What salt do you use? Table salt, instant ocean? is there a value brand?

[miogpsrocks]

What type of salt do you use for the Aquarium?

Like table salt or instant ocean product?

Instant ocean is 46 lbs.
Treats 160 gallons
$49.20

So does this mean to get 160 gallons worth of ocean water is going to cost $50?

So there is about 46 pounds in salt in every 160 gallons of water?

Is there a value brand that everyone uses or does the water change really cost this much money?

Thanks.

 

[Monte26]

Not table salt...unless you want to kill everything in your tank. There are many brands of salt. I've used instant ocean, reef crystals, and Kent marine salt in the past. In sure other reefers can give their suggestions too. Around me, I can get a box of reef crystals for $40ish and I think that does 200ish gallons of water

 

[BillNye]

I use coral pro sea salt. The bigger bucket is around $80 and lasts me around two months. Great health and growth.

Remember, this hobby is anything but cheap.

 

[miogpsrocks]

Not table salt...unless you want to kill everything in your tank. There are many brands of salt. I've used instant ocean, reef crystals, and Kent marine salt in the past. In sure other reefers can give their suggestions too. Around me, I can get a box of reef crystals for $40ish and I think that does 200ish gallons of water

So one of the biggest expensive is just buying the salt for the water changes?

If you are going a biweekly water change of 20% of a 100 gallon tank. That is 40 gallons a week. So for 1 month, it will cost you $50 just in salt alone? ( $600 a year)

Maybe I should get a nano reef instead or take my kayak out and get ocean water from the source. I live in a waterway which leads to the ocean.

I would use just the salt water in my backyard but I heard that is too polluted unless its like a mile away from land right?

Ok thanks.

 

[Marchillo]

I don't think people do biweekly water changes of 20%. I do 10-15% on my two tanks once a week. Some go every other week. I think once a week is pretty standard unless you have an issue you are correcting.

 

[CStrickland]

biweekly is a stupid word. people mean water changes every other week, not twice a week.
I have a 55g tank, and at 10% weekly (I think stable is better) I spend $75 a year on Instant Ocean Reef Crystals. I would guess a 100g would be about twice that.

Salt is important cause it is like the ocean dehydrated, so you have all kinds of trace elements in there that the animals in your tank need. Like vitamins for the coral and fish. That's why you want to use pure water, so that hardness in the water or other impurities don't throw off the balance.

 

[sk8elenex92]

I did 15 gallon water changes once a month on my 60 and everything thrived. You don't necessarily need to do one once a week. I ran a refugium and skimmer. Bags of carbon and Gfo. Worked like a charm. There is a lot more ways to do but that worked great as a start.

 

[sumer]

Reading this might help: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2532810

 

[whosurcaddie]

Just buy Instant Ocean its cheap and has worked for years.

 

[bws]

i changed from instant oceans reef crystals to the tropic marine brand. i think its better than reef crystals

 

[Ron Reefman]

So one of the biggest expensive is just buying the salt for the water changes?

If you think buying salt to make replacement saltwater is a big expense, then maybe you should consider a very small tank or a different hobby.

 

[tennesseebob]

Once upon a time the term for every other week would have been semi-weekly , but ppl eventually forgot that term, now in the dictionary bi-weekly has both meanings, sad sad

 

[dcw1sfu]

Ive used many salts including IO, Reef Crystals, DD H2Ocean, among others. Ive recently just gone back to the tried and tested regular instant ocean and my SPS dominant tank is still thriving.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

In most cases a wc of 10% is sufficient every two weeks. I've got a 40b with a 20 gal sump but my water volume with displacement for rock and sand is more like 50 gal ish total. So I do a 5 gal wc every two weeks. I use IO Reef Crystals and wait and but them on sale.

 

[kmbyrnes]

First of all, congrats on thinking about ongoing costs upfront. I am sure that these cause a lot of people to take down their tanks after they realize the investment in time, effort and $$ to keep a successful tank. This will be one of the largest ongoing costs of a saltwater tank, and if this is a concern for you, factor that into you tank size decision.
I currently have 2 tanks - 100g reef and a 125 FOWLR. I use IO to do a 10-15 gallon change each week, alternating between tanks. With that and QT and TTM for new fish/coral, I go through a 200 gallon box every six weeks or so. I can usually get it for about $40. But if you think about it, that's small price to pay when you have a couple thousand dollars in fish/coral to keep alive.

 

[Shawn O]

IO is pretty much the cheapest/most available salt around. I buy the $20 bags that make 50 gallons and do 5 or 10 gallon water changes every week, depending on how much salt or water I have available at the moment. You'll probably find that salt is going to be cheaper than the water and electrical bill when it comes to running a tank. It's a hobby that will divert money from activities you enjoy or other hobbies you may have. You have to make the commitment to budget X amount of money every month. Whether or not it's worth it is entirely up to you.

 

[mcozad829]

biweekly is a stupid word. people mean water changes every other week, not twice a week.

Biweekly means every other week... Semi weekly means twice a week

 

[Bent]

I do 10% weekly on mine. ~100 gallons total volume.

About 10 gallons a week. The IO buckets are starting to stack up. (Million and one uses for those too btw.)

 

[Shawn O]

You can never have too many buckets.

 

[ZeeSparrow]

I do ~15% every other week on my system, so let's say 25 gallons a month. I buy 200G boxes of IO which would last 8 months. At $40 per box, that's $5 per month.

At the moment I'm still stocking so with TTM and water changes on my QT system, that box only lasts about 2.5 months. Still, that's just $16 per month. As Shawn mentioned, the cost of the water itself and the electricity is more.

This hobby ain't cheap! You have to decide if it's worth it for you.