After the provs I have had this week I am working my butt off trying to get the parms back on track.So I go in the morning to get 120 gallons of rodi water for .20 a gallon and mix 60 of it for water changes. At this point I am foing water changes from a mix that I know whats in it. So whats the best mix to use????
No corals yet.5 blue damsels a yellow tang and a hippo with super high alk and super low calc only going to add two clowns once the water gets straight then from there will be all corals. No I dont have a rodi unit at this point I havent found a place I want to install one. Just curious on the salt mix. Never hurts to hear opinions.
With no corals you'd be wasting money at this point on Reef Crystals or Red Sea Coral Pro. I'd stick with the Instant Ocean (IO) or the regular Red Sea salt.
Once you started adding corals you could switch over to a new salt with the extra stuff for corals.
No corals yet.5 blue damsels a yellow tang and a hippo with super high alk and super low calc only going to add two clowns once the water gets straight then from there will be all corals. No I dont have a rodi unit at this point I havent found a place I want to install one. Just curious on the salt mix. Never hurts to hear opinions.
No corals yet. You could probably use the crappy Instant Ocean lobster salt I use to do lobster tanks and won't know the differance. When you get corals start using a better salt. I only have a 60 gallon cube and do a 10%/6 gallon water change every two weeks so I use Royal Nature from Unique Aquaria or Tropic Marin Coral Pro. I am not using enough to kill my budget.
After the provs I have had this week I am working my butt off trying to get the parms back on track.So I go in the morning to get 120 gallons of rodi water for .20 a gallon and mix 60 of it for water changes. At this point I am foing water changes from a mix that I know whats in it. So whats the best mix to use????
With no corals, use regular IO.
Like someone pointed above, different people like different salts, however, if you google your thread title you will find that the majority of people prefer either reef crystals or instant ocean. A lot of people also use red sea.
There is another really good salt, but I forgot the name, and its not sold online, so it is not easy to find.
Measure your parameters in that RO/DI water. A lot of places dont take good care of their units and the water they sell you is not much better than sink water.
"better salt" should be defined as accurate and dependable parameters. I'm switching to salinity salt because I can't risk a salt mix with super high of anything. Salinity parameters are printed on the bucket for each batch and are accurate.
I don't get why so many people look down on IO. There was a breif QC issue a few yrs ago, but overall the stuff is pretty darn consistent across the billions of gallons worth that they have put out since the marine fish hobby began. It's cheap and generally consistent, with Ca and Mg both running a bit low - which is easily fixed with a few cents of the appropriate supplements.
Personally I've been using TM regular for close to 10 yrs, same deal, good stuff just need to bump up the Ca and mg a bit and that's much cheaper than paying for the "pro" or another more expensive brand. Why don't I just use IO? - because I don't like to change things when I don't need to, and apparently I like to feed the german economy and pay for my salt to take a nice atlantic cruise before I get it... Hmm, thinking of going back to IO now.....
IO for my FOWLR, and Reef Crystals for my coral tanks. To be honest, I have several softie corals in my so called "FOWLR", and they do just as well as the corals in my other tanks. I think for softies, IO is fine.
I went with IO and chked the prams befor and after. TDS befor was zero and 50 gallons later everything chks out. Just done a 20 gallon wc. Hope my alky goes down. This alky prob has me stressed. Was reading 23 now down to 18. Calc at 250. Just keep changing water everyday for the next week I guess.
I think all salts on the market are good. I use whatever the price is right, aka on sale. But it seems hard to beat the price of IO/Reef Crystal, especially you can get them shipped to your door from DrForster and Smith with free shipping.
I am not sure that there is a no differance in salt quality. When I used Red Sea Coral Pro all my white water change buckets had a hard brown coating in them. If my buckets are getting coated then also are my pumps and other surfaces in my aquarium. A LFS owner said that Red Sea adds gypsum to the salt as a non-caking agent that causes the coating. I've been using Royal Nature salt from UA for four months and my buckets look spotless and my pumps looked good last month when I checked them and did not require cleaning. Like I said in a previous post I only have a 60 cube and change 6 gallons bi-weekly so the expensive salt at $70 a bucket last me a while.
