salt mixes

Cleo642 · Jul 23, 2015

After being in here a little while I have read different things about salt mixes. Should you always stay with the same salt? Does it hurt your aquarium to switch salt mixes?
One guy said after using a different salt mix his whole tank crashed. Can you gradually switch salts or should you always use the same one?

twilliard · Jul 23, 2015

Its like 2 chemists bashing heads.
you can switch salt but do it slowly

Daytonareefing · Jul 23, 2015

Its really up to you. Most salts will mix fine with other salts as far as switching to a new brand I never had a problem with that. But you will find corals respond to better salts better from what I seen.

reefwiser · Jul 23, 2015

You have to move from one salt to another very slowly. As some salts have more additives that raise the Dkh of the water. This can cause issues when switching.

Cleo642 · Jul 23, 2015

Daytonareefing said:
Its really up to you. Most salts will mix fine with other salts as far as switching to a new brand I never had a problem with that. But you will find corals respond to better salts better from what I seen.

Do you think I.O. reef crystals is a good brand or is it more generic?

Daytonareefing · Jul 23, 2015

Well that's a deep subject. IO is a very good salt most fish stores used and it really works better in reefs then reef crystals because for some reason they have a mixing problem when they make reef crystals and you never know what your going to get. I used reef crystals for years with no problem then it was batch after batch. There are a lot of people on here who used it and switched because its not consistent. I now use Tropic Marin Bio Active and my corals look like there on steroids compared to reef crystals but its the most expensive salt I've found too. It's well worth the money to me. But if your on a budget IO is what I would use over many other more expensive salts. The lady that I learned saltwater from owned an LFS and I worked for her 20 years or so ago with the most beautiful tanks I ever seen at any other LFS to this day used IO.

Cleo642 · Jul 23, 2015

Daytonareefing said:
Well that's a deep subject. IO is a very good salt most fish stores used and it really works better in reefs then reef crystals because for some reason they have a mixing problem when they make reef crystals and you never know what your going to get. I used reef crystals for years with no problem then it was batch after batch. There are a lot of people on here who used it and switched because its not consistent. I now use Tropic Marin Bio Active and my corals look like there on steroids compared to reef crystals but its the most expensive salt I've found too. It's well worth the money to me. But if your on a budget IO is what I would use over many other more expensive salts. The lady that I learned saltwater from owned an LFS and I worked for her 20 years or so ago with the most beautiful tanks I ever seen at any other LFS to this day used IO.

Someone told me that beginners should start with instant ocean but I don't think that should matter. I was thinking about Seachem, tropic Marin, or red sea. Idk...allot of choices, it's confusing .

Daytonareefing · Jul 23, 2015

It can be. I heard of problems with redsea as well but some people swear by it. Seachem should be a great salt but I never used it. Tropic marin is made in germany and was the be salt made when I first started in the hobby years ago. You should buy what you want don't let anyone tell you to start with IO if you don't want too. Your going to be testing a lot to begin with anyway so that will tell you what you need to add or subtract in your seawater once its going. Salifert is one if not the best test kit to buy and if you don't start with them than you will more than likely end up buying them anyway because most of the other brands of tests just are not as accurate believe there worth the money or you might what to buy Hanna testers because there digital. I run an Apex controller which tells you the PH and the temp and can tell you the SG, ORP and so on.

redfishbluefish · Jul 23, 2015

First off, if I'm not mistaken, IO is the most popular salt....and as far as I'm concerned, one of the best. As they advertise, it's ocean water!

I was born and raised on RC, and a couple years ago switched to IO because I didn't like the high alk/calc with RC. My tank is looking great with IO.

Cleo642 · Jul 23, 2015

redfishbluefish said:
First off, if I'm not mistaken, IO is the most popular salt....and as far as I'm concerned, one of the best. As they advertise, it's ocean water!

I was born and raised on RC, and a couple years ago switched to IO because I didn't like the high alk/calc with RC. My tank is looking great with IO.

