The best SALT you have used...

[Humblefish]

It can be hard to find, but I really like Oceanic salt. It's high cal/mag level cuts back on all the dosing. See below:

Oceanic:
ALK - 8.5
CAL - 580
MAG -1650

 

[ethridge78]

RedSea Coral Pro

 

[dnyceli]

Tropic Marine Pro cost more and has lower concentrations?

 

[ReefMama]

It can be hard to find, but I really like Oceanic salt. It's high cal/mag level cuts back on all the dosing. See below:

Oceanic:
ALK - 8.5
CAL - 580
MAG -1650

I will have to look into this one. Seems like it would be beneficial for an older (15 years old) reef tank. The levels have been running a bit lower than I would like for the past year and a half. We were using Instant Ocean's Reef Crystals, and I was looking into the Seachem blend due to the higher levels. It looks like Oceanic blows even that out of the water!

 

[Humblefish]

I will have to look into this one. Seems like it would be beneficial for an older (15 years old) reef tank. The levels have been running a bit lower than I would like for the past year and a half. We were using Instant Ocean's Reef Crystals, and I was looking into the Seachem blend due to the higher levels. It looks like Oceanic blows even that out of the water!

The only place online I know that sells it is here: http://www.petsolutions.com/C/Aquarium-Salt-Mixes/I/Oceanic-Sea-Salt-Mix.aspx

Every now & then they will put it on sale for $50, and since everything over $49 gets free shipping you are good to go!

 

[Vmacisback]

Any specific reason why you're switching away from TM Pro?

well I cant blame the TM for this issue just yet but I have raised copper and Tin levels that I can not account for at the moment. I am going to make a change and retest to see if it truly is the salt. Plus I have heard good stuff about the Neomarine and trust what WWC uses in their tanks.

 

[Vmacisback]

Also I noticed I was low on some of the important elements which I feel like a high quality salt like TM Pro should provide. i.e. Cobalt, Manganese...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I will have to look into this one. Seems like it would be beneficial for an older (15 years old) reef tank. The levels have been running a bit lower than I would like for the past year and a half. We were using Instant Ocean's Reef Crystals, and I was looking into the Seachem blend due to the higher levels. It looks like Oceanic blows even that out of the water!

FWIW, buying the extra elements yourself can be cheaper than buying a salt mix with them already in it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Also I noticed I was low on some of the important elements which I feel like a high quality salt like TM Pro should provide. i.e. Cobalt, Manganese...

Do you have any reason to think it has more than less expensive salt mixes?

 

[702]

Why change if it is working for you?. The question you asked is a loaded question that can not be answered In this hobby you will find what works for others don't work for you or the other way around.

 

[kattz]

As folks mentioned, there are two types: a Reefer type with more calcium and magnesium, and the profession type. Which were you using?

When you say hotter, do you mean the actual temperature, or chemical parameters?

Preface - anything I say here is a reflection of my opinion based on personal experience or that of local people whose results I can quantify. Many other things such as water quality from the source, housekeeping, etc., can affect your results. Your mileage may vary. Tax, tag, and title not included. Some assembly required. Professional driver on closed course - do not try this at home...

Hello, Dr. Holmes-Farley,

I use the HW Reefer salt. When I say "hotter", the mix comes in at higher levels of ca/mg/alk than, say, RC or Kent, which I consider as softie and FOWLR salt.

@ other posters: Regarding stability issues, the TM Pro was horrible for me. That was the one I couldn't remember the name of. One can see my angry post over at the "reefing centrally" forum from about 5-7 years ago. I stopped using RSCP because of algae blooms, and I was picking up more than trace amounts of NO3 and PO4 in it - I would call those levels unacceptable for such a hyped product.

Regarding the price of the HW Reefer salt, I pick up salt on sale and free shipping. So it ends up rather less than one would think. I don't think I've ever paid over $55 a box.

Actually, to put a very succinct point on all of this, salt is not salt is not salt. Regardless of directions we all try to point out to others, we all have our preferences and everyone will go their own way. "Two roads diverge in a yellow wood..."

