what Is your favorite salt mix and why?

[K-pow]

So I’ve been running a reef aquarium for about a year and I have tried different salt mixes and of course they all claim they are the best. What are people on here using. I may be looking to switch.

 

[Uncle99]

Salt is Salt
Pick one which mixes up to your tanks parameters.
I seen great tanks on IO and Tropic Marin, each at the low and high price points.
Keep it stable, stable stable.

 

[Scurvy]

Yep agree with finding the one that matches your parameters best and rolling with it. From there look at mixing instructions to see if they suit your time as some say mix/use within a couple hours while others may recommend a 24 hour mix.

That said, Tropic Marin Pro is my favorite. Mixes Fast and Clean with Consistent numbers that fall near my own.

I’ve also used both Red Sea’s and IO.

 

[Fishingandreefing]

Salt is Salt
Pick one which mixes up to your tanks parameters.
I seen great tanks on IO and Tropic Marin, each at the low and high price points.
Keep it stable, stable stable.

I disagree with “salt is salt” unless you are keeping fowlr. Some salt like RC has super high ALK which you don’t want in your LPS tank. I switched to Coralife which is still high but I am at around 11 ALK and 430 Cal. They costs maybe around $5-10 more than IO

 

[Triple.T]

Frittz RPM, it's what my lfs uses, and everything I buy comes from there, everything just runs smoother for acclimating purposes and it mixes nicely with the parameters I'm looking for.

 

[Billldg]

HW Marine Reefer mix, matches the parameters I want and mixes easy.

I totally agree with @DSC reef as to what he said below, whatever you pick, stay with it as we all strive for consistency.

 

[DSC reef]

Red sea coral pro. I'm a firm believer in staying consistent with whatever you choose. There's no magical salt out there. I preffered the higher alkalinity due to the high consumption of the reef tank kept so on water change day I didn't have to dose at all that night. I also liked that the salt was ready to use within the hour so I could start mixing, do tank maintenance and then change water right after.

 

[K-pow]

Thanks for all the input everyone!!

 

[S2G]

IO has been extremely consistent at a low price. I know plenty of people with sps using it with success. There's not enough gained to justify a switch to a higher price salt in my case

 

[Roosterjack]

Red sea coral pro. I'm a firm believer in staying consistent with whatever you choose. There's no magical salt out there. I preffered the higher alkalinity due to the high consumption of the reef tank kept so on water change day I didn't have to dose at all that night. I also liked that the salt was ready to use within the hour so I could start mixing, do tank maintenance and then change water right after.

+1

RSCP is great salt!

 

[LC8Sumi]

I’ve tried some of the salts:

RSCP
RS Blue bucket
Kent
Aquaforest probiotic
Ati coral plus

What I’ve found with Red Sea salts is that they tend to have more salt creep IMO. The Aquaforest one gave me dinos (probably the carbon source in it), and ati mixes to a greenish tint - and I think it isn’t available in NA anyway. The Kent was a good salt for me, but can’t buy it anymore, so I’m using RS Blue bucket for now, but don’t like the creep and its price. Tropic Marin would be the next I’d try, but it is even more expensive than the Red Sea salts..

 

[SDK]

Agree with most of the above. I used IO for 25 years without any issues, but the greater bulk of that time was before many of the refinements in keeping more delicate inverts. Having said that, plenty of incredible tanks on R2R use plain old IO.

At some point I switched to regular TM and then Red Sea blue bucket and both were fine. Last year when I started back up again I went to TM Pro Reef because I did not want the high Alk that Red Sea Coral Pro mixes up to. My tank seems to want to settle at 9 DKH, so a few ml of Red Sea Alk to adjust my change water is all I need.

Short story, pick any of the major brands and make sure your FSW matches your tank parameters...