Salty Loyality! How often do you switch?

[Reefs and Geeks]

I've tried 3 salts over 6 years. i could tell a difference with mixing, and a bit with parameters, but never saw a difference in my coral, so i stick with RC since it works and is affordable.

 

[Dkim]

Reef crystal for 5years, but recent 2 bucket of reef crystal, I am getting right at 8 dkh at 1.026 sg. Is this normal? Ordered from Amazon. I thought it is higher dkh?

 

[fishbulb]

I set up my mixing station where I just dump in a single 50g mix of IO. IO is the only brand that I've seen that comes in 200 gallon boxes but split into 4 bags. This just makes it too easy so I won't switch. I would love to know of other brands that come in 50 gallon bags that are cleaner than IO.

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

Why not? What did I miss? I noticed BRS was out of stock.

Wondering the same thing, I just purchased a bucket of it last week from MD, (faster shipping than BRS). Both had it in stock though.

Reef crystal for 5years, but recent 2 bucket of reef crystal, I am getting right at 8 dkh at 1.026 sg. Is this normal? Ordered from Amazon. I thought it is higher dkh?

Should be substantially higher in alk. Is your refractometer calibrated, test kit reagents still good?

 

[007_reef]

No loyalty. Recently switched from RC to NeoMarine, since the elevated RC parameters didn't show any benefits for me. Now I will likely go with whatever my LFS has in stock.

 

[KrisReef]

Let's talk some more about salt today. It's on my mind so let's go with it!

Some people switch salts like my wife washes her hands nowadays! ALL THE TIME! I really don't have a problem with it. I've switched many times before as well. There are different reasons why I might and have switched but the salt I'm using now I really like and it would take a lot to get me to switch. I won't say what I use here in the thread because this isn't about an advertisement. I'm genuinely curious about a few things and I would like some input from you!

1. How many times have you switched salts over your aquarium career?

2. What would it take to get you to switch from one brand to another? (cost, purity, availability etc?)

$50 for 200 grams is very expensive salt! I quit that expensive stuff a long time ago.

For aquarium salt I've used many brands. I now can get ocean water for free so I generally use that and add Magnesium and Alk to make it match the tank.

If a salt mix was made that matched my tank parameters every time I mixed so that the trace elements that I need (per ICP) were added, then I would pay premium prices for that mix of salt. Currently when I mix water I purchase whatever the LFS has on their bottom shelf. I stay away from "Reef" mixes as they generally have too much ALK for my tank parameters ~7.5-8.0 dKh.

 

[trmiv]

Over the years I've used many:
IO
Oceanic
Kent
Reef Crystals
Coralife
Red Sea when it first came out
back to IO
HW Reefer

I had been using IO exclusively for about the last 7 years though, but I recently switched to HW Reefer after getting boxes of IO that had 14 dkh alk and over 500 calcium. I also didn't like the alk level when IO was normal, and really don't want to bother with muratic acid. I miss the price of IO,but I don't want to deal with the inconsistent boxes I'd been seeing.

 

[ReefLab]

Why not? What did I miss? I noticed BRS was out of stock.

Brs, petco, marine depot, live aquaria, saltwater aquarium. They’re all out and I suspect it will be difficult for it to be stocked until the pandemic guidelines are back to normal.

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

Brs, petco, marine depot, live aquaria, saltwater aquarium. They’re all out and I suspect it will be difficult for it to be stocked until the pandemic guidelines are back to normal.

Interesting, looks like I checked out at the right time

 

[divewsharks]

I set up my mixing station where I just dump in a single 50g mix of IO. IO is the only brand that I've seen that comes in 200 gallon boxes but split into 4 bags. This just makes it too easy so I won't switch. I would love to know of other brands that come in 50 gallon bags that are cleaner than IO.

TLF AccuraSea (in the big box) comes packaged this way. 4 bags in a box, each to make 50Gal. In the small box, it comes pre-packaged for 5Gal water changes.

 

[eggplantparrot]

started with Reef Crystals, switched to Fritz for the params and the fact that when i stick my arm into the Brute bin, i used to get brown smudges on my arms and clothes

 

[Nhjmc]

I read that changing salt brands was a bad thing is that true?

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

I read that changing salt brands was a bad thing is that true?

It could be, depending on how quickly you do it and the difference in parameters

 

[Dkim]

Wondering the same thing, I just purchased a bucket of it last week from MD, (faster shipping than BRS). Both had it in stock though.

Should be substantially higher in alk. Is your refractometer calibrated, test kit reagents still good?

Hanna checker dkh (tested other saltwater seems to be ok.)
Refractomer and hanna salinity checker also hydrometer. I check all three( learned my lesson )
I think they changed something? This is my second bucket in 1 month. Both bucket have dkh 8 at 1.026)

 

[Spieg]

To be honest, I only do WC about twice a year, so salt mix is not super critical to me. I tend to use whatever is cheap/available and is close to my desired tank parameters.

 

[OzinOz]

Let's talk some more about salt today. It's on my mind so let's go with it!

Some people switch salts like my wife washes her hands nowadays! ALL THE TIME! I really don't have a problem with it. I've switched many times before as well. There are different reasons why I might and have switched but the salt I'm using now I really like and it would take a lot to get me to switch. I won't say what I use here in the thread because this isn't about an advertisement. I'm genuinely curious about a few things and I would like some input from you!

1. How many times have you switched salts over your aquarium career?

2. What would it take to get you to switch from one brand to another? (cost, purity, availability etc?)

A 40 year pro aquarist uses Fritz Pro Reef Salt for about 1/3rd the price of Tropical Marin. Anyone know why we use expensive reef salts rather than Fritz Pro.Reef??

 

[Spieg]

Professionals are likely buying 50 gal drums of salt... that's a whole different ball game than most hobbyists buying bags or paint buckets of salt.

 

[chefjpaul]

Interesting, looks like I checked out at the right time

Hahaha.. me too.
When everyone was buying purell and toilet paper, I stocked up on salt, rodi filters and LRS...

 

[Chefwheredyougo]

Hahaha.. me too.
When everyone was buying purell and toilet paper, I stocked up on salt, rodi filters and LRS...

Must be the Murphys Law we're forced to learn in kitchens

 

[Travis Warren]

I have used 3 salts in the past 4 years. I just switched to Tropic Marine after looking at parameters and looking how clean it was on the BRS Episode. It also matches Triton of dkh 7 to 8. I used Red Sea Pro with great results and Reef Crystals also. Only switched to match Triton and not clean the brown residue anymore. I also bought 2 large buckets 3 weeks ago figuring it would sale out.