What kind of reef salt do you use?

[reefwick]

mix it before you add to the tank. It is bad for them when you add directly to the tank. You should never do that unless you have nothing in the tank. Just mix it with some RO so it can dissolve then add it to the tank. You never want to raise it quick either. .001 a day

 

[mike89t]

I originally started with Oceanic but the Magnesium and Calcium were way high and I had problems getting the PH to stay above 8.

I switched to Instant Ocean and have been really happy with it. I just add some extra Calcium and Magnesium to get them up where I want them when I mix a fresh batch of salt water. Everything else is perfect for me and the PH stays around 8.3 which is were I want it.

I get a bucket of IO for about $38 at my LFS.

 

[TekCat]

jmontejo:

Typically you change salinity very slowly by doing partial water changes. Abrupt change will severly strees your corals.

"I just realized that my sdalinity level was decreasing." - either you put too much top off water, effectively dilluting your tank's water; or you measuring salinity methods are errorness. Are you using swing arm hydrometer.

 

[jmontejo]

YES, i AM USING A SWING ARM HYRDOMETER AND i MIXED ABOUT A CUP OF INSTANT OCEAN SALT WITH 1 GALLON OF DISTILLED WATER. IS EVERYTHING GOING TO DIE?

 

[ODOG]

When I started in the hobby I used IO, but last year switched to Coralife. I wanted to try a new salt and there bucket had a free t-shirt...shame on me, lol. I actually like it though now. I get a calcium reading of around 400 and alk of 8. My coraline growth has been much more colorful as well since switching.

 

[MONK_11]

I have used carib sea and tropic marin without any problems

 

[TekCat]

jmontejo: There are two options:
- use fresh water to correct salinity levels to what they were before (use it at your own risk)
- pray that everything survives

I really don't know what's the best thing to do in your case. For instance: if it's been long time with new salinity level then your corals (while stressed) are acclimating to new water, and changing salinity again will stress them even further.

In any case, in future get refractometer, swing arm hydrometers are prone to produce errorness measurements. Sometimes two consecutive measurements can produce different results.

 

[Entropy]

Used IO for the first couple of years (and still plan too). Recently I had to buy a bucket of ocean pure, because I did an unplanned water change (you know, overflowed water everywhere. ) and that was all the LFS had.

 

[Ehgemus]

Thanks for the info.