What salt do you use?

Breakthecycle2 · Mar 14, 2016

I've been using TM Pro and I think the levels are way too low for me. My ALK never really goes above 7 without dosing and calcium never goes above 380. I guess im in need of a new salt mix....

redfishbluefish · Mar 14, 2016

Regardless of the salt, the ALK in the salt will not be able to keep up with consumption. (Unless you have but a few frags). You'll need to do something to supplement.

Gpettit721 · Mar 14, 2016

Red Sea blue bucket doesn't have high all or calcium but close to natural sea water... Mixes great never had an issue

Breakthecycle2 · Mar 14, 2016

Gpettit721 said:
Red Sea blue bucket doesn't have high all or calcium but close to natural sea water... Mixes great never had an issue

I've used that before and had terrible results. I gave it a month and none of my corals would open fully, until I switched it out.

jakub · Mar 14, 2016

I use salty salt. I use Red Sea, but regardless what the parameters are out of the bucket I adjust my mix to equal the tank

Gpettit721 · Mar 14, 2016

Well I wouldn't go back if you've had trouble before. Hahaha

Gpettit721 · Mar 14, 2016

I should have added that my last tank was a full zeo system and ran ulns and only had SPS with minimum lps.... Could be something there too I know a lot of people running zeo only use salt closer to natural perameters.... I've used h2o in the past and liked it but wasn't worth the cost. Kz salt is very very expensive and not worth it imho... One thing I've noticed with most salts is that I have to mix them outside the bucket it to get the heavier minerals mixed back in. They tend to settle.

cb684 · Mar 14, 2016

Breakthecycle2 said:
I've been using TM Pro and I think the levels are way too low for me. My ALK never really goes above 7 without dosing and calcium never goes above 380. I guess im in need of a new salt mix....

If you want to keep SPS relying on water changes for Alk and Ca will probably not work. In part because the consumption will increase and you would need larger and more frequent water changes. Also, if you use a salt with higher Alk and Ca to replenish your levels on a once a week water change you will likely have high fluctuations of Alk that are know to cause problems with some SPS.
Stability is always good, and if you are trying to keep SPS even more important.

The best option would be a salt mix that will not change your Alk and Ca concentrations (a salt that once mixed to 1.026 would have similar Alk and Ca your tank has) and maintain those parameters with 2 part dosing or calcium reactor.

Another option is to use automatic water changes doing small (or continuous) water changes in your aquarium. I describe what I do on my tank thread. In that case most of salt mixes will work just fine.

Good luck.
CB

Breakthecycle2 · Mar 14, 2016

cb684 said:
If you want to keep SPS relying on water changes for Alk and Ca will probably not work. In part because the consumption will increase and you would need larger and more frequent water changes. Also, if you use a salt with higher Alk and Ca to replenish your levels on a once a week water change you will likely have high fluctuations of Alk that are know to cause problems with some SPS.
Stability is always good, and if you are trying to keep SPS even more important.

The best option would be a salt mix that will not change your Alk and Ca concentrations (a salt that once mixed to 1.026 would have similar Alk and Ca your tank has) and maintain those parameters with 2 part dosing or calcium reactor.

Another option is to use automatic water changes doing small (or continuous) water changes in your aquarium. I describe what I do on my tank thread. In that case most of salt mixes will work just fine.

Good luck.
CB

I have a doser now. It's just the levels are so out of whack, that I'd like to get the levels more steady and dose to keep them that way.

G8trBait16 · Mar 14, 2016

I have been using Red sea Coral Pro for the past 7 months, but also use Kalk in my ATO. All my SPS are growing great.

cb684 · Mar 14, 2016

Breakthecycle2 said:
I have a doser now. It's just the levels are so out of whack, that I'd like to get the levels more steady and dose to keep them that way.

How do you mean "out of whack"? Are you having trouble to bring them up, or lower them down?

Breakthecycle2 · Mar 14, 2016

cb684 said:
How do you mean "out of whack"? Are you having trouble to bring them up, or lower them down?

Bring them up. My ALK was 6 on Friday and calcium was 340. Now, after dosing, my ALk is 9 and my calcium is 300.

cb684 · Mar 14, 2016

Did you try to bring the Ca up too? If so, I would recheck your test kit.

Breakthecycle2 · Mar 14, 2016

cb684 said:
Did you try to bring the Ca up too? If so, I would recheck your test kit.

I did, yes. I've does over 200 ml's of each since Friday.

cb684 · Mar 14, 2016

Ok. So you probably need to get a new kit or ask someone els to test your water for Ca. I would stop dosing Ca for now.

malira · Mar 14, 2016

G8trBait16 said:
I have been using Red sea Coral Pro for the past 7 months, but also use Kalk in my ATO. All my SPS are growing great.

Same here. For 2 years. I tried TM for a couple months. 2 buckets worth and my alk was also low. My corals loved everything else about it but I got tired of dosing alk.

G8trBait16 · Mar 14, 2016

malira said:
Same here. For 2 years. I tried TM for a couple months. 2 buckets worth and my alk was also low. My corals loved everything else about it but I got tired of dosing alk.

I think I have about 30 SPS frags and about 18 LPS/Zoa frags. Tank is about 8 months old. My Parameters have been staying pretty stable. I have about 100g of total Water volume and do a 10-12g water change every weekend.
Alk: 12-12.4 dKH - red sea test kit
Calcium: 450-480 - red sea test kit
Mag: 1350-1450 - red sea test kit
Nitrates: 0 - .02- Hanna
phosphates: 0 -.01 - Hanna

So far so good.

malira · Mar 14, 2016

G8trBait16 said:
I think I have about 30 SPS frags and about 18 LPS/Zoa frags. Tank is about 8 months old. My Parameters have been staying pretty stable. I have about 100g of total Water volume and do a 10-12g water change every weekend.
Alk: 12-12.4 dKH - red sea test kit
Calcium: 450-480 - red sea test kit
Mag: 1350-1450 - red sea test kit
Nitrates: 0 - .02- Hanna
phosphates: 0 -.01 - Hanna

So far so good.

My alk falls in the 8 to 9 range. Do you dose alk?

dewboy1127 · Mar 14, 2016

Breakthecycle2 said:
Bring them up. My ALK was 6 on Friday and calcium was 340. Now, after dosing, my ALk is 9 and my calcium is 300.

At some point where you using the doser to maintain levels and something happened or have never gotten it dialed in?

G8trBait16 · Mar 14, 2016

malira said:
My alk falls in the 8 to 9 range. Do you dose alk?

I just mix 5 tsp's of Kalkwasser into a 5g bucket that I use for my auto top off. When my SPS corals demand more calcium and alk than what Kalk will replace. I will auto dose 2 part, but my corals aren't at that point yet.