Salt, Salt, Salt!

[Ian Baxter]

Yet again another brilliant post from @jda !!!!

45 years using instant Ocean, don't let anyone tell you it IO can't grow coral. I buy it from chewing on auto ship, cost is between $11.00 - $17.00 per 50 Gallons depending on what year I'm buying in.

Your second question is very easy to answer as a starting place.

Alk between 8-9
Calcium 400 - 450
Magnesium 1350-1450

15" round colonies

Wow! Those are amazing. I think I need to test my LFS' water.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

dKH. I didn't even realize there was one that did ppm.

I was hoping it was meq/L. lol

If that’s dKH, and if it is accurate, it is not Reef Crystals and I’d stop getting that premixed water from the lfs since it is likely not what it claims to be.

 

[Ian Baxter]

I was hoping it was meq/L. lol

If that’s dKH, and if it is accurate, it is not Reef Crystals and I’d stop getting that premixed water from the lfs since it is likely not what it claims to be.

Thank you. That will be the plan.

 

[TX_REEF]

I used reef crystals exclusively for many years up until a couple of months ago when I accidentally bought 800g worth of plain instant ocean. Reluctantly, I started using the instant ocean and have noticed zero difference in my corals since. It will be plain old instant ocean for me from now on. It works just fine for me.

I agree, I used red sea coral pro for the first 6 months of my new system's life, never getting the coral "happiness" desired. Switched to IO like I used in the olden days and haven't looked back. Slightly cheaper too.

 

[X-37B]

I have used IO, esv, aqua vitro salinity and red sea blue bucket. They all work well.
Currently use blue bucket as the parameters are inline with what I run. I do small 5% a month wc's so a bucket will last over 2 years with my current tank at 8g' a month.
Also available if needed at several lfs near me.
I always have a extra unopened bucket on hand at all times.

 

[kevgib67]

I’m lucky to have a great lfs. The owners have been in business for decades. All they carry is Fritz RPM which is what I use. I try to buy as much as I can from them even if sometimes a little more expensive.

 

[Real McCoy]

Used IO bck in 2000-2007 and currently RC from 2022-2024.Love it no issue great coral growth. Looked at the others.Price, quality and inconsistencies turned me away.I look at empirical data not consensus.

I'm in the same numbers as
"14 Foot Reef" 1.5 years of growth.

Alk between 8-9
Calcium 400 - 450
Magnesium 1350-1450

 

[Ian Baxter]

Used IO bck in 2000-2007 and currently RC from 2022-2024.Love it no issue great coral growth. Looked at the others.Price, quality and inconsistencies turned me away.I look at empirical data not consensus.

I'm in the same numbers as
"14 Foot Reef" 1.5 years of growth.

Alk between 8-9
Calcium 400 - 450
Magnesium 1350-1450

Awesome colonies!

 

[Contractor_Chris]

Use the salt that you can get easily. If you have an emergency you don't want to wait for salt.

Can you not mix salt types? As in filled tank with 1 kind, ran out so used something different for a wc?

 

[jimfish98]

Have tried various salts without the results I wanted, but the only one I hated was Waterbox's and I couldn't give away what I had left. Been using Red Sea Coral Pro for the last 3 or 4 years. Coral are happy and growing, fish are happy and healthy, and even my salt creep seems minimal. I am sure other stuff would be cheaper but I subscribe to the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality.

 

[workhz]

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.

 

[Ian Baxter]

Have tried various salts without the results I wanted, but the only one I hated was Waterbox's and I couldn't give away what I had left. Been using Red Sea Coral Pro for the last 3 or 4 years. Coral are happy and growing, fish are happy and healthy, and even my salt creep seems minimal. I am sure other stuff would be cheaper but I subscribe to the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality.

I do have an LFS not too far that sells that, so if I ever ran out I could grab some.

 

[rtparty]

Can you not mix salt types? As in filled tank with 1 kind, ran out so used something different for a wc?

Yes, you can mix

 

[ThaBeast]

In the past I have used IO & Red Sea blue bucket. When I set up my current tank I decided dragging a 160 gallon mix tank into the driveway to power wash it and crawling in the crawlspace to change the AWC lines when they get clogged with brown crap wasn’t something I wanted to do anymore so I now use ESV or NYOS. Both mix clean and don’t leave the crap in the mixing tank that IO & RS did. They both mix parameters close to where I like to run my tank so I don’t need to adjust which is an additional bonus

 

[rennjidk]

I was hoping it was meq/L. lol

If that’s dKH, and if it is accurate, it is not Reef Crystals and I’d stop getting that premixed water from the lfs since it is likely not what it claims to be.

Says who? No one promised you 35ppt. 2 Tbsp per gallon is plenty of salt mix. Gotta make a profit. You just hate small business!

 

[Roatan Reef]

Yet again another brilliant post from @jda !!!!

45 years using instant Ocean, don't let anyone tell you it IO can't grow coral. I buy it from chewing on auto ship, cost is between $11.00 - $17.00 per 50 Gallons depending on what year I'm buying in.

Your second question is very easy to answer as a starting place.

Alk between 8-9
Calcium 400 - 450
Magnesium 1350-1450

15" round colonies

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!

 

[drblank1]

I use Tropic Marin Pro Reef. Its expensive but I store large quantities of saltwater ready for use. Its doesn't have junk in it so I only clean my mixing tank once a year. I like the params except for Alk. I doctor that up to 10dKH while still in my mixing tank. Corals are very happy and growth and color are tremendous.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Says who? No one promised you 35ppt. 2 Tbsp per gallon is plenty of salt mix. Gotta make a profit. You just hate small business!

lol Let's give them the benefit of the doubt an assume they thought he was keeping a brackish tank. lol

 

[jda]

Mixing salt types was a very popular thing in the olden days. Probably should be practiced more if people do not want to doctor their salt mix. Oceanic and Instant Ocean used to get mixed 50/50 for a pretty good reef salt that people loved to use. Red Sea at 8.0 and IO could at 50/50 could make a salt mix in the middle of those.

I would not assume that the LFS got any of their salt right. I would always test at least the salinity, alk and maybe the pH if it is in some sort of tight container with a lid and has not been aerated. Some of them are excellent reef keepers and some of them are horrible. Most have employees who do tasks like this can be a house of cards...

 

[jda]

BTW - the public aquariums that use Aquarium Pharm salt use Instant Ocean and not Reef Crystals. Most all of them use it because it is consistent - they change the parameters of some things in house. The other places that I talked to that do not use Aquarium Pharm make their own salt.