Do you have to add supplements when using I.O.? Cause reef crystals would have extra supplements wouldn't it? Or is all you use is the salt?

redfishbluefish · Jul 23, 2015

Daytonareefing said:
........Salifert is one if not the best test kit to buy and if you don't start with them than you will more than likely end up buying them anyway because most of the other brands of tests just are not as accurate believe there worth the money or you might what to buy Hanna testers because there digital.....

I respectively must disagree. For the most part, the inaccurate part of any kit is the individual using it. Whatever kit you have, read the instructions carefully. I use Red Sea Pro kits and couldn't be happier.

Adamwheel · Jul 23, 2015

Kent Marine is inexpensive and I've read good things about its consistency and levels (on the other site).

redfishbluefish · Jul 23, 2015

Cleo642 said:
Do you have to add supplements when using I.O.? Cause reef crystals would have extra supplements wouldn't it? Or is all you use is the salt?

Regardless of the salt you use, and assuming you have more than a couple frags, you will need to do something to supplement alk and calc consumption. I dose daily, three time a day each for alk and calc. Salt water changes alone will NOT maintain alk and calc levels.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 23, 2015

Cleo642 said:
Do you have to add supplements when using I.O.? Cause reef crystals would have extra supplements wouldn't it? Or is all you use is the salt?

The difference in the need for supplements is small, and the supplements are likely cheaper than the salt price difference.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jul 23, 2015

Cleo642 said:
After being in here a little while I have read different things about salt mixes. Should you always stay with the same salt? Does it hurt your aquarium to switch salt mixes?
One guy said after using a different salt mix his whole tank crashed. Can you gradually switch salts or should you always use the same one?

There's not generally any issue with changing salts whenever you want. People do it all the time. Some people always use whatever is cheapest, regardless of which brand it is.

People have problems for reasons they do not understand all the time. If it just happens to coincide with a salt change, it will get blamed.

But there's not really any evidence that I am aware of for a problem when switching except possibly in a very specific case many years ago when a bunch of people made a switch based on a recommendation from Ron Shimek (IO to Crystal Seas Marinemix, IIRC). No one ever understood why that switch might have been an issue.

BryanS4 · Jul 23, 2015

I just switched from RC to IO and couldn't be happier. The main reason for me switching was the higher alk that RC mixes to. I keep my tank around 8 to 8.4 and didn't like the elevated levels RC mixed to.

Cleo642 · Jul 23, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
There's not generally any issue with changing salts whenever you want. People do it all the time. Some people always use whatever is cheapest, regardless of which brand it is.

People have problems for reasons they do not understand all the time. If it just happens to coincide with a salt change, it will get blamed.

But there's not really any evidence that I am aware of for a problem when switching except possibly in a very specific case many years ago when a bunch of people made a switch based on a recommendation from Ron Shimek (IO to Crystal Seas Marinemix, IIRC). No one ever understood why that switch might have been an issue.

They are all NaCl with added supplements. That's what I didn't understand why it was a problem. Thank you.

LILBUDDHA · Jul 23, 2015

Daytonareefing said:
Well that's a deep subject. IO is a very good salt most fish stores used and it really works better in reefs then reef crystals because for some reason they have a mixing problem when they make reef crystals and you never know what your going to get. I used reef crystals for years with no problem then it was batch after batch. There are a lot of people on here who used it and switched because its not consistent. I now use Tropic Marin Bio Active and my corals look like there on steroids compared to reef crystals but its the most expensive salt I've found too. It's well worth the money to me. But if your on a budget IO is what I would use over many other more expensive salts. The lady that I learned saltwater from owned an LFS and I worked for her 20 years or so ago with the most beautiful tanks I ever seen at any other LFS to this day used IO.

Agreed .. RC is like a box of chocolates .. U don't know what u r going to get . My favorite salt is TM bioactive . ( corals just look better ) . Don't know why . I am presently using Red Sea Blue for NSW parameters but should have stuck with Kent Marine Reef Salt . It mixes fast and there is no residue. Alk is a little higher and some ppl don't care for the "so called vitamin additions " . Out of the ones mentioned I favor TM BioActive n Kent reef salt .