Switching salt mix and purple up

Tentacalize · Aug 28, 2015

I will be getting an established tank from someone. It has live rock with coralline and a few soft corals plus a couple of clowns and a goby. The guy with the tank gets his saltwater from his lfs. I, unfortunately, don't have one close by so I'll have to mix my own. I was thinking about using instant ocean reef crystals. Eventually when I get more corals going (months from now), I will switch to Red Sea Pro Reef Salt.

So, for now, if I use instant ocean reef crystals do I need to keep adding purple up? Or is there enough calcium in reef crystals for the coralline?

Should I just switch to the good stuff Red Sea Pro Reef Salt? Even though I will only have a couple of softies for now?

I will be using half of his tank water. Should his water and half of whatever I mix cause any problems?

Tentacalize · Aug 28, 2015

Probably should order a kit to test calcium. Is there one that you would recommend?

KJ · Aug 28, 2015

Salifert

3dees · Aug 29, 2015

save your money on the Purple Up. it's useless. RC has enough calcium unless you are planning on sps. they suck up a lot of calc and you will probably need to dose. I have softies and lps in my 120 gal. and I don't dose anything. I went from IO to RC and then back to IO. my zoa's seem to dislike RC.

Randy Holmes-Farley · Aug 29, 2015

The fine aragonite in Purple Up cannot dissolve into the water of a reef aquarium. I would not use it.

Downbeach · Aug 29, 2015

You'll want to get three kits, one each for Ca, Mg and Alk. Salifert is a good brand, along with the Red Sea Reef Foundation Pro which has all three in one kit. You should also get a decent refractometer, along with a 35ppt calibration solution, and keep your SG @ 1.026. Instan Ocean is a good brand of salt mix, and would me my choice. Do you know what salt mix the seller is/has been using? If he's getting out, maybe he has some left over he would throw into the deal. As has been mentioned, I wouldn't bother with the Purple Up either, just keep your Ca, Mg and Alk within normal ranges, and you'll be fine.

Myka · Aug 30, 2015

Also, when you move the tank, throw out the old sand. It will be full of gunk even if you rinse it really well. Put new sand it (dry sand is fine, "live" packaged sand doesn't really achieve much).