I like the HW Reefer. A very good friend of mine uses RC and grows fabulous corals at $50-150 a frag. Another one swears by Kent and has great luck.

Here's how I see it based on the reefers and FOWLR's I know personally (no offense at anyone here intended):

1. IO or RC - Stability, cheap, easy to get. It's OK stuff. It's clean, and you can have good results with it.
2. Kent - solid, good price, fairly stable, if you're dosing and have lot's of SPS, it works great.
3. HW products - in my case REEFER, stable, great starting parameters for SPS and LPS, meets expectations, can be pricey but is a solid product - IMHO, this is what RSCP should be trying to emulate.
4. TM, TM Pro and RSCP - expensive, unstable, does not meet expectations, and is not clean regarding NO3 and PO4 (my personal experience and opinion only), lots of precipitate. I realize that a lot of people use these, and I say that if you have good luck with it, I fully support your choice. They were not good choices for me. The RSCP is a beastly item simply because it is harvested from near-shore waters and is not a synthetic. The TM Pro was just awful, swinging from 6-11+ DkH and low ca/mg. Unstable like you wouldn't believe.
5. Seachem and Salinity - only used once or twice in a salt crisis, no issues, can't provide an opinion.
6. The salt you mix yourself from liquids - can't remember the name, one of our club members used it and loved it. Had great results, but I imagine that if you don't follow instructions well, this is not the salt for you.
7. Brightwell - I used for 1 year. Absolutely no better than RC in my opinion, was a finer grind, this one is way too much money for what it is - "meh". Buy the RC and save up for that new frag or fish with the savings!

Personally, I think this is why there are Fords, GMs, and Toyotas - odd man out, I own two Subarus... Everyone has a choice and through experience, we all will use what we think best. Over the course of our hobby experiences, we will refine our choices to what we think is the Holy Grail of whatever we are using.

Anecdote: I was using RSCP and my corals sucked the hind *****. Pale color, poor polyp extension, algae blooms, and so forth. Could not shake PO4 and NO3, and tried everything known to us. Could not locate the source. One day I ran out of RSCP and grabbed a bucket of Seachem from my LFS. Corals changed in two weeks - not fragtastic, just better appearance and life. Algae started to die. Nothing else changed. I already use kalkwasser as ATO water and am constantly running a Geo 612 Ca reactor. I generally run my tank at 450+ ca, 1300 mg, DkH at 11, and sp gr at 1.026 on a calibrated spectrometer. Temp is set at 80°F +/- .2 deg, and I run a 10 hr total light period under an ATI 36 X 8 bulb Sunpower fixture. Water TDS is zero.

I had a little RSCP in the bucket, and tested the batch by making one gallon, aerated/mixed for 2 hours. If you mix it for more than two hours, Red Sea will be happy to personally tell you that if you mix more than two hours, the salt has been overmixed and basically all of the "extra" ca, alk, and mg will precipitate out. There is even a 2 hr warning on the bucket. Anyway, I tested the batch, and then made one more and tested it as well.

Results:
TDS - 450-550. Zero prior to the salt addition to the water.
Alk - 7.85 DkH
Ca - 390
Mg - 1260
NO3 - in excess of 20ppm
PO4 - 6ppm

So, for a salt that is supposed to be "super hot" parameter-wise, nope, not here. And, feeding my algae to boot. I was pretty torqued off. Waste of money, damaged livestock. As Turbo B, the rapper from the '90's group Snap! said, "Don't believe the hype is a sequel..."

I saw the ad for the "new product" salt at BRS, and did some research on some boards in Germany and the UK. Lots of people using it, swearing by it, not at it as my case was with RSCP.

Bought three boxes, and continued my regular water change schedule and housekeeping habits. Changed nothing for a year.

Immediately, my livestock perked up, and my SPSs started not only to improve, but to grow - A LOT. FAST. Algae - gone. Super clean mixing, and I can mix it for 5 minutes or five days and the parameters remain rock solid, batch after batch.

So, I'm sold...

Best,

Kevin, AKA "K-to-the-d-oh-double-gee". Actually, that's true too.

