Switching salt brands. Advice?

SamAPFish · Jul 12, 2020

So It was time to order a new batch of salt, so I decided to change it up. I have used aquaforest for a while but it’s giving VERY low alk. I just ordered Red Sea reef pro salt, but won’t the change in alk throw off my tank? Should I mix the salts together?

hyprc · Jul 12, 2020

RS Reef Pro comes in pretty high in alk. I would slowly dose up to their advertised alk over the course of a week or two depending how low your alk is now. Once your alk matches or is at least close to what RS Pro mixes at, you won't shock your system with a big water change. Test your water change water as well as your tank water pre-change. Good habit to get into with any salt. Only one I'd trust every time is ESV though.

SamAPFish · Jul 12, 2020

hyprc said:
RS Reef Pro comes in pretty high in alk. I would slowly dose up to their advertised alk over the course of a week or two depending how low your alk is now. Once your alk matches or is at least close to what RS Pro mixes at, you won't shock your system with a big water change. Test your water change water as well as your tank water pre-change. Good habit to get into with any salt. Only one I'd trust every time is ESV though.

Recently I’ve been going off of an API alk test, which I know is not the best at all. Will it give me accurate results at all?

Crashnt24 · Jul 12, 2020

SamAPFish said:
So It was time to order a new batch of salt, so I decided to change it up. I have used aquaforest for a while but it’s giving VERY low alk. I just ordered Red Sea reef pro salt, but won’t the change in alk throw off my tank? Should I mix the salts together?

Tropic Marin, cant go wrong. forget high the higher alk. maintain 7-8dkh

hyprc · Jul 12, 2020

SamAPFish said:
Recently I’ve been going off of an API alk test, which I know is not the best at all. Will it give me accurate results at all?

I'd highly recommend Salifert for all tests. API is good enough to show you trends but yah... I was even disappointed with Red Sea's test kits so never tried API myself.