Why do you like your current salt?

[revhtree]

Because someone else did "research" and said it was good?

Convince me why yours is the best! Don't say they all are good. If you really wanted what is best for your tank you will use the best salt. :choler:

 

[dsmhero]

I use Reef Crystals but I can't say it is the best, as I have only used two different salts. I like RC because it has a good, consistent balance of mag/alk/calcium that suits my tank. I don't like to change anything that isn't broken.

FWIW - I love the idea of the ESV B-Ionic

but haven't had a chance to try it out.​

 

[MattinIdaho]

I've only tried Instant Ocean and Reef Crystals. I had been using Reef Crystals but I just bought a year supply of Instant Ocean again recently. It has just been super consistent basic affordable salt. I dose with B Ionic everyday but I had to when I used Reef Crystals also. I like that I don't ever get a brown film like I did every so often with a batch of Reef Crystals. I also love the fact that I can have 2 200 gallon boxes set right on my doorstep for $86 if I watch sales from Fosters and Smith.

 

[Aquaph8]

Honestly, cause I've used Reef crystals for over a decade and it's always been easy to come by and worked great.

 

[Reef_Princess_Appria]

I use Nutri-seawater, and I can say so far it has shown the best results in any salts I have ever used. When I worked at my LFS, I did try different salts. I didn't like some because they burned my skin, or when I stuck my hand in the tank they left rashes. my second choice is oceanic natural sea salt mix, It mixed fast since it was more powder like than crystal and it didn't burn me as bad as other salts. My reef responds the best to Nutri. Even if I do a huge water change, there isn't much stress showed by my reef. Also upon the switch of salt, my corals seemed to bloom out more Nutri than with the mixed salts.

 

[Steven R]

I use neo-marine by brightwell It seems to work really well and i rarely have to dose anything except ALK and PH But only in the middle of the week to cary the system till my change on mondays and have only dosed magnesium one time in a year of using this salt it stays right in between 1300 and 1350. Mixes a little violent at first but dissolves fast and I mix for 24hrs

 

[RaysReef]

Tropic Marin Salt- Bar None the best salt I've used. I believe it is the only line of salt(s) TM Salt, Pro-Reef and Bio-Actif salt that is "Pharmaceutical Grade". All others say Grade A, Medical Grade, etc. made up for marketing. Dissolves instantly and everything is within 5-8% of published Parm.

Never had issues with parameters, especially ALK/DKH when doing water changes. TM stays consistent around 8 dkh even with 50%+ WC, other brands have jumped to 12-14 dkh so you are limited how much WC you can do at one time.

 

[jonbar1]

Ahh another excuse to profess my love of ESV B-Ionic.....j/k.....kinda
Sure it dissolves completely and is all super high grade yada yada but here's the main things that sold me

1. I have a nano full of LPS so keeping params stable was a constant game of balance and catch up with dosing. Each waterchange meant muddling up the dosing I did the week before and figuring out what the new water did to my readings and how to adjust it to ideal and trying to balance it with what the coral are going to use up. To confuse things more, different batches of the same salt were almost never the same as the one before. My corals grew but never thrived like they do in constant stable conditions, and it was a lot of work. Now I control salinity, magnesium, alkalinity, and calcium independantly and adjusted them to slightly above optimum to account for coral usage right after trying it. I've used that proportion since and have had stable parameters so long my corals must think they're back in the ocean in the perfect spot. I've gone through multiple boxes and each has always been identical when measured out with a digital scale.

2. My tank has had every algae problem imaginable. Once I killed off the turf algae, the Asparagopsis thrived. Once it got controlled the Calurpa went into hyperdrive. Get it tamed and bubble algae does nuts. Over and over the cycles went. I was doing 50% water changes every week, running a skimmer and using distilled water...where are these excess nutrients coming from???? I switched to ESV and these headaches magically disappeared. Suddenly the Calurpa barely grows instead of growing an inch a day and I can see bare rock again. Well over a year later and no plagues or nuisances since. I guess reagent grade means something afterall.

3. The coral. Using other salts meant PO'd corals on waterchange day. I'm giving them fresh clean water and they look like the day they arrived in the mail during a winter shipment. Or even worse if a problem arose and I had to use emergency mixed water and the corals got "snowed" on by calcium or whatever precipitated out of the water during mixing. My first water change with ESV sold me. I mixed it for about 10 minutes and noticed the temperature was within 2 degrees of the tank temperature so I drained out half the tank and filled it with the new ESV. To my astonishment the corals didn't shrink up or try to turn inside out....but looked the same. Within minutes they're all puffed up and for lack of better words "look happy". I've changed out 95% of the tank water before and when filled up with the same temperature ESV the results are the same. I actually feel like I'm doing something good for them instead of trying to convince them it was for their own good.

The downside is definitely the price. If I had a 100g reef I'd dread using it. On a small tank like mine the 200g box lasts over half the year and compared to the price of test kits having to be overused, dosing, and all the other things it balanced out for me pretty quickly. I just wish I started out with ESV instead of putting my tank through all those crazy water swings the first few years. Hopefully I can save someone else those headaches.

 

[swannyson7]

I use Reef Crystals for it's reasonable price and consistent parameters upon mixing. I've tried several other salts over the years, but always end up going back to Reef Crystals because I've never seen any differences significant enough justify the cost of other salt mixes.

 

[montethemoster]

I think really an impossible question to answer without very expensive scientific equipment to test various salt mix components in comparison to natural sea water. Therefore, I think in this case the hobbyist really is left with anecdotal evidence to rely on from other reefers. We are dependent on salt manufacturers to perform their own quality control and thus I have also stuck with Reef Crystals/Instant Ocean brand due to their track record of success over the long-term, (to me an indication of good quality control on their end).

 

[Poseidon]

In my 20 years worth of keeping saltwater, I have used 3.5 ( ) salts... Sea Chem, way back when it came in a small black bucket, and had crap tons of Borate in it. Tropic Marin Bio Assay, after the Dr Ron reviews, which resulted in great losses for me, and then Instant Ocean, which I have used for the longest. I did buy a bag of RC once, tested it up and found it so close to IO that it wasn't worth the extra cash to me. (It helps that I had a HUGE Ca reactor and Kalk reactors running.)

I made my own mind up that the best thing to do regarding salt choice is to pick one and stay with it.

 

[phil519]

I do 40 gallon water changes. RC comes in 40 gallon bags. Makes water changing simpler.

 

[apicturepaints]

RC. I think the best thing for everyone is to make sure you test your new bucket of salt! And the dose appropriately. RC mixes high on all level and is price competitive. The salt I really want to try is Tunze salt, but it is hard to come by,

 

[apicturepaints]

Also, when researching salts I found this long extensive report of testing on all major salts. You'd be surprised how similar most salts are.

 

[Reef Breeders]

I have always used instant ocean, but have heard tropic marin is the best. I tested my instant ocean, and the levels were:Ca-534 ppm, Alk-277 ppm, waay above what I want. Luckily, I only do 10% bi-weekly wc s, so it works out okay, and the dosing pumps do the rest for me.

 

[rhibear]

I used IO for a long time and had problems with all my SPS browning. Switched to the other end of the scale and have been using TM Bio-Actif for the last several months (2 buckets) and all my SPS are gorgeous, improvement was seen immediately and not a hint of brown anywhere. Also I like that it has similar effect of Biopellets/carbon dosing without all the hassle.