Time to change the oil in my tank..

[brock_adams2002]

I just used to last of my IO salt. I want to upgrade. But to what though?? RC??

[MARINECRITTERS]

If you have a calcium reactor or dosing pumps, no need to switch. If you don't and you own hard corals and like the look of coraline algae then I would recommend red sea coral pro salt. Remember, if you have a heavily stocked hard coral tank, weekly water changes will suffice, as they require lots of calcium and other elements found in sea water.

[TimeConsumer]

If you search for threads on salt mixes you'll find that a lot of reefers here use IO salt. Is there any reason why you want to change salts?

[usmc121581]

I get dry good growth with IO but maybe that because I also dose weekly.

[buffalo123]

Expect your reef to react to new salt brand, sometime algae growth of some kind. Not likely to last long but i've alway found the reef have a change.I went from IO to red sea and thats what happened nothing major. I like IO and Red sea salt. I've also tried coralife that what I'm using now seem ok so far

[username in use]

What is the reason you want to upgrade. There are a few varieties and styles and if we know what you want it would make it easier to make a suggestion.

[sirreal63]

It will depend on what you consider an upgrade? If spending more money for something that isn't really any better than what you are using is an upgrade, then the upgrade is for the people selling the salt, not an upgrade for the tank. You can certainly use any salt you wish but there is no discernible difference in the abilities of one salt over another, in general terms. Some of the most beautiful and healthy SPS dominant tanks here use IO so that shows that the salt is not the determining factor.

[GratefulReef]

I agree to a point, certain salts are better at keeping certain params in consistant values while others arent. I have heard that the red sea pro salt is high in cal and alk, and have heard other things about reef crystals being high in mag or low in alk. I personally use RC, if I had the extra money I would use ESV as the harder to dissolve elements are in liquid form and its all weighed on a digital scale to ensure you are getting more consistant values. I have found with RC that my cal tests pretty high 470+ usually, but other parmas are great! If ESV ever lowers their price to be more competetive with RC I will make that switch without hesitation.

[sirreal63]

The cal, alk and mag usage has nothing to do with the salt, it is dependent on the animals consuming them. There is no salt that magically changes that.

[nynick]

IO is the most used, stable and studied salt there is. THey have also improved it greatly after some studies a few years back. If you are concerned about low alk and calcium add a pinch of Kalk in your RO water before mixing in the salt.

Why pay 50 bucks more because someone mixed in 25 cents of mineral content that may or may not be of any use and if they are of use you will have to dose in anyway to keep up with demands.

[rrasco]

Originally Posted by sirreal63

The cal, alk and mag usage has nothing to do with the salt, it is dependent on the animals consuming them. There is no salt that magically changes that.

No, but the concentrations of those trace elements is varied from one brand to the next.

[sirreal63]

If they are higher than they are in NSW and not consumed then they will accumulate and an accumulation of those trace elements is not a good thing.

[nynick]

Are Ca, alk and Mg concidered to be trace elements? I always thought of stuff like copper, zink, iron etc as trace elements. Stuff everything needs but in extremely small amounts.

[brock_adams2002]

Wow.. You all are awesome! I have been using IO for years. In my 3 tanks. (Now 2.) only having FOWLR. But now after my move, I have taking the dive for for coral on my 72. I just read somewhere that IO is fine for FOWLR tanks. But for reef you should get better. I do dose with kalk. So it seems I should just stick with IO?

[sirreal63]

Nick, I think rrasco is not considering cal, alk and mag as trace elements, but rather the real trace elements, which are in most cases metals, and also the ones that really should never be elevated in our salt higher than NSW.

Brock, IO is a perfectly fine salt, they did up the calcium and Alk a few years ago to make it more in line with other salts. Many of us have used IO for many years, it is IMO the best of all worlds, it is a basic salt that mixes well and has everything needed for corals. Here is a perfect example of a tank that is one of the best you will find that uses IO.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2023909

I always come back to this tank because it embodies the long standing knowledge of what is needed to have a successful tank. It employs only what is needed without a lot of gimmick items that do nothing for the tank.

[brock_adams2002]

Thanks for sharing that pic! Breathtaking! I guess if I'm going to dose anyways, it's fine to keep with IO. Also I have been hearing a lot of issues with RC leaving brown film..

[sirreal63]

RC is ok to use, as is almost any of the salts available. I don't use RC mainly because of the added vitamins and EDTA that isn't needed, but the brown residue isn't anything to be alarmed about, it is just something else that needs to be cleaned out. I clean my mixing barrel before and after each use so that isn't an issue for me, but it nice to not have to scrub that residue out.

