Switching salt brands possibly

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

A little splash of marketing? [emoji3]

lol

Hence the question.

There certainly can be legit reasons to prefer one salt mix over another. It has too much or too little of something, or many things,for example.

I have a number of reasons I preferred normal IO for my system over other many other brands, and those reasons were were specific content considerations. I've stated them many times and probably don't need to do so here, but cost was not the driving factor.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Red Sea mixes clear in 10-15 minutes and more stable parameters from all my testing. When I first bought my new mixing tanks in 3 months of doing water changes with brand new tanks the inside of them were brown From the slime/crap left behind using IO. I switched to Coral pro and in the 3 years since using it my mixing tanks are still white and look new and my parameters are stable. Again I’m not saying IO is crap my point is of your happy with one product and things are fine why change over a few $ savings.

I presume you mean Reef Crystals when you write IO. Normal IO does not leave a brown residue, but Reef Crystals does.

 

[Surfside74]

I want to thank everyone for their input. I really do. I have decided to go back to the saying I started with. If its not broke don't fix it....my tank is happy therefore I am too so trying to save a few dollars a year when its all said and done isn't worth possibly upsetting the stability I have in my tank. Thank you again.

 

[zuri]

I feel ya stability is key.
with that being said Aquavitro is the best salt just saying xD
mwahahah

 

[JP79]

Tommy boy! But you are so right. Omg! That's funny.

 

[JP79]

This topic is similar to a post I read a while back. Someone was trying to save a few cents a year by feeding his tangs lettuce instead of Nori in a effort to save money. While lettuce is fine .... aka IO why would I spend hundreds $$$ on tangs or thousands of dollars on corals and endless hours of my time in maintenance to then look to save a few pennies on lettuce and IO. I used reef crystals at the start and to see the brown slime in my mixing tanks after doing water changes made me sick. I switched to RS Coral Pro salt and have never looked back. Yes it’s more expensive but My tank and corals are happy. Why look to save a few bucks when in the large scheme of things it’s an expensive hobby no matter what. Salt and food are critical to success so I will not go cheap on either.

I try to explain pretty much what you just said over and over again. I honestly think salt is the biggest debate in the hobby. Not lights, not filtration, not dosing. It's salt. Who makes the best and what works. Me personally. I do not like IO for a million reasons. That's me. Anyways. Nice post.

 

[JP79]

I feel ya stability is key.
with that being said Aquavitro is the best salt just saying xD
mwahahah

110% agree with you. I love that salt. That and Red Sea truly make the best. You pay for what you get. You get really good salt with spot on alk, calcium and ph. On, that's calcium that's consumable.

 

[fishbox]

Well I just got an email from from Dr Fosters and Smith that I won a bunch of their new salt. So I'll be trying that out.

 

[DSC reef]

Well I just got an email from from Dr Fosters and Smith that I won a bunch of their new salt. So I'll be trying that out.

Keep us posted on how you like it. Congrats on the win.

 

[klesel]

Ya I love io used it for years my sps grow like weeds and only change 20 a month for people to be blinded by bells n whistles .I'm sure there are other great salts but don't see why spend double for salt .like was said before so many public and private aquariums use io hell Jason fox uses io that can't be wrong .

 

[zuri]

nothing wrong with io per say of course it is being used for really large systems like public and private aquariums/Jason fox. Can you imagine one of the premium salt brands even filling a full order? nope bulk IO is a really great salt for these types of applications where it's being used for large Fowlr/mammal. And can be easily raised for reef tanks.
I'm not even going to try to fathom the systems these larger reef aquariums have in place for monitoring/dosing

 

[BigJohnny]

It's worth noting that Jason fox adjusts the calcium and magnesium levels of IO, he doesn't use it straight up. Just an FYI

 

[pdiehm]

I presume you mean Reef Crystals when you write IO. Normal IO does not leave a brown residue, but Reef Crystals does.

bringing this back as I was searching for something.

I can vouch for this. i have no brown residue from regular IO.

I am looking to find something to raise the calcium since I would rather not double dip into my BRS 2 part solution. So, what does everyone use to raise the Calcium level in IO these days? Home Depot and Lowes do not sell Dowflake (at least that I can see).

 

[pdiehm]

Will this work @Randy Holmes-Farley ?

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Unbranded-50-lb-Calcium-Chloride-Ice-Melting-Pellets-7892/202590325

 

[slayerhellfire]

I have a 60 gallon cube and sump. I run only a skimmer, and filter sock, and do a ten gallon water change each week. That's it. Tank is doing excellent. Codals are looking good and growing. Before I go any further , I know the old adage if it's not broke don't fix it but anyway....i have been looking at the triton method but am not sure as of yet. So if I stay with my current weekly water changes I have thought of switching from red sea coral pro salt to instant ocean. I know I will then have to add cal, alk, and mag to the water when I mix it up. Main reason is I can get a whole year supply of instant ocean for the same price of one bucket of red sea because instant ocean is on sale. What do you guys think? Stay with what I got or make the switch? Thanks for your help.

if its not broke don't fix it, but if you want to change I like the blue bucket red sea the numbers are lower and not over kill, so far it's spot on!

 

[Cory]

So many times people cite saving money and it ends up costly people money to try and save money. Sooooooooooooo many times I have seen this happen. I mix my own salt mix now using straight chemicals mainly because I became tired of all the junk that came with the prepackaged mixes.

Which recipie are you using?

 

[Cory]

I also use Red Sea salt. its real salt water and the other is not you will end up paying more in supplements than the salt itself. its a bad idea to switch from real salt to fake salt you will end up having some bad issue crop up

I like this idea because it should have pretty close sodium,sulphur and chloride to nsw. I can fix low cal mag and alk, but these major ions that we cant test for are scary. My icp showed elevated sulfer and low sodium. I suspect seachem vibrant sea.

 

[reefwiser]

Using ESV

 

[40B Knasty]

Used RSCP for a year. Had a rasta frag go from 4 polyps to 7 in 7 months. Used IORC for a year. 7 polyps are now 100+ polyps in 1 year. Yes other things have changed in my ways of doing things, because of research and experience. The salt had no bad affect on my corals. If anything they improved. I have a 65g and do a wwc of 10g and I do not dose. I will leave you with these three pieces to help you decide.

 

[Cory]

Used RSCP for a year. Had a rasta frag go from 4 polyps to 7 in 7 months. Used IORC for a year. 7 polyps are now 100+ polyps in 1 year. Yes other things have changed in my ways of doing things, because of research and experience. The salt had no bad affect on my corals. If anything they improved. I have a 65g and do a wwc of 10g and I do not dose. I will leave you with these three pieces to help you decide.

Why do you think that happened?