Which salt mix

[Pennywise the Clown]

My mixed reef has been running for a year now and it is time that I started mixing my own salt water.
I have been purchasing my water from my lfs but all 3 shops local to me mix their water between 1.024 and 1.022.
My levels are..

Dkh 8.0
Calcium 420
Magnesium 1300

My nearest lfs sells Red Sea salt and they recommend the Coral Pro, and it actually says on the bucket that this is for mixed reefs. However, its levels are quite a bit higher than my tank.

I usually do around a 10% water change a week on my Reefer 250.

Any thoughts?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I recommend fritz pro, aqua forest or Kent. I like Red Sea coral pro personally

 

[lapin]

I mix the read sea blue and black buckets about 50/50 to get my 9.0 dkh @ 1.025

 

[Auquanut]

I use fritz RPM because I get it from the LFS for $40 to $45 dollars for a 200 gallon box. It generally runs about 9 dkh at 1.026 SG. With a 10% weekly water change schedule, I think whichever salt brand you decide on shouldn't have a detrimental effect on your tank.

 

[PatW]

Doing a 10% water change means that your ALK for the salt mix can be a fair bit higher. Even a 12 DKH will only bump alk up ,4. It works best if your corals are growing and depleting ALK. Otherwise, you could go for a closer fit. Also for corals I would suggest going for 1.025 or 1.026. From what I have heard, virtually all of the widely available mixes will do a good job.

 

[Medic58]

At the end of the day. The salt you use will not determine your success or failure. They are all mostly made the same. Most people buy what they can afford and where they want to keep tank numbers.

 

[EW_Fish]

I've tried about 5 salts in 8 years. Never noticed a difference between salts. That being said this is my opinion. It really doesn't matter what salt you use as long as you are happy with the parameters it gives you if they work for you then you should have no problems.

 

[Westoncase]

+1 for fritz

 

[phillygeeks]

In my personal experience I had better results with lower dKh salts. When I used RS coral pro I had quite a bit of abiotic precipitation. I ended up using the Aquaforest reef salt. That being said I am sure there are plenty of people with good experience using RS coral pro

 

[Snookin]

HW Reefer

 

[brawthy]

I use Tropic Marin Pro, but salt is rarely the determing factor. @Randy Holmes-Farley has done a few right-ups regarding salt mixes if you want to go a bit further down the rabbit hole.

 

[Hemmdog]

Tropic Marin pro. Quick clean mix. German pharmaceutical grade meersalz.