What salt are you using?

[SashimiTurtle]

Red Sea blue bucket, mixes in minutes(5g tote 'n shake "mixing station") and its always 8 alk at 1.026.

 

[Acrofiend]

I’m currently using Fritz but I’ve been having inconsistent parameters due to this salt. I’ve had great results with Red Sea Coral Pro but the alkalinity was too high for my liking.

 

[petemichelle]

red sea blue bucket, I also went from red sea pro to fritz because of the lower alkalinity, but the higher, and I mean a lot higher magnesium drove me to red sea blue bucket, and I am really happy, my tank took to it better, maybe because it like the red sea pro or was used to it as opposed to a man made fritze salt. I also do a weekly water change on a 150 gal, I change 40 per week.

 

[JAMSOURY]

Looks like most here does their water change every week, I guess that’s the best way to keep the parameters consistent?

 

[new2this]

There's no inherent reason the salt mix need to match the tank alkalinity, unless you prefer to do large water changes as opposed to lots of small ones.

Also, it is not hard to reduce the alk in any salt mix, if you want.

Can u elaborate on bringing it down

 

[Sandroni]

Looks like most here does their water change every week, I guess that’s the best way to keep the parameters consistent?

For the most part, if you have a high maintence tank like an SPS dominated you would get most of that nitrate and phospate down.

 

[ReeferBud]

Using reef crystals for 20 years.

I'm trying to understand the benefit of a more expensive salt like RSCP, other than consistency from batch to batch. Maybe it mixes faster and cleaner... is there anything else?

Since I do many small (continuous) water changes, not sure the batch consistency or specific Alk value really matters to me, like Randy mentioned, and I can live with the residue and clean the container a few times a year.

I change 2,000 gal a year, so it would be a significant incremental cost of $400/year to switch to a more expensive salt... is it really worth it?

I've achieved good results but like many things in this hobby, always looking for even better results

 

[Dustin A.]

I'm using reef crystals and I've got results that I'm happy with (mixed reef tank).

 

[BoomCorals]

Dont do Fritz, i would stick with RSCP. I know multiple awesome tanks that crashed from Fritz. Its very controversial right now also with very high ALK btw. Another option that ive actually heard is maybe the best out there is hotsalt

I have the opposite behavior with fritz. It mixes to about 9dkh for me, and I've been using it for 6 months now with no issues. I feel like these "salt" threads always get stories about XYZ salt, be it fritz, IO, etc, and unverified anecdotes sort of just derail everything.

At the end of the day, use the salt you feel works best for you. Salt only causes tank crashes if there was something very wrong with the batch, such as a contaminant, etc. It's EXTREMELY rare. Salt is always the biggest red herring though for sure.

 

[BoomCorals]

ATM

Wait, hotsalt is made by ATM, the people from the show tanked? That alone is going to be a negative for a lot of people.

 

[DSC reef]

Using reef crystals for 20 years.

I'm trying to understand the benefit of a more expensive salt like RSCP, other than consistency from batch to batch. Maybe it mixes faster and cleaner... is there anything else?

Since I do many small (continuous) water changes, not sure the batch consistency or specific Alk value really matters to me, like Randy mentioned, and I can live with the residue and clean the container a few times a year.

I change 2,000 gal a year, so it would be a significant incremental cost of $400/year to switch to a more expensive salt... is it really worth it?

I've achieved good results but like many things in this hobby, always looking for even better results

I use coral pro and love it but that's all I've ever used from the beggining. I've tried other salts due to the latest and greatest and the tank always responded negatively. After 20 years of your success with reef crystals I would say never change my friend. Coral pro won't do anything special for you compared to what your using. Happy reefing.

 

[scurvy dawg]

Wait, hotsalt is made by ATM, the people from the show tanked? That alone is going to be a negative for a lot of people.

