Which Salt?

Gabriel Guirola · Nov 18, 2016

So I've been using Coralife Salt for a few months now and I don't mind it. I am about to upgrade to a bigger tank but my salt is not going to be enough so I am shopping around for salt. I know Red sea is the best salt for SPS tanks but I am looking into Coralife salt or reef crystals. Which is better and why?
My tanks is mixed with SPS, LSP, and softies

Slm222 · Nov 18, 2016

I have switched to Fritz RPM Pro and like that it mixes up consistently at NSW. Not high alk like others than tend to precipitate out in the mixing container. Mag and Calcium are at a good level as well. All around better to keep things consistent during a water change for the dosing regimen, atleast for me.

Gabriel Guirola · Nov 18, 2016

I've heard of Fritz too. That's what I though and that is why I am a bit hesitant to use another salt when I do the upgrade

Js.Aqua.Project · Nov 18, 2016

I have heard a lot of good things about the AquaForest salts but haven't used any personally. Right now I am using Red Sea Coral Pro.

I am not a fan of the Instant Ocean/Reef Crystals salts in a reef tank as I don't find them to be very consistent batch-to-batch.

saltyfilmfolks · Nov 18, 2016

instant ocean. you may laugh, but why does Randy Farley use it.
A very good friend of mine also uses it in his SPS tank and its THE most fantastic tank I have ever seen in person, with colonies as big as a dinner plate.
IO and a calcium reactor. He, is also a scientist.
The second best in person tank was owned by an engineer. Io calcium reactor. Acro colonies only as big as a grapefruit and huge zoa colonies.
Jus Sayin.

Gabriel Guirola · Nov 18, 2016

I like reef crystals too and I used it in the past. I am using Coralife right now because that's the salt that I had at the moment but I might change back to Crystals. Will see what people have to say.

G8trBait16 · Nov 18, 2016

I have used both Aquaforest Probiotic and Reef salt in my SPS dominated reef. I personally like them both, Mixes clear in 5-8 min (yes I have timed it). Out of the 6 buckets I have used so far, alk has ranged from 7.4-7.7dKH. Which I run my tank between those already. I used RSCP when I started my tank for about 6 months, but the alk was higher than I wanted. So I switch to the AF line 6 months ago. My tank is now a year old and doing well.

saltyfilmfolks · Nov 18, 2016

Gabriel Guirola said:
I like reef crystals too and I used it in the past. I am using Coralife right now because that's the salt that I had at the moment but I might change back to Crystals. Will see what people have to say.

not reef crystals. Plain IO.
Yea, Hows that for a mind blower.
Inconsistent? different sediments from the same batch or bag ? Put it in a dry bucket and shake it.

tazzxx · Nov 18, 2016

Fritz salt hands down!

Joey waid · Nov 18, 2016

saltyfilmfolks said:
not reef crystals. Plain IO.
Yea, Hows that for a mind blower.
Inconsistent? different sediments from the same batch or bag ? Put it in a dry bucket and shake it.

I don't see any issues from any instant ocean products. For the money I don't think it can be beat..

Gabriel Guirola · Nov 18, 2016

saltyfilmfolks said:
not reef crystals. Plain IO.
Yea, Hows that for a mind blower.
Inconsistent? different sediments from the same batch or bag ? Put it in a dry bucket and shake it.

coral-boss · Nov 18, 2016

I have been using the reef crystals for 4 years with multiple tanks being upgraded over the years. The price is good and never had issues with it. Just my experience

Jeddite · Nov 18, 2016

Changed from reef crystals to aquaforest probiotic salt. Reef crystals was giving me different reading in every water change, especially in mg and alk side. Maybe i got a bad batch. After changing af probiotic managed to get consistent levels like alk around 7,5-8 range and ca around 420-450. Started with 5kg bucket and defo ill go for bigger batch next time. Stopped using prodibio biodigest since salt includes probiotics and got very low po4 readings in combination with chemipure blue. I guess all af product line is made for ULNS and good for sps keeping.

saltyfilmfolks · Nov 18, 2016

Gabriel Guirola said:

Hahahaha, yea pretty much. I went over to innocently buy a frag of yellow leather coral. The BOOOOOM! I got schooled HARD!
were still friends now, and when we met up at Macna we hung out with his friends, the owner of ESV and Steve Tyree and the guy we met there was Jim welsh who just invented the constant alkalinity monitor. Mostly we drank and listened to raging party stories of pasts Macnas, but also talked chemistry. BOOM BOOM BOOOM BOOOM...splat(brain hits floor).

What I learned was maintain natural seawater levels and dose to maintain them. the caution was mixing salt and add and change them slowly. Its fine to experiment with higher cal/alc minerals but balance the the rest of the system accordingly, flow light nutrients. Its human nature to chase bigger and better, seems science looks at it as using different tools/compounds depending on application to determine outcome, and hilariously, budget and local availability.

The reason I dont use probiotic salts is I want to gauge and control bacteria separately and its expensive. I'm a newb chemist and the prefer husbandry and biology aspects and what and why the animals uptake what they do and learning to increase what's given or more correctly what available .

splat.

bif24701 · Nov 18, 2016

I use IO on my acro tank. It's great, proven, low cost, readily availably, consistent, has everything I need and doesn't mix high in ALK and cal. I dose and don't like salts that mix high in ALK and Cal.

Joey waid · Nov 18, 2016

bif24701 said:
I use IO on my acro tank. It's great, proven, low cost, readily availably, consistent, has everything I need and doesn't mix high in ALK and cal. I dose and don't like salts that mix high in ALK and Cal.

I can't see spending any more on salt. There are people wanting to use tap water one here to save money. To me the water is most important. Instant ocean is good stuff. Maybe if I was chasing number it would be different.

Js.Aqua.Project · Nov 18, 2016

saltyfilmfolks said:
instant ocean. you may laugh, but why does Randy Farley use it.
A very good friend of mine also uses it in his SPS tank and its THE most fantastic tank I have ever seen in person, with colonies as big as a dinner plate.
IO and a calcium reactor. He, is also a scientist.
The second best in person tank was owned by an engineer. Io calcium reactor. Acro colonies only as big as a grapefruit and huge zoa colonies.
Jus Sayin.

Not really knocking IO, we ran an experiment with some friends who were all using the same brand and type of salts. IMO if your tank is happy don't change anything unless you have to ($ being a factor too).

When we tested for Ca, Mg, dKH with a SG of 1.025 RSCP had the most consistent results across all the batches of salt. That is the reason I chose it.