BIG AND LOUD SALT COMPARISON THREAD

[Daniel@R2R]

Ok. This is a thread to post your experiences COMPARING salt brands and types based on personal experience with multiple salts. Let's make this a BIG thread with lots of info.

Please DO...post your observations of different salts by comparing them to other salts.

Please DON'T...just state that you like a particular brand (this thread is for COMPARISONS after all) or post conjecture based on hearsay.

Also, I'll clear the air by saying that most salts can be used to keep a reef (I've seen stellar tanks running the cheapest salt on the market). But we want to know why you choose your current salt of preference OVER whatever salt you used before.

 

[Rick.45cal]

I was running Red Sea Salt (the blue bucket). It was ok, nothing wrong with it. I did get some sand from their evaporation ponds in one of my buckets but only once, and only a tablespoons worth. It was always pretty close to what they advertise though I always found mine to be short on Mg. The alkalinity was always around 8.1 dKH.

Instant Ocean is what I have in my barrel now. It was on sale for black friday, I grew up using it at the fish store that I worked at MANY years ago. It's cheap, it works, the alkalinity is sky high 10.5-11dKH, it is low on Mg. I burn the excess alkalinity off with HCl, then aerate to remove the CO2 generated. After that I boost things to where I want them to be and run it. I started using IO with an automatic continuous water changes and my tank has never looked better.

I've used Reef Crystals in the past, the levels are boosted WAY too high for my current tank. I never had a problem with that salt either, and we used that as much as the IO at the store.

@mdbannister you should pick the salt that makes the JF Homewrecker the happiest! Just saying

 

[Daniel@R2R]

@mdbannister you should pick the salt that makes the JF Homewrecker the happiest! Just saying

LOL! Someone needs to include those notes in their comparison!! Maybe if I don't eat for a couple of months I can try my hand at it...

 

[Tom Blevins]

I have used Reef Crystals for years as well, it worked for the most part just had to add soda ash to get the KH up the level
I liked, just switched to the Fritz RPM after reading articles on it and love the way it mixes and the levels
are spot on so far after 4 - 200 gallon boxes, corals seem to like the change too.

I have a friend TFP on here which switched from RC to IO and his reef looks outstanding with the change as well.

 

[Rick.45cal]

I have used Reef Crystals for years as well, it worked for the most part just had to add soda ash to get the KH up the level
I liked, just switched to the Fritz RPM after reading articles on it and love the way it mixes and the levels
are spot on so far after 4 - 200 gallon boxes, corals seem to like the change too.

I have a friend TFP on here which switched from RC to IO and his reef looks outstanding with the change as well.

I meant to add, and you reminded me that I should. I think Fritz RPM will likely be my next salt purchase, I've got quite a bit to get through before then, but everyone has been really raving about their salt, and having seen first hand (on Reef2Reef) that they care about their customers goes a long way in my book. Plus the levels match nearly identically what my tank likes to run at.

 

[brandon429]

I do only 100% water changes because my nano is small, but its a fair representation of the coral world by keeping lps sps and the normal array of aquarium corals, just not as many as someone would find in a 100 gallon tank. no fish. the LFS makes up the water and they change brands over the years without notice. its currently Kent

its been every brand avail over the last decade, and with 100% changes to new salt not anything in my tank minds at all. I will never know when my salt brand changes instantly and no animals indicate a care for having done that several times already.

its apparent that diff salt mixes will alter a dosing sched...my takeaway is the instant or slow change simply doesn't matter in terms of shock or acclimation. only the dosing of ions needs to change.

 

[Rob Lion]

When I started I got Red Sea Coral Pro, I was told by my LFS it was the best to use. (probably based on what he stocked)
I had no issues with it , until after a few months, I got constant CaCO3 precipitation (on heaters, pumps, water line etc) due to the high 12.6 dKh.
As I progressed and got nutrients under control ,i.e NO3 < 0.5 and PO4 < 0.03, I started to suffer with coral tips burning and lost a couple of SPS frags.
Ofcourse, to save money, I had brought the biggest 22Kg multiple buckets they had and didn't want to throw it away, so what I did was to get Red Sea Blue bucket salt and created a spreadsheet to work out how much of each I needed to add to get my preferred Alk / Ca / Mg levels.
Now all my corals are happy, salt mix matches my running parameters exactly so water changes of any size don't impact them... Stability...stability...stability...

