Brand of salt?

Reef Crystals only, I used to use Instant Ocean way back when i had a fish only. As far as I am concerned the fact that some of the biggest and best public like the Shedd Aquarium here in Chicago and if I am not mistaken the Atlanta Aquarium use IO exclusively says allot for their product.

 

you are correct Gazog....tons of it LOL

 

I like to post this link, so I will throw it out there:
http://aquariumwatertesting.com/AWT_Salt_Analysis_0208.pdf

Looks like Instant Ocean only has phosphate problems. Since I have macro tanks almost exclusively, that is great by me!

 

Red sea coral pro is what I use. Mixes easily and cal and mag are pretty high

 

I just use table salt...works great!!!





haha, nooooo!!! I use IO Reef Crystals, works like a charm!

 

I have been using Tropic Marin for about 4 years. Always test consistently with each bucket.

 

I use both Tropic Marin and TM Pro-Reef. Never had a problem. I use a pinch of dkH buffer once a month to keep things stable when I do my water change. I try to keep my dkH at 8. Pro reef keeps my Calc levels at ~480ppm, and Mag levels at ~1300ppm. Regular TM salt has slightly lower levels than that.

 

For the last 2 years I have made it my goal to find the "best" salt, and my journey has left me in some aspects ahead but also more frustrated at the same time. I hear, whether its in my local club, at the store or on forums, "whats the BEST salt?"
Unfortunately, there is no such thing. There MIGHT be the best salt for you but there is no BEST salt. That is the only concrete thing about salt mixes.
Every salt has pros and cons, and like anything in life one will outweigh the other, and that will help people make their salt decision.
I guess in this post I will break down, my experience as well as others I know, salt choices. The posted values were taking with Red Sea, API, Tropic Marin kits at a SG of 1.025 w/ RO water, I've also compared my results w/ members of my club who tested w/ Salifert and Elos. On a side note before I begin, I started 5 years ago w/ IO and moved to RC then to Crystal Sea and now use Red Sea and Coralife but I will get more in depth on that progression in a moment.
IO- Its cheap and readily available, obviously one of, if not the most used salt. It does have its downsides thats for sure. IO has a notorious low Ca and Mg level. Also alk is typically low but sometimes random. It also has a significant amount of metals in it.(Shimek 2003)
RC-Still reasonably cheap and readily available, more Ca and Mg than IO BUT not as much as is claimed. There has been too many reports of low Ca and Mg(my tests show the same) but the new buckets w/ batch #'s supposedly recified this. Also everyone in my club that used it at some point noticed a brown, odiferous slime in their mixing vessels. After many attempts of members trying to contact the reps I made a SERIOUS effort to get the real answers from the rep next time I saw him. He claimed it was bacteria in the persons mixing vessel and not the salt. Thats weird because one of their tech support guys claimed it was clay used in the processing. Also, if people bleach out the vessel, why does it still occur? And why doesn't it occur w/ other salts?!?!
Coralife- This salt has incredibly high Ca levels I think I tested 570ish and a fairly high Mg level, upper 1300's. The alk was 9-10ish which is good. So far its a decent salt, unless the Ca is too high for you, which it is for some. Also, I've noticed it smells different than other salts, don't know why or how, just different. It has elevated metal content esp lithium among others(Shimek 2003, and others) it has also had a reputation for inconsistentancy. Kent and Oceanic are very similar in numbers as they are made by they same company in the same plant. If memory serves me correct Oceanic has the highest Mg and Ca of all three but not excessively higher.
Red Sea is a decent well rounded salt. I tested 420, 9 and 1290 in Ca, kH and Mg respectively. It is on paper one of my fav's. I know a while back it had some NO3 issue but that is long since resolved.
Red Sea Coral Pro is good as well I tested 460 I believe in Ca and a kH of 8, BUT it has had reports of PO4, so since I last tested I don't know where those levels are now.
Crystal Sea- It was meant to be my perfect salt, but it turned out to be less than I expected. It rated FANTASTIC on Shimeks Bio assay in 2003, but every batch I tested(lots BTW) had a Ca of 360, which is no bueno! I hounded the rep, and I mean hounded, I WANTED this salt to be perfect. It had/has the lowest metal content and closest to NSW levels. He repeatedly told me that until I use a phamecuetial or industrial grade kit it will also read wrong because hobbyist kits aren't accurate enough. Well until I tell Hach to test it I switched.
Tropic Marin and Pro, when I tested the TM it also read low for Ca about the same as Crstal Sea, and if I am going to pay THAT MUCH for salt it better not read low. The Pro read fairly well but to me and the way I do W/Cs to is cost prohibitive to me. I know I'm forgetting some but I'll have to come back to them.
In short, there is always pros and cons and you need to weed through the salts until you find whats ight for you.


Good luck and happy reefing!!

 

See I did

 

I Think that it is the best!