Lets talk about salt for mixing

[shane reef]

I know I have read somewhere, just can't find, about people using salt from lowes or homedepot in their reef aquariums. Has anybody used this before? How are your results? Thanks in advance

 

[ah_notty]

Ive never heard of doing that but doesnt sound safe to me. Their salt was not designed to replicate ocean water.

 

[garygonzales]

i think it was the sand not salt

 

[Sk8r]

Use fish-only salt if you have only fish, no clams or shelled inverts or hard corals. That is the ONLY economy possible.
Use reef salt if you have clams, shelled inverts, or a coral reef. When you read the label you will know it is way far from rock salt: contains half a hundred other minerals in correct proportions for reef and fish health.

 

[gone fishin]

I believe what you are referring to is the ice melt salt, specifically calcium chloride, it was used for calcium supplementation. I did not use it so I can't help there.

Also, be wary of using sand from any of the box stores it is likely to be silica quartz based sand and will more than likely cause issues in your tank.

 

[shane reef]

Ok thanks for the info. Any brand of salt you guys recommend and why?

 

[ah_notty]

Are you going fish only or corals as well?

 

[sealtea116]

IO is what I use

 

[shifty51008]

Instant ocean works well for fish and corals ime

 

[heathlindner25]

Tropic Marin here

 

[ericarenee]

I use Kent Marine.... Its a Shipping/ Price thing and does not leave a mess in my mixing container like IO .

 

[Cosmojo]

I use Reef Crystals. To be honest, the brand doesn't much matter, look how many of us use something different, yet we are doing well so far. You can make a lot of different things work.

 

[brewtus]

Tropic Marin is what I use

 

[RayAllen3422]

I used Reef Crystals.

 

[rfurst]

Like others said, nothing at lowes home depot for salt. I always used IO reef crystals but don't think it matters much.

There has been discussion over the years of sand at hardware stores that may be available for substrate and there was a particular brand at one point that was sometime available but I havent seen it for many years. Most play sand or others is silica based which you don't want.