Types of salt for soft corals?

JackDemetriou · Dec 28, 2019

I am looking to start a reef tank. It would be mainly a soft coral tank, with some fish and cuc. Would a normal salt like Instant Oceons be okay, or would something specific for corals be better like Red Sea Coral Pro?

Dquad18 · Dec 28, 2019

Personally i've been using Coralife salt since I started mine and have had no issues so far, corals are growing and look healthy. I have mostly soft corals with a few LPS so I think as long as you do all/mainy soft corals you can just go with any salt mix really.

mfinn · Dec 28, 2019

For a softy tank Instant Ocean will be just fine.

Roush427R · Dec 28, 2019

Instant Oceans will work. I have a 125, mostly softies, and use it.

mfinn · Dec 28, 2019

Welcome to R2R

TheOne · Dec 28, 2019

I sure hope this isn't the salt your talking about?

The Aquatic Arsenal · Dec 28, 2019

Welcome to R2R. IO will work just fine for you. You can get a good price on chewy.com

JackDemetriou · Dec 29, 2019

TheOne said:
I sure hope this isn't the salt your talking about?

Why? Is this a really bad salt to use?

JackDemetriou · Dec 29, 2019

Dquad18 said:
Personally i've been using Coralife salt since I started mine and have had no issues so far, corals are growing and look healthy. I have mostly soft corals with a few LPS so I think as long as you do all/mainy soft corals you can just go with any salt mix really.

Are things like calcium and carbonate levels important to monitor for soft corals? If so, what should their levels be?

lapin · Dec 29, 2019

Soft corals do not use up much calcium. They do like higher nutrients. Coraline algae will use some calcium and alk. LPS will use more. Some consider them soft coral.
I have a mostly a soft coral tank with some LPS and a few SPS.
Its a good idea to keep track of these levels just to see what your tank is doing. And in case you get a weird batch of salt.
I keep my tank:
Alk: 9
Calcium: 450
Mag: 1450
Nitrate: 6
Phosphate: .05

flchamp89 · Dec 29, 2019

IO seems fine for me. No issues.

Dr. Dendrostein · Dec 29, 2019

JackDemetriou said:
I am looking to start a reef tank. It would be mainly a soft coral tank, with some fish and cuc. Would a normal salt like Instant Oceons be okay, or would something specific for corals be better like Red Sea Coral Pro?

I deal with very sensitive soft corals. I've tried, aquaforest , fritz blue box, IO, IO reef crystals, no issues, I can get real ocean water now. That I'm using now.

mfinn · Dec 29, 2019

JackDemetriou said:
Are things like calcium and carbonate levels important to monitor for soft corals? If so, what should their levels be?

For a softy tank regular water changes with Instant Ocean is all you need.
People seem to make things complicated, but it's really not.

Tahoe61 · Dec 29, 2019

JackDemetriou · Dec 29, 2019

Tahoe61 said:
IO

Do you think that soft corals would benefit from using Reef Crystals over just regular IO?

lapin · Dec 30, 2019

JackDemetriou said:
Do you think that soft corals would benefit from using Reef Crystals over just regular IO?

No

RC is high in things soft corals do not use up. Over time these things will build up and can cause problems

ahiggins · Dec 30, 2019

mfinn said:
For a softy tank regular water changes with Instant Ocean is all you need.
People seem to make things complicated, but it's really not.

+ a billion on this
If you don’t have a heavy lps sps dominant tank, you will eventually get your parameters out of whack with any reef salt. Use regular salt instead with a few water changes a month to freshen up. With softies you will get minimal uptake of the reef salt compounds (cal mag alk). I personally like Red Sea blue bucket (not coral pro)