Salt, Salt, Salt!

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Instant Ocean. It was what I first bought 20+ years ago. At the time, mainly because it was cheap and secondly I once got a bucket with a free t-shirt in it. Sealed the deal.

Do you still have the shirt?

 

[ThaBeast]

Do you still have the shirt?

I have 2 of them! Mine are from the 50 year celebration. I'll post a pic later

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I’m getting ready to start making my on saltwater and was curious how everyone chose theirs. My LFS uses Reef Crystals, but for whatever reason, my numbers for alk are about 4.5 and mag is insanely high. I use Hanna for alk and salifert for mag. I used to use Tropic Marin Pro years ago before I got out of the hobby, but didn’t have very many corals. I don’t have a lot of corals currently but looking to be LPS dominate with some SPS and some softies. How do you chose the numbers you want?

Lots of good advice already posted; I also like IO (both types).
To follow up on Randy's question, you might want to check your alk test as 4.5 dKh from newly mixed saltwater is not the norm - at all.

 

[workhz]

Do you still have the shirt?

I think so, if memory serves it was a whale shark maybe? I'll have to look for it.

 

[captainsmitty]

After using Red Sea for a while I noticed that in my mixing barrel that Alk., Ca., and Mag dropped off after a few days. Since my mixing barrel holds almost 2 weeks of water change (at the rate of 2 gallons a day). I have since switched to instant Ocean and find that they are more stable over time in my mixing barrel and ore stable in my tank.

 

[Real McCoy]

Yep Yep...this times 1000!

Have used Red Sea, Tropic Marin, 2 little Fishies instant mix etc....once I switched to IO Reef Crystals, tank took off! It's readily available almost anywhere, you can find online deals for it etc, etc,... and like @vetteguy53081 says...it's used by most public aquariums around the world... and that's for good reason!

I agree. If it's good enough for my city of Chicago's Shedd Aquarium good for mine.lol
I'm in Arizona now and I think they been using Fritz, I understand why their Reef don't look as good as Chicago's.

Lol, JK love AZ

 

[AquaLogic]

Is all of the Tropic Marin nonsense sorted? The plant in Turkey closed, and salt good again? I'm setting up a nano so cost doesn't matter and I see that Tropic Marin and ESV mix the "cleanest". Esv seems to always be out of stock so that's a bad idea and I'm considering trying tropic Marin over Reef Crystals this time around.

 

[ThaBeast]

Is all of the Tropic Marin nonsense sorted? The plant in Turkey closed, and salt good again? I'm setting up a nano so cost doesn't matter and I see that Tropic Marin and ESV mix the "cleanest". Esv seems to always be out of stock so that's a bad idea and I'm considering trying tropic Marin over Reef Crystals this time around.

Tropic Marin is sorted. ESV is almost always in stock @premiumaquatics www.premiumaquatics.com with free shipping. Another super clean mixing salt is NYOS, in stock at BRS and SaltwaterAquarium

 

[Ian Baxter]

Is all of the Tropic Marin nonsense sorted? The plant in Turkey closed, and salt good again? I'm setting up a nano so cost doesn't matter and I see that Tropic Marin and ESV mix the "cleanest". Esv seems to always be out of stock so that's a bad idea and I'm considering trying tropic Marin over Reef Crystals this time around.

The problem I had with TM is that it was always out of stock.

 

[AquaLogic]

The problem I had with TM is that it was always out of stock.

Fair enough. I think I will go with Nyos.

 

[AquaLogic]

Tropic Marin is sorted. ESV is almost always in stock @premiumaquatics www.premiumaquatics.com with free shipping. Another super clean mixing salt is NYOS, in stock at BRS and SaltwaterAquarium

They only seem to offer the refill kits without measurement tools and such, so I will probably just go with Nyos, thanks!