Matthew Cautero
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Which salt does everyone use and why is that salt better than others
Salt
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mjlash22
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Do a quick search through the forum as you will find plenty of discussion on this topic. Plenty of diversity out there when it comes to salt.
Best advice is to get a salt that best matches what you want your water paramaters to be. I personally use Red Sea Coral Pro. Have for years and never switched it up.
On the flip side, something as simple as instant ocean will work just the same, but lower levels of Alk, Cal, Mag and other trace elements.
Best advice is to get a salt that best matches what you want your water paramaters to be. I personally use Red Sea Coral Pro. Have for years and never switched it up.
On the flip side, something as simple as instant ocean will work just the same, but lower levels of Alk, Cal, Mag and other trace elements.
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Js.Aqua.Project
Reef Addict
I personally use the Red Sea Coral Pro because of this reasoning. If you want your tank's dKH at 11, don't start with a salt that has a dKH of 8. Apply the same reasoning for the other parameters as well.
For a short general reference:
35ppt = ~1.026 Prices based off of BRS.
Red Sea Salt (35ppt): dKH 7.5-8.5 Ca 415 – 445 Mg 1240-1320 ($0.42/gal)
Red Sea Coral Pro (35ppt): dKH 11-12 Ca 435 – 465 Mg 1310-1390 ($0.42/gal)
AquaForest Reef Salt(33ppt): dKH 7.4-8.2 Ca 410-440 Mg 1300-1380 ($0.36/gal)
AquaForest Sea Salt (30ppt): dKH 8.0-9.0 Ca 360-400 Mg 1200-1300 ($0.24/gal)
Reef Crystals (35ppt): dKH Ca 455 Mg 1345 ($0.32/gal)
*note the lower recommended ppt of the AquaForest salts
I started out with Reef Crystals but after this current bucket is done I'm switching to regular Instant Ocean. RC mixed too high in calcium for my liking. It was great early on. But when water changes no longer kept up with demand I switched to using Kalk in my ATO to supplement Alkalinity and Calcium. Instant Ocean should mix closer to where I keep the tank at to avoid unnecessary spikes on water change day.
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I have a couple salts that I use all the time. But mostly it’s between instant ocean and Red Sea Blue bucket. But I agree with the people above. Go with a salt that you will want your parameters to match and or be close to.
I keep my dkh around 8.0. So if I I use instant ocean and I do a 5 gallon water change. 5 gallons won’t affect my water parameters. However if something happened in the tank where I needed to do a large water change at once, I use a mix of Red Sea Blue bucket and instant ocean. Keeps it fairly stable for me.
Either way, I don’t think there is one better then another. Rather you learn to work with the one you use.
Best of luck!
I keep my dkh around 8.0. So if I I use instant ocean and I do a 5 gallon water change. 5 gallons won’t affect my water parameters. However if something happened in the tank where I needed to do a large water change at once, I use a mix of Red Sea Blue bucket and instant ocean. Keeps it fairly stable for me.
Either way, I don’t think there is one better then another. Rather you learn to work with the one you use.
Best of luck!
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Used regular IO most of my life, but got lazy ;Oldman about dosing up the cal and mag while mixing a fresh batch.
Was really happy with Red Sea "Blue Bucket" and it was solid as a rock from batch to batch in mixing parameters.
No such thing, as the best salt mix
Was really happy with Red Sea "Blue Bucket" and it was solid as a rock from batch to batch in mixing parameters.
No such thing, as the best salt mix
