Sea Salt

What is, with out any doubt, the best sea salt available on the open market one can buy for their tank? And why.

 

Depends who you talk to. Some will say Red Sea coral pro salt, some will say IO reef crystals, others will say aquavitro salinity. I like the salinity and coral pro. I'm sure there are more expensive salts out there, that for the price, can make you feel like they're the best. Lol

 

For me, too many variables for a "without a doubt" salt mix.

I've heard good things from seachem aquavitro salinity for a good reef salt. I've used red sea coral pro, seachem (regular) salt and currently I/O reef crystals. I'm happy with the reef crystals.

 

Honestly, even the regular instant ocean is decent, calcium comes out at 400-420, alkalinity at 11-12 dKh, and magnesium right around 1250.

 

Just my opinion but standard Instant Ocean. If you have trouble keeping parameters like alk and calcium up Reef Crystals and Pro coral are a better choice but much cheaper and smarter to just dose the extra alk yourself. Natural seawater alk is not 11-13 and over time may fatigue/burn your corals. Best to keep things around natural seawater and remove any doubt.
I've gone through the gamut of changing to this or that salt and see change or no change. Correlation is not always causation. I focus more now on detritus/slime/gelbstof control.

 

Red sea regular salt (blue bucket). Every batch I've made for years is consistent and is ready to use in 20 minutes. Other salts I've used worked but by far red sea has my loyalty for ease of use and great results. Also, if you have enough growing coral then your gonna have to dose no matter what so buy what is best in your opinion. Red sea is top notch and affordable. Only 7 dollars more than reef crystals where I live.

 

that really is a difficult question. Regular IO is what I used for years when I kept my FO tank. Now, with a reef, I've tried a couple of different ones. I currently am using the last of my salinity and I do really like it, but it's kind of pricey. The BEST is difficult to answer. Most reef salts will do what you want if keeping a reef. If you're keeping just fish or mainly softies and not a lot of hard corals, then Instant Ocean is the best IMO

 

Petco Real Ocean Water. It's collected from the Pacific off the coast of California, filtered, sterilized, and distributed by Catalina Water Co., a major supplier of real sea water for many public aquariums. Being NSW, parameters will always be in the normal range, what your pets have adapted to over hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years.

 

Thank you for all your responses. I use Instant Ocean but consider my knowledge is at the beginner stage at best. Always interested to hear what experience tells me. Thanks again.

 

I use Red Sea Coral Pro and tried to switch to Seachem Reef Salt once. All i can say is i didn't finish the bucket of the Seachem Reef Salt (not the same as the Seachem listed above) due to not being able to get 2 batches of water to come out even close to the other and also once the salt was mixed for about 5 minutes it looked like milk. So imo, don't use the Seachem Reef Salt. It is a PITA.