Seachem marine salt

[Drewdog]

Hello all,

I accidentally ordered a 160 gallon bucket of Seachem marine salt instead of the reef salt from Dr. Foster and Smith. I already have a bucket of the reef salt on the way now and I was gonna send back the marine salt for a refund. However UPS wants $36 to ship it back. Thats not gonna happen. Now that I am stuck with this bucket, my question is will it hurt my ability to keep corals in my tank if I mix the two salts together when I make a water change? I don't have many in my tank right now, only some xenia, star polyps, zoas, and a yellow fiji, but I'd like to add more in the coming months.

P.S. I am a noob and don't know much about the chemistry that makes these tanks successfull yet. haha. Thanks.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Don't worry about it. Any brand name salt will be fine - the trick is knowing what YOUR tank needs, and making sure the water has that stuff in it. The salt mix is one source of "stuff" for your water, but it doesn't have to be (and in most cases, shouldn't be) the only source.

You mentioned keeping corals. For most people, unless their stock levels are pretty low, that means monitoring calcium and alkalinity. Are you doing that with your tank? If not, you may want to start, regardless of this potential change in salt brands.

Another important thought is knowing what the differences between the salt mixes really is. For the most part, it boils down to differences in pH, alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium in the mixed water. If you're not keeping corals, pH is really the only concern you should have. If you are keeping corals, you'll want to keep an eye on the others, but again - just because you're using a salt mix that's deficient in Ca doesn't mean disaster for your tank. Most people with corals are supplementing Ca and alkalinity anyways, so using a salt mix that's deficient in those areas just means upping the supplementation routine, or dosing the new water to get it up to spec. In most cases, it's actually cheaper to do this yourself, instead of buying the top-shelf mixes that come with proper levels of Ca and alkalinity.

There are tons of really good chemistry articles in the sticky at the top of the forum if you haven't seen them yet, FWIW.

 

[billdogg]

No worries. I tend to buy whichever is on sale when i need to get more, and have mixed & matched for years with no ill effects. You may want to test the fresh mixed water just to make sure all is ok, but i would not worry if it were me.

 

[Nor_Cal_Guy]

I would just use it when you run out, there isn't too much differences imo.

I'm thinking of switching back to plain instant ocean after that read:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1714505

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I'm thinking of switching back to plain instant ocean

That's what I use. It's usually very cheap, you can get it anywhere, it's been around since before time began, and works just fine. The "new" formulation seems to consistently test higher with Ca and alkalinity. The price difference between IO and reef crystals is usually $8 or $10. You can make up the difference in Ca and alkalinity between a bucket of each for pennies - so unless you're really addicted to convenience, it makes sense to just use the IO.

 

[Nor_Cal_Guy]

On my last bag of Reef Crystals I bet.

 

[Drewdog]

Thanks for all the info guys. Im relieved to hear that I didn't waste my money. It just sucks that I spent $50 on a second bucket of salt that I did not need right before christmas. Haha. I currently do not test for cal or alk, but I planned on starting soon as I want to start keeping more corals.

 

[DC_40gallon]

A lot of people mix salts. Some find a great formula in doing a mix of salts. Some boobs as myself made wrong purchases on bad advice and like me have low quality salt like a box of petco namebrand and I'm putting in 3 cups of red sea coral pro and one cup of petco salt to avoid throwing the stuff away.