To speed up water changes, I get a dozen brown paper bags and fill them with 118g of RSCP and 472g of RS Blue each using a cheap flat digital kitchen scale and put them back in the bucket to grab when needed, saves time and give consistent salinity.

The one thing I like about Red Sea salts, its they have a batch number on each bucket/packet and you can check online as to the actual tested composition of the batch you are using and adjust the spreadsheet if needed.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

When I started I got Red Sea Coral Pro, I was told by my LFS it was the best to use. (probably based on what he stocked)
I had no issues with it , until after a few months, I got constant CaCO3 precipitation (on heaters, pumps, water line etc) due to the high 12.6 dKh.
As I progressed and got nutrients under control ,i.e NO3 < 0.5 and PO4 < 0.03, I started to suffer with coral tips burning and lost a couple of SPS frags.
Ofcourse, to save money, I had brought the biggest 22Kg multiple buckets they had and didn't want to throw it away, so what I did was to get Red Sea Blue bucket salt and created a spreadsheet to work out how much of each I needed to add to get my preferred Alk / Ca / Mg levels.
Now all my corals are happy, salt mix matches my running parameters exactly so water changes of any size don't impact them... Stability...stability...stability...

To speed up water changes, I get a dozen brown paper bags and fill them with 118g of RSCP and 472g of RS Blue each using a cheap flat digital kitchen scale and put them back in the bucket to grab when needed, saves time and give consistent salinity.

The one thing I like about Red Sea salts, its they have a batch number on each bucket/packet and you can check online as to the actual tested composition of the batch you are using and adjust the spreadsheet if needed.

Cool idea on portioning out for WC.

 

[GoVols]

I meant to add, and you reminded me that I should. I think Fritz RPM will likely be my next salt purchase, I've got quite a bit to get through before then, but everyone has been really raving about their salt, and having seen first hand (on Reef2Reef) that they care about their customers goes a long way in my book. Plus the levels match nearly identically what my tank likes to run at.

+1
RPM will be my next salt purchase too

 

[Tautog]

I was running Red Sea Salt (the blue bucket). It was ok, nothing wrong with it. I did get some sand from their evaporation ponds in one of my buckets but only once, and only a tablespoons worth. It was always pretty close to what they advertise though I always found mine to be short on Mg. The alkalinity was always around 8.1 dKH.

Instant Ocean is what I have in my barrel now. It was on sale for black friday, I grew up using it at the fish store that I worked at MANY years ago. It's cheap, it works, the alkalinity is sky high 10.5-11dKH, it is low on Mg. I burn the excess alkalinity off with HCl, then aerate to remove the CO2 generated. After that I boost things to where I want them to be and run it. I started using IO with an automatic continuous water changes and my tank has never looked better.

I've used Reef Crystals in the past, the levels are boosted WAY too high for my current tank. I never had a problem with that salt either, and we used that as much as the IO at the store.

@mdbannister you should pick the salt that makes the JF Homewrecker the happiest! Just saying

Great point, I just started dosing 2-part, and my Alkalinity went from 8.1 to 10.2. I thought it might be from Vinegar dosing

 

[jeffrey holloway]

Red sea blue bucket

 

[indyjaco]

I've been using IO. Mixes quickly for me and tests out fine.

Alk 9.5
Ca 420
Mag 1260-1300

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Red sea blue bucket

I've been using IO. Mixes quickly for me and tests out fine.

Alk 9.5
Ca 420
Mag 1260-1300

Now, now, you're both breaking rule #2 of the original post.

 

[Triggreef]

I like aquaforest as it mixes so fast and it keeps levels right where I'm normally at so it makes water changes seamless.

I used red sea regular before, and io. No complaints there either. Aquaforest is cheaper for me so that's what I use. I tried reef crystals once but it mixes kh too high, can't have that. No real differences noted in my corals from one to another.

 

[indyjaco]

Now, now, you're both breaking rule #2 of the original post.

Whoops, I use to use Salinity as well and Kent. Salinity wouldn't mix clear even after hours of mixing so I stopped using it, it wasn't worth the premium cost. The bucket says that is okay, but it bothered me to see it so unclear. Kent has such high calcium I stopped using it.

 

[GoVols]

Personal Experience...
I was one user of the first group who got Aquaforest "Reef Salt" mix when it hit the US.

Went though six buckets over a 9 month span. The buckets come with a QC sheet including batch # and what your parameters should mix up to. Two bucket's were terrible to the AF QC sheet.

