Jestersix

What salt mix you use?

ReeferRey

ReeferRey

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Hello I was wondering what salt mix everyone uses and why because I use Red Sea pro purple bucket and it has 12 alkalinity and I see everyone alk is at 8 is it bad to have high alkalinity. Should I switch or keep it the same, my tank is doing fine just seeing what everyone else uses.
 
I use Red Sea blue bucket which mixes to 8 dKH. It seems like high dKH mixes like this are intended to replenish alkalinity (and other stuff) with water changes. I don't think this is optimal since it introduces Alk swings. I try to keep my alkalinity under 10 dKH since I always notice problems when higher.
 
I use Tropic Marin Pro. I like how it mixes easily, consistently, with no residue. The parameters of the mixed water are just about exactly what I’m aiming for. I’ve used plenty of others and they are all ok.

Initially the artificially high alk salt mixes were devised as a way to replenish alk with water changes, without having to dose by hand. This results in swings, which seemed ok before we had dosers, and before we had more available testing to see what was happening. Later, separately, some people felt like super high alk was better for growth, which is a hotly debated topic.
 
IO Reef Crystals is just the high-alk version of regular Instant Ocean. It’s not otherwise better or more consistent. RC is the salt I was referring to that was designed to make it so that people could replenish alk with water changes instead of manual dosing. I used it for years, many years ago. If you like RC but want to keep your alk in the more normal (lower) range and are already dosing, you should consider just switching to regular IO to reduce alk swings.
 
JVU said:
IO Reef Crystals is just the high-alk version of regular Instant Ocean. It’s not otherwise better or more consistent. RC is the salt I was referring to that was designed to make it so that people could replenish alk with water changes instead of manual dosing. I used it for years, many years ago. If you like RC but want to keep your alk in the more normal (lower) range and are already dosing, you should consider just switching to regular IO to reduce alk swings.
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Does it have elevated levels of other things too or is it really just alk? I do weekly 5 gallon water changes in my 45 gallon frag with 29 gallon sump with reef crystals. I’m dosing 15mL AFR daily and my alk stays around 8 when I test once a week. Although I haven’t tested right after a water change to see the swing. Would definitely be cheaper to switch to the purple bucket. Although I just bought 3 buckets of RC recently so I’m stuck with it for a while
 
Tropic Marin Pro and Fauna Marin Pro are probably the best salts on the market. Despite Tropic Marin’s quality control disaster a few years ago in one of their facilities, both provide probably the highest quality in production and the most complete and balanced set of traces if you are serious about what is in your water.

The combination of high quality and completeness of traces comes at a cost though - specifically Tropic Marin tends to be rather expensive unless you buy during the Thanksgiving sales. Fauna is slightly cheaper since they do not have the name recognition, but is still expensive compared to the other options mentioned - this is currently the cheapest I have seen (https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/professional-sea-salt-20kg-fauna-marin/)

Differences between the two are minuscule but mainly in the slightly higher alk value of Fauna Marin which is closer to what I like (8-8.5 range), and Tropic Marin has a rather low alk value since it is heavily targeted at folks who dose alk in addition to water changes.
 
MarcosD said:
Does it have elevated levels of other things too or is it really just alk? I do weekly 5 gallon water changes in my 45 gallon frag with 29 gallon sump with reef crystals. I’m dosing 15mL AFR daily and my alk stays around 8 when I test once a week. Although I haven’t tested right after a water change to see the swing. Would definitely be cheaper to switch to the purple bucket. Although I just bought 3 buckets of RC recently so I’m stuck with it for a while
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It’s more mildly elevated in other consumed elements like Ca and Mg as I recall. Again, original idea being for people avoiding dosing.
 
I also used RC for over 15 years. I thought it was better. Then 5 years ago I switched to regular IO. I like it better. Not so many buffers. Although I just started using Julian Sprung’s salt like a month ago. I’m really happy with it.

Oh. Dunno if anyone knows or you know. You’re supposed to mix your salt before making it. As the trace elements settles to the bottom of the bucket over time.
 
I used IO reef crystals. Then moved to RS Coral Pro. Is there a difference? Maybe, it smells different at least. Do the corals look different? Maybe, or it could just be that I'm doing more water changes

You will get a different response and a different reason for every salt
 
Alexander1312 said:
Tropic Marin Pro and Fauna Marin Pro are probably the best salts on the market. Despite Tropic Marin’s quality control disaster a few years ago in one of their facilities, both provide probably the highest quality in production and the most complete and balanced set of traces if you are serious about what is in your water.

The combination of high quality and completeness of traces comes at a cost though - specifically Tropic Marin tends to be rather expensive unless you buy during the Thanksgiving sales. Fauna is slightly cheaper since they do not have the name recognition, but is still expensive compared to the other options mentioned - this is currently the cheapest I have seen (https://www.saltwateraquarium.com/professional-sea-salt-20kg-fauna-marin/)

Differences between the two are minuscule but mainly in the slightly higher alk value of Fauna Marin which is closer to what I like (8-8.5 range), and Tropic Marin has a rather low alk value since it is heavily targeted at folks who dose alk in addition to water changes.
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Agree here, there's two times of year where TM is on sale for like 20% off and comes down to $0.50 a gallon or so after tax, so buy everything you need for the year then!

TM has been my favorite for years just from the cleanliness of mixing. NSW is another good option if you have room for storage and delivery. Tried to get Fauna last black Friday but it was sold out everywhere.
 
Turkeysammich said:
I also used RC for over 15 years. I thought it was better. Then 5 years ago I switched to regular IO. I like it better. Not so many buffers. Although I just started using Julian Sprung’s salt like a month ago. I’m really happy with it.

Oh. Dunno if anyone knows or you know. You’re supposed to mix your salt before making it. As the trace elements settles to the bottom of the bucket over time.
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Julian's Accurasea salt is what pretty much everyone in south Florida uses that I met (Jake used it too). The pre weighed bags are actually very handy and time saving.
 
I really like tropic marine pro, I found Red Sea pro both to leave a lot of brown crap in the mix bucket and the alk to be to high. There is no wrong answer and any salt on the market should do fine. Finding a salt that does what you need (alk, cost, availability, and cleanly of mix) but in general every salt on the market should produce outstanding results.
 
I'm using aquaforrest to start with cuz that's what was on sale at the time. No testing done as of yet since my set up is still new. I'll let you know how I like it in a month since I still have a bucket left.

In the past I've been partial to seachem..I like how clean it mixed and I was able to store saltwater for long periods of time with no degradation. I tried brightwell and found no difference except for an all drop if not used immediately.

For QT I have a bag of IO around. As basic as that salt is, some of the nicest tanks I've seen are running IO, so like mentioned above, any mix should work, as long as you keep things consistent.
 
I used RS Blue Bucket for several years and switched to IO "regular" salt. I really can't tell the difference between the two. There are a few reasons why I continue to use IO, listed in order of importance.
  1. Parameters - Falls in line with my tank parameters.
  2. Availability - The main reason why I stopped using RS Blue Bucket.
  3. It's a well-known brand that has been around for a while and is very popular in the hobby.
 
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