which salt

Regular IO for many many years, thee is no real reason to pay more for a designer salt.

you pay more for reliability of batch testing and to not buffer the levels to appropriate measurements.

Ive had bad batches of IO where Alk was 13+ or calc was 330 or mag at 1150. Nothing like dosing all 3 levels and retesting. If i had a big enough tank to warrant the cheaper price tag and then buffer but since its only a 60g Ill stick with TMP
 
Ive had bad batches of IO where Alk was 13+ or calc was 330 or mag at 1150.

I used to have that issue with IO, but that was many years ago, I mixed it 50/50 with Oceanic and it came out very close to what my CaRx kept the tank at. They upped the values of IO in 2008 or 2009 and since then it has been fairly consistent at the 400,11,1350 area. I do sometimes find the levels either higher or lower but not wildly off and well within the limits of testing error.

I don't believe there is a perfect salt mix, so no matter which brand someone uses, as long as they are happy with it that is all that matters.
 
I agree...what ever works for you. Nothing is perfect because everyone is slightly different. Glad to hear IO stepped up their QC but for me...Ill keep TMPro---Im sure others out there hate it but IME it makes me happy and I dont need to buffer much at all, mixes clear and its always consistent.

Alk at 11 is still COMPLETELY too high for me. The fact that I keep my alk at 7.5 decreases my pool of available salts dramatically.
 
Agreed and if you are carbon dosing it is getting harder to find lower alk salts, and you would think these mfg's would have figured out by now that the levels of their salts are way too high for those of us who carbon dose. I have been doing it off and on since about 2005 with excellent results. I have also been fortunate to have only had alk burn only once with my alk staying in the 10-11 range.
 
People lose weight, drop their blood pressure, elevate their moods, etc etc, all by taking a little sugar pill, it is called the placebo effect. You believe it is better therefore for you it is better. All of the major brand salts work, and people have beautiful tanks with every brand of salt out there, it is virtually impossible to quantify that salt A will make your corals healthier than salt B. the little additives that some companies add to help justify a higher price don't really make a bit of difference. One look at the health and beauty of people like Emster using plain old IO is a pretty good indication that salt is not the deciding factor. There is nothing wrong with using any brand salt you want but no salt replaces husbandry or gives any clear advantage over any other salt, if it mixes the way you like then that is what's important.

Well said sirreal63..

I have tried so many different salt brands I can't remember them all. I can't honestly say that any one of them made the slightest difference. Not that I could tell anyway.
 
Just ran a test of Seachem Reef Salt in 2 seperate containers my Brute trash can I am reading 1ppm NO3 and in my water jug I am reading 1ppm of NO3. RO/DI filters were just changed and TDS is zero
 
Been using RSCP for the last year and am very happy with it. Mixes well, and my corals have been doing great. Also, 50 bucks or so for 175 gallons is a great price.
 
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