If you have corals then you will probably be dosing anyway, just to keep the parameters stable so it becomes a non-issue. IO has been mixing up pretty close to the parameters listed in this thread...
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=1714505
Which is also close to what my tank likes to run.

Some people will defend their salt choice to the death of anyone who disagrees, but in light of the fact that you will find beautiful tanks with virtually every brand of salt on the market it shows that the brand of salt is not really a variable to success. That also tends to show that marketing gimmicks used by some salt makers isn't really important to your tank either, but it is important to the makers as they like to charge more for their "designer" salt.

[reeftobe]

IO user here and love it. Mixes great and is still very cheap! works great for SPS tank. Just need to dose, but any salt i'd use would require it.

[jcolletteiii]

Io...

[nynick]

If you want even further proof that IO works for reef I just remembered that Mike Paletta says that it is the salt he uses in one of the Youtube episodes about his tanks. If it can grow THAT it will certainly work for my little hobby project.

[rrasco]

Originally Posted by sirreal63

Nick, I think rrasco is not considering cal, alk and mag as trace elements, but rather the real trace elements, which are in most cases metals, and also the ones that really should never be elevated in our salt higher than NSW.

Yes. I didn't know what to call them. Nutrients, minerals, trace elements...I was just trying to point out a difference between salt products. I'm not attached to anything particular, whatever works for my reef. I am however hesitant to change what is working, that always seems to be my downfall.

I use RC. I used IO in my first reef, but switched up to RC because they are, well, Reef Crystals. However, I have dosing pumps that buffer alk/cal daily, so I have thought about switching to IO since it's roughly 50% cheaper than RC and I don't need RC to buffer my water since I already have a system for that.

[GroktheCube]

I'm trying a number of different salts while my tanks is establishing itself. Out of all that I've tried, I like ESV B-ionic the best. It mixed more easily than most others, and params were more consistent. Here's a brief run down of some that I've tested so far:

All mixed by manufacturer recommendations in ~68-70*F 0TDS RO/DI water in a clean 5 gallon bucket using ~3k gph of water movement. I always used weight rather than volume to measure the salt. I ran 3 trials for each salt and averaged the numbers. Tested using Red Sea test kits.


ESV B Ionic
Salinity 34ppt Crystal clear, no precip. 0 variation between trials.

MG 1400
CA 450
KH 9

Brightwell NeoMarine. ~34.5ppt. Mag and cal consistent within ~20ppm. dKH varied between ~7.5 and just over 10.

Mg 1300
Ca 410
dKH 8.3


Instant Ocean Reef Crystals
After following instructions, sg was 1.020. Needed to add more salt. Variations of up to 50ppm mag, 40ppm Ca, and 2dKH were seen.
Mg 1420
Ca 480
dKH 11.8

[animalkingdom]

Originally Posted by GroktheCube

I'm trying a number of different salts while my tanks is establishing itself. Out of all that I've tried, I like ESV B-ionic the best. It mixed more easily than most others, and params were more consistent. Here's a brief run down of some that I've tested so far:

All mixed by manufacturer recommendations in ~68-70*F 0TDS RO/DI water in a clean 5 gallon bucket using ~3k gph of water movement. I always used weight rather than volume to measure the salt. I ran 3 trials for each salt and averaged the numbers. Tested using Red Sea test kits.


ESV B Ionic
Salinity 34ppt Crystal clear, no precip. 0 variation between trials.

MG 1400
CA 450
KH 9

Brightwell NeoMarine. ~34.5ppt. Mag and cal consistent within ~20ppm. dKH varied between ~7.5 and just over 10.

Mg 1300
Ca 410
dKH 8.3


Instant Ocean Reef Crystals
After following instructions, sg was 1.020. Needed to add more salt. Variations of up to 50ppm mag, 40ppm Ca, and 2dKH were seen.
Mg 1420
Ca 480
dKH 11.8

why didn't you measure salinity the same in all 3 types. For RC you switched to specific gravity. Also what was the final specific gravity when you did your test on RC. Also RC only tells how much to use by volume. What weight did you measure out since you said you did the 3 independent trials by weight and averaged your values? What was the final weight used to attain the measured variables for RC and Brightwell?

[animalkingdom]

sorry I just want to clarify your experimental design here...i'd assume you need to toss the first batch of low sg RC unless you measured the weight of salt used before and after the low sg reading