 

[shred5]

Hw Marine is also Tunze salt. I have used Tunze for a long time and loved it. It never leaves a residue and mixes clear fast.
I also have used Tropic Marin with the same results. I have used pretty much every salt in about 30 years in the reef hobby and used to use pretty much what got free or cheap. I have had good result with most.

I have had a few I didn't like and stopped using. I had a bad bucket of corlife it had no alk in it.
I had free small buckets of Red sea pro and it left a brown slimy film on the bottom of the mixing bucket which I guess is impurities most likely dirt.
I recently got some bad Reef Crystals the calcium was off the chart. There was some clumping in the bag so maybe there was a hole int he bag..

 

[srad750c]

hw-Marinemix, http://www.hw-wiegandt.de/hw-marinemix-professionaleng.html

It was my favorite, used for many years. When I could no longer it locally I used Reef Crystals for the past 10 years. I have been using Red Sea Pro for the past couple of months, it seems to be good but it runs my Mg levels high 1600-1700 ppm. But that may be due to the fact that I use Seachem buffers and calcium supplements.

 

[Vmacisback]

Do you have any reason to think it has more than less expensive salt mixes?

I'm not following lol can you please repeat the question?

 

[saltyhog]

I used hw-Marine REEFER for several months and like everyone said it mixes up with the levels as advertised, nice and clear right away and dissolves very easily. What I like about it is the levels are closer to normal than many of the other brands out there. What I am not crazy about is it's one of those salts that has added organics.

I wasn't aware of that. Where did you find that out? Why would they add organic material to the salt mix?!

 

[Omega0397]

Well guys
After all suggestions and researches, I bought Kent just to start up my tank, after it I'll use IO or red sea pro to continue reef keeping.
I think red sea dissolve faster and better with more heat, but I like to try IO if I could find one.

Hello Ali, I think you realize by this point that this is a hotly contested topic! I'm going to offer my opinion from what I've seen in the hobby and hope that it helps. Two thoughts for you...

1. While many of the salt mixes out there are really great, the big problem I see with all but one brand is that they are inconsistent. By inconsistent I mean that the manufacturer will occasionally have a 'bad batch' where the parameters are far outside what the salt mix usually is. Since most people (myself included) don't test their mix water for more than salinity before a water change, this has negative effects on the tank. Many of the long running successful tanks I've seen or known of use either Instant Ocean or Reef Crystals, they are both made by the same company and are one of the oldest salt manufacturers out there. The big benefit here is that they are very consistent. I've never heard of a bad batch coming out and it's used by a lot of people here in the United States. I hope that makes sense.

2. You're right of course when you say that kH, Calc, Mg levels are all important for SPS, they are for LPS too! Relying on salt to get those all correct for you though isn't probably going to work out though. Regardless of what salt you end up choosing, you will most likely have to dose those in your tank to keep up with what your coral is consuming. In other words, don't read so much into the calc and alk levels of the various salts, you're going be supplementing that anyway.

I hope I provided some beneficial advice. I would love to see some pics of some of your corals as I'm assuming that you get different livestock where you are located than we do here in the states. Happy Reefing!

 

[SeahorseSmile]

I like red sea coral pro. Heck i even use it in my food when i run out of table salt.

lol

 

[Brad Syphus]

Red Sea Coral pro is what I use. Highly recommend it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I wasn't aware of that. Where did you find that out? Why would they add organic material to the salt mix?!

A number of brands do so. Tropic Marin Bioactif and Reef Crystals, for example. Vitamins, etc.

HW Marinemix states (for the Reefer one, not the Professional one):

Unique biocatalyst system based on the analyses of natural seawater
- With natural amino acids and organically stabilized types of iodine

So if you intend to use this mix, and think the amino acids and other possible organic compounds are useful, I'd suggest that you need to use the salt soon after mixing to avoid bacterial consumption of those organics in the mixing reservoir.

That is one reason I won't use mixes with organics: because I like to make a big batch and use it over a month.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I'm not following lol can you please repeat the question?

I'm asking why you think TM Pro or other "high quality" salt mixes would have more trace elements such as manganese or cobalt.

From the published salt mix analyses that I have seen, more expensive salts do not generally have more trace metals (such as cobalt or manganese).