This was my final findings: Posted on a AF Forum
I always thoroughly roll the salt in the bags before use. I mix to 1.025 SG. Both buckets came in about the same calcium / alk levels.

Calium came to apox. 350. Alk came in at aprox. 6-dkh. I use 3 different test kit brands to triple check if something seems off. (AP / Red Sea Pro and Elos).

Drove both samples 30 miles to my (lfs) to cross check against my SG and all other params. too.

The other buckets I received were spot on!
Bucket (1) Spot on
Bucket (2) Bad
Bucket (3) Spot on
Bucket (4) Spot on
Bucket (5) Spot on
Bucket (6) Bad

Note:
I change 15 gallons a week using 3 5-gollon jugs.
I finished up bucket 5 on jug #1 (Still spot on)
Opened rolled and mixed bucket #6 for jug #2 and 3# (Bad #'s)

Contacted "Deep Water" about these #'s. Said AF must have put sea salt in reef salt buckets (on two different batch #'s). Never asked me for a sample or bucket replacement.

Finally AF Poland addressed all users on that thread on 12/9/16.

Hello,
To respond to some of the issues that have been discussed here on this thread, Aquaforest would like to apologize for any concerns regarding our salt.

With Quality Control the salts are tested using our ICP machine, but it is possible for them to vary from batch to batch. Please realize we are working with our Quality team to make sure that these statistics found in each of our buckets or boxes is better represented by the stat sheet.

Thank you to all US customers, we are trying to add more support people to our team and hope to improve the customer experience. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,
Team Aquaforest

For myself, If I wanted to manipulate a salt mixes parameters I would still be using reagular IO.

 

[mcarroll]

When I started I got Red Sea Coral Pro, I was told by my LFS it was the best to use. (probably based on what he stocked)
I had no issues with it , until after a few months, I got constant CaCO3 precipitation (on heaters, pumps, water line etc) due to the high 12.6 dKh.
As I progressed and got nutrients under control ,i.e NO3 < 0.5 and PO4 < 0.03, I started to suffer with coral tips burning and lost a couple of SPS frags.

Pardon my curiosity, but you have a very interesting combination of circumstances!!

Isn't 12.6 abnormally high even for RSCP? ...or did that spike come about due to the old dosing regime on top of the higher alk during water changes?

Doesn't seem like 12.6 should cause mass-precipitation under normal circumstances though. Seems like circumstances might have been otherwise favorable.

Do you know what your system's pH tends to be?

Was it only on heat-producing items like heaters and pumps, or was it litearally everywhere? Does any of this advice resonate? Preventing Precipitates on Heaters and Pumps

Before the Age Of Dosing it wasn't ucommon to keep alkalinity up around that level after a water change, so that there'd be enough alk to sustain the system until the next water change without allowing alk to drop under 5.6 dKH or so....ideally not even close to that.

Had you been carbon dosing in any form during that time?

Do you do two-part or a calcium reactor?

To speed up water changes, I get a dozen brown paper bags and fill them with 118g of RSCP and

I've never seen a salt mix that wasn't intensely hygroscopic.

Doesn't the salt clump like crazy in those paper bags? If not how do you keep the humidity out?

Thanks!

 

[Darth George]

HW Marinemix Reefer is what I'm using now. Switched from regular IO. Levels test perfect and mixes clear in 2 minutes. I highly recommend it!

 

[Salty1962]

I've used RC and RS Pro for years and both were good but noticed major swings in Kh and Mg. I'm now trying AF Probiotic and so far it's been good. The previous swings have gone and my tank is looking better. Will continue this round of salt to see how things go, but so far so good.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I was born and breed on RC.....and I can't remember why....probably because it was what the LFS was pushing at the time. I used this for a number of years, collecting many plastic 5 gallon buckets, while I learned about saltwater aquariums, dosing, testing and water parameters. In the mean time, I became discouraged about the deposits in the mixing bucket and the ups and downs of parameters within the tank.




As I became educated, I eventually came to the conclusion that all I want on a water change is ocean water.....ca 400 calcium, 7 dKH, and 1300 magnesium. What was closest to this that was inexpensive and readily available was plain old Instant Ocean. 200 gallon boxes came out and that is what I use now.....no more plastic buckets.

I live next to the ocean, albeit in New Jersey, and a stones throw from NYC, but I've now been kicking around the idea of collecting ocean water for water changes. Just need to figure out current levels and the logistics of collecting this water.