I for one would be a little Leary of anything they make or endorse with their name. Too many horror stories. It may very well be a fine salt, but, yeah.....ATM

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Looks like most here does their water change every week, I guess that’s the best way to keep the parameters consistent?

I did (and many others do) water changes many times every day, using an automatic and slow water changing method.

With that method, everything is "stable" (at least with respect to the water change) and the new water need not match the tank in any aspect, including salinity or temperature.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Sure. It involves adding muriatic acid (or, more expensively, sodium bisulfate, such as Seachem acid buffer).

Be very careful with straight muriatic acid. It can easily burn you, especially your eyes.

The "acidity" (that being essentially negative alkalinity) of muriatic acid straight from the bottle is about 11,000 meq/L.

So adding 1/11,000 of the water volume as this acid will drop alkalinity by 1 meq/l (2.8 dKH).

If you want a drop of 13 dKH to 7 dKH = 6 dKH drop, or 2.1 times that amount (2.1 x 2.8 = 6 dKH), so you'd add 1/5,100th of the water volume.

Suppose you are making 13 gallons:
13 gallons ~ 49 L

1/5100 of 49 L = 9.6 mL

So I'd add 5 ml and stir well for a few minutes and see what alkalinity you get. Then dose again assuming it seems on the right track.

You'll need to aerate well after adding the acid to blow off the excess CO2 and bring up the pH.

 

[davidaleong]

Kent

 

[davidaleong]

I use kent marine reef salt

 

[srad750c]

I have used TropMarin, IO reef crystals, IO, Red Sea(both) and HW-Marinemix(both)in the past 20+years. I’ve had reefs good and bad, right now bad. Got some hair algae about a year and half ago. I can’t seem to totally get rid of it. Nothing seems to get rid of it so breaking tank down after Christmas and starting over. Back to the post, I have had the best results with HW-Marinemix Reefer and regular. I currently use HW Reefer. No preference between the two. Mixes quick and very clear in a very short time. Never thought to check it after mixing since I only change 5 gals at a time in my 90. I drip back over a 30 minute time frame. I don’t know the mix results and I will check on the next change. TropMarin is next favorite, then IO. I don’t care for RedSea at all. Mixes inconsistently and you can’t aerate for a long time, it precipitates a component in its mix. Algae problem seems to happen when I started using a combination of their products. Hopefully a coincidence.

 

[DSC reef]

I have used TropMarin, IO reef crystals, IO, Red Sea(both) and HW-Marinemix(both)in the past 20+years. I’ve had reefs good and bad, right now bad. Got some hair algae about a year and half ago. I can’t seem to totally get rid of it. Nothing seems to get rid of it so breaking tank down after Christmas and starting over. Back to the post, I have had the best results with HW-Marinemix Reefer and regular. I currently use HW Reefer. No preference between the two. Mixes quick and very clear in a very short time. Never thought to check it after mixing since I only change 5 gals at a time in my 90. I drip back over a 30 minute time frame. I don’t know the mix results and I will check on the next change. TropMarin is next favorite, then IO. I don’t care for RedSea at all. Mixes inconsistently and you can’t aerate for a long time, it precipitates a component in its mix. Algae problem seems to happen when I started using a combination of their products. Hopefully a coincidence.

Your not supposed to aerate red sea at all, max mixing time is also not supposed to exceed 4 hours. Red sea has been the easiest mixing salt I've ever used.

 

[Chiefmaster30]

I’ve used IO for 2 yrs and just recently bought a bucket of rscp bc I’m following the Red Sea rcp and that’s what they recommended

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Your not supposed to aerate red sea at all, max mixing time is also not supposed to exceed 4 hours. Red sea has been the easiest mixing salt I've ever used.

Not aerate at all? Where exactly do they claim no aeration? Four hours of stirring is lots of aeration.

They claim (perhaps incorrectly, since we mythbusted it in the chemistry forum) that extended stirring will lead to rapid precipitation, but in no situation that I can imagine is aeration alone likely to be a problem for any salt mix .