personally i prefer Redsea Pro but others have there own opinion. I like the reef salts because they have more of what is needed to grow corals without having to add a lot of supplements.

SeahorseKeeper · Apr 10, 2013

mike007 said:
Its more of a personal choice which salt to use. There are so many good salts out there. Personally i prefer Redsea Pro but others have there own opinion. I like the reef salts because they have more of what is needed to grow corals without having to add a lot of supplements.

+1. I find it is very important to test the water both new and existing to ensure the parameters are in line. By doing this, you can identify the demands of your system and find a salt that works for your system. Another good reason to test the salt is to avoid parameter swings. Once, I switched salts without testing it and the alk levels were completely off. The entire batch of salt was bad.

Savant · Apr 11, 2013

When you say "test" the salt, you mean mix up a batch and test/compare? Im pretty sure thats what you mean...lol or I could be completely wrong?

Do the more expensive salts seem to be more consistent in their composition compared to less expensive salts? and do you end up adding more supplements to compensate with the less expensive mixes?

mike007 · Apr 11, 2013

We are talking about testing the newly mixed saltwater as you would test the tank water. This way you can check parameters so they will be close to each other.You don't want to asume and dump into your tank and jack up your alk. or ca. etc. Most salts labeled reef salt have added supplements in them and often you do not have to add nothing to it.

bigfoot86 · Apr 11, 2013

As far as you're asking if the more expensive salts mix up more consistently, not necessarily. A lot of people use the less expensive salts and have great success and the parameters measure out the same each time. Kinda hard to really get a "bad" brand of salt to a certain extent. There's some that may say one salt mixes a little bit more clearer, quicker than another salt. The best thing to do is put different names of salt mixes into the "search" engine and looks for reviews. R2R is a good place to start looking!