Best Salt mix?

[Ocean Hugger]

what is the best salt mix out there when it comes to having the most major and minor elements. Because i have decided to not dose my tank any more with anything but food and amino acids. All my other perimeters will be sustained by a 2 gallon change DALIY. This idea was giving to me by a frag grower at the MAX. ([I]Removed by RC Staff[/I]) that is what he does and he had the best frags at the whole show.

[graveyardworm]

If you have even moderate Ca and Alk use 2g per day in a 120 wont maintain those 2.

[Aj Flip]

why didnt u ask him what salt he uses

[Ocean Hugger]

Originally posted by Aj Flip
why didnt u ask him what salt he uses

well if i could go back in time i would

[Versus]

Although I dont use it , I heard H2Ocean Pro+ magnesium Salt is fairly good esp if you do not dose too much of anything else . you are still required larger water changes due to depletion.

The price is kinda of up there but its still not as bad as reefers best price.

[Ocean Hugger]

Thanks!!

[elijaher]

As frags gets bigger you will need more cal, mag, alk, etc.

[dwilly]

Asking for the 'Best' salt mix is really a tough question, because there are a lot of different ways to run your tank. I use RC because I like the high calcium and alkalinity, so i only supplement a little mag and I mix kalkwasser in my top-off water to keep it all stable. However, that said, I have a primarily sps tank, but most of them are small and when they get large I may need additional calc supplementing.

[Reefer Steve]

IMO they all kinda suck equally. In even a low demand tank you're going to have to change a lot of water to keep up with Ca. Alk is next to impossible to keep up with w/c alone. I would pick one and stick with it.


I myself use NSW

[Ocean Hugger]

Originally posted by Reefer Steve
IMO they all kinda suck equally. In even a low demand tank you're going to have to change a lot of water to keep up with Ca. Alk is next to impossible to keep up with w/c alone. I would pick one and stick with it.


I myself use NSW

yeah i guess that guy bs me because no one seems to think that is possible and i believe you guys. just loved how easy it sounded thinking of doing a calcium reactor

[cnaegler]

Reefer's Best

[swhaley40]

Seachem reef! I started using it a month ago and my colors(especially blues) have improved.

[mordibv]

+ 3 on Seachem Reef Salt . 2 gallon water change daily is not going to keep a calcium alk demand ..
I guess as a frag farmer he wants to keeps his husbandry management practices to himself .

[Ocean Hugger]

Originally posted by mordibv
+ 3 on Seachem Reef Salt . 2 gallon water change daily is not going to keep a calcium alk demand ..
I guess as a frag farmer he wants to keeps his husbandry management practices to himself .

Thats to conclusion i have came to also

[Nanook]

This thread has been moved to the current forum.

[elijaher]

Seachem reef salt also

[graveyardworm]

I used Seachem and really liked it. Unfortunately it cant be purchased locally anymore without having it special ordered. I'm now using Instant Ocean and as much as I used to hate it it's working okay for me. I only have to buffer up the Mg in the new salt mix. Alk and Ca are okay and in line with the levels I keep my tank at.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

All my other perimeters will be sustained by a 2 gallon change DALIY.

I agree that you will be unlikely to be able to maintain alkalinity with 2 gallons per day. Maybe 20-50 gallons per day would do it. I show that here:

Water Changes in Reef Aquaria
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php

from it:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-10/rhf/index.php#8

Very Large Water Changes Maintain Calcium and Alkalinity



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the previous section I showed that normal water changes of up to 30% per month cannot maintain calcium and alkalinity in reef aquaria. But at some point, large enough water changes can do so. What volume of water change is necessary to maintain calcium and alkalinity in reef aquaria? In a tiny aquarium, 3 gallons for example, large daily water changes might be acceptable. How large is required? Figure 23 shows the drop in alkalinity for a low demand aquarium changing 0%, 5%, 10%, 15% and 30% of the water EVERY DAY. In that case, it appears to require between 10% and 30% of the total water volume to be changed every day to maintain suitable alkalinity. Figure 24 shows similar data for a higher demand aquarium (1 meq/L alkalinity per day). In this case, it takes close to a 50% water change each day to maintain suitable alkalinity. Similar data are obtained for calcium (not shown), where 30% and 50% daily water changes in a high demand aquarium (24 ppm calcium per day) stabilize at 364 and 396 ppm calcium, respectively. So, while changing 50% per day is really out of the question for any normal to large reef aquarium without an inlet directly from the ocean or a large seawater well, a 3-gallon nanoreef aquarium attached to a very slow continuous pump could maintain adequate calcium and alkalinity by replacing 1.5 gallons each day.



Figure 23. Alkalinity as a function of time when performing very large daily water changes of 0% (no changes), 5%, 10%, 15% and 30% of the total volume EACH DAY. In this example, alkalinity is present at 4 meq/L (11 dKH) at the start and is depleted at a low rate of 0.2 meq/L per day.



Figure 24. Alkalinity as a function of time when performing very large daily water changes of 0% (no changes), 15%, 30% and 50% of the total volume EACH DAY. In this example, alkalinity is present at 4 meq/L (11 dKH) at the start and is depleted at a moderately high rate of 1 meq/L per day.

[Mopar Reefer]

Reef Crystals especially after the Dr Fosters and Smith discounted price

[Henryreef]

I personally use Seachem reef or Tropic Marin. Here is a study that goes into great detail on the chemical analysis on the content of the popular reef salts. Here is the link http://reefsaltanalysis.googlepages....lysis_0208.pdf the results are the pdf file it asks you to download. Very informative IMO

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

FWIW, some of the test methods in that study may be flawed. The bromide results are obviously inaccurate (way, way too low), and I expect that potassium is also inaccurate (too low), and silicate is too high, calcium and alkalinity may be a bit too low, compared to typical batches.