Best Salt mix?

Ocean Hugger

New member
what is the best salt mix out there when it comes to having the most major and minor elements. Because i have decided to not dose my tank any more with anything but food and amino acids. All my other perimeters will be sustained by a 2 gallon change DALIY. This idea was giving to me by a frag grower at the MAX. (Marine Aquarium Expo) that is what he does and he had the best frags at the whole show.
 
Although I dont use it , I heard H2Ocean Pro+ magnesium Salt is fairly good esp if you do not dose too much of anything else . you are still required larger water changes due to depletion.

The price is kinda of up there but its still not as bad as reefers best price.
 
Asking for the 'Best' salt mix is really a tough question, because there are a lot of different ways to run your tank. I use RC because I like the high calcium and alkalinity, so i only supplement a little mag and I mix kalkwasser in my top-off water to keep it all stable. However, that said, I have a primarily sps tank, but most of them are small and when they get large I may need additional calc supplementing.
 
IMO they all kinda suck equally. In even a low demand tank you're going to have to change a lot of water to keep up with Ca. Alk is next to impossible to keep up with w/c alone. I would pick one and stick with it.


I myself use NSW
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14767095#post14767095 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Reefer Steve
IMO they all kinda suck equally. In even a low demand tank you're going to have to change a lot of water to keep up with Ca. Alk is next to impossible to keep up with w/c alone. I would pick one and stick with it.


I myself use NSW
yeah i guess that guy bs me because no one seems to think that is possible and i believe you guys. just loved how easy it sounded thinking of doing a calcium reactor
 
+ 3 on Seachem Reef Salt . 2 gallon water change daily is not going to keep a calcium alk demand ..
I guess as a frag farmer he wants to keeps his husbandry management practices to himself .
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14767839#post14767839 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mordibv
+ 3 on Seachem Reef Salt . 2 gallon water change daily is not going to keep a calcium alk demand ..
I guess as a frag farmer he wants to keeps his husbandry management practices to himself .

Thats to conclusion i have came to also:rolleye1:
 
I used Seachem and really liked it. Unfortunately it cant be purchased locally anymore without having it special ordered. I'm now using Instant Ocean and as much as I used to hate it it's working okay for me. I only have to buffer up the Mg in the new salt mix. Alk and Ca are okay and in line with the levels I keep my tank at.
 
All my other perimeters will be sustained by a 2 gallon change DALIY.

I agree that you will be unlikely to be able to maintain alkalinity with 2 gallons per day. Maybe 20-50 gallons per day would do it. I show that here:

Water Changes in Reef Aquaria
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

from it:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php#8

Very Large Water Changes Maintain Calcium and Alkalinity



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In the previous section I showed that normal water changes of up to 30% per month cannot maintain calcium and alkalinity in reef aquaria. But at some point, large enough water changes can do so. What volume of water change is necessary to maintain calcium and alkalinity in reef aquaria? In a tiny aquarium, 3 gallons for example, large daily water changes might be acceptable. How large is required? Figure 23 shows the drop in alkalinity for a low demand aquarium changing 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 30% of the water EVERY DAY. In that case, it appears to require between 10% and 30% of the total water volume to be changed every day to maintain suitable alkalinity. Figure 24 shows similar data for a higher demand aquarium (1 meq/L alkalinity per day). In this case, it takes close to a 50% water change each day to maintain suitable alkalinity. Similar data are obtained for calcium (not shown), where 30% and 50% daily water changes in a high demand aquarium (24 ppm calcium per day) stabilize at 364 and 396 ppm calcium, respectively. So, while changing 50% per day is really out of the question for any normal to large reef aquarium without an inlet directly from the ocean or a large seawater well, a 3-gallon nanoreef aquarium attached to a very slow continuous pump could maintain adequate calcium and alkalinity by replacing 1.5 gallons each day.



Figure 23. Alkalinity as a function of time when performing very large daily water changes of 0% (no changes), 5%, 10%, 15% and 30% of the total volume EACH DAY. In this example, alkalinity is present at 4 meq/L (11 dKH) at the start and is depleted at a low rate of 0.2 meq/L per day.

Figure23sm.GIF


Figure 24. Alkalinity as a function of time when performing very large daily water changes of 0% (no changes), 15%, 30% and 50% of the total volume EACH DAY. In this example, alkalinity is present at 4 meq/L (11 dKH) at the start and is depleted at a moderately high rate of 1 meq/L per day.

Figure24sm.GIF
 
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