Salt mixes

[Steve W]

What is the best or your favorite salt mix? Why?

Which ones should be avoided?

Steve W

 

[worldnewsmap]

Mine is Reef Crystals.

 

[lotsoftats]

I just switched to Seachem....no ill effects so far.

 

[Steve W]

Anyone know anything about Instant Ocean?

 

[stoney1118]

hey! i used the instant ocean until i read about all the chemicals it has in it, i love seachem, salinity, it works well. also love brightwell products, i recently tried out a bucket of red sea for the lfs and i liked it as well, its supposed to be dried out sea water and the salt is collected up and packaged so they say NO chamicals, but for the best bang for your buck, id say go with seachem salinity, 80$ on average for a bucket around here, and it does 225 gallons where most buckets only go 160.

 

[cee]

I mix salts for reasons too extensive to get into here. Again, it all depends on what you're trying to do and what you're trying to keep. All salts have trace elements, many of which are way higher than NSW levels, so that should be a reason to discount IO.

 

[EvilMel]

I was using Tropic Marin but I've recently switched to Reef Crystals and am seeing better health of my tank overall. I'm not saying that the change in salt necessarily had anything to do with it because it may have been coincidental.

 

[cee]

I mix salts for reasons too extensive to get into here. Again, it all depends on what you're trying to do and what you're trying to keep. All salts have trace elements, many of which are way higher than NSW levels, so that should be a reason to discount IO.

Meant to say should NOT be a reason to discount IO.

 

[EvilMel]

Meant to say should NOT be a reason to discount IO.

OOOOH! That makes a lot more sense now.

 

[Flavum]

Just my experience. I used Tropic Marin Pro Reef for a couple years than switched over to instant ocean. Got bad results so I went back to Tropic Marin and everything beens peachy.

I have a 34 gallon so Im not using a ton of salt wich is good as Tropic Marin is $$$. I do 10-15% waterchanges every 2 weeks and I never have to dose CA or alk. I keep mostly LPS

One of the big reasons I like tropic Marin is the consistency. Its like a powder rather than a granular sand so it mixes easily. Again this is just my experience = )

 

[Steve W]

I appreciate the input. I've been buying my water, but it's getting too expensive. I'm keeping a mix of LPS and zoas mostly but I also have a couple of SPSs. I had seen some negative posts about IO and Reef Crystals, but it's good to have personal experiences.

Steve

 

[JR719]

Mix of Oceanic and Instant Ocean. Either or seems to be fine.