Salt Mix opinions, reviews, endorsements, etc

[otter]

I've read things in the past but thought this might be good to start a new quick post since it has wide application.

What salt mixes do you prefer and who has the best price?

I'm going to mail order some as soon as this bag of Kent nears it's end and would like to get thoughts. I don't see myself buying the super premium salt but am wide open to suggestions.

Instant ocean?
Reef crystals?
Coralife?
Red Sea?
Others?

Again- also would like to know where beat to order from for the all-in price.

Thanks!

[dzhuo]

Originally Posted by otter

What salt mixes do you prefer and who has the best price?

To me, the best factor when choosing salt is consistency and availability. It's not so much about any particular params since pretty much all major popular salts are within reasonable numbers of alk / cal / mg / pH, knowing you can consistently get what you expect is most important.

I use IO personally. Unfortunately, IO is often overlooked because it doesn't have fancy package or marketing.

[otter]

regular IO or Reef Crystals?

[Wrench]

I use IO. Some of the nicest tanks I've seen use regular old IO. I've seen nice tanks that use other brands but wouldn't necessarily attribute the salt mix to their success.

[elmexotics]

I have been using Red Sea Coral Pro Salt Mix. I will also be stocking up on it to use in my 400g build.

[SecretiveFish]

We have been using Coralife marine salt and have not had any issues with our fish/corals. The reasons we picked this was at first the free t-shirts , but also the price and availability. We can get the 200 gallon mix box off of the foster and smith website for 49.99.

[ssegal104]

Oceanic, I find it has a Higher Ca.

[dzhuo]

Originally Posted by otter

regular IO or Reef Crystals?

Just the regular IO.

[Curious George]

Regular IO. I used Reef Crystals for a while, but didn't see any noticeable change in my corals, so I save the money and went back to regular IO. I have used Oceanic for an extended period of time--same thing.

[otter]

There is a $5.00 difference right now between IO and Reef Crystals for the 200 gallon box. So that's 1.25/50 gallon.
Still just IO or is Reef Crystals supposed to save on additives needed, etc?

[solitude127]

IO user here as well in my SPS dominated system. I used to use RC but the alk was always too high for me.

[javajaws]

I wish there were more salts that mixed up to 8-9 dkh. It seems most of the manufacturers are making salt that have 10-13 dkh, which I believe (IMO) was more popular a few years ago and great for people who don't supplement.

You can always raise the alk in your makeup water yourself - but you can't really lower it. So those people who want to keep more natural alk levels are kind of SOL if they want their makeup water to match their tank water.

[Stanley-Reefer]

java....I mix D-D for one tank and Seachem Reef in the other and dose carbon/mb7 in both and keep mine at 7-8. My alk doesn't change after 10 gal changes in the 90 and 25gal changes in the 175

[petemattersen]

Tropic Marin has not let me down yet. Its a bit spendy though.

[orcus]

I recently switched to ESV Bionic, and so far it's been great. It's ready to go about an hour after mixing, which lets me avoid "cooking" the water overnight.

[Plato]

I usually go through a pallet of IO in about four months. It's hard to justify the extra cost for premium salts. Bulk Reef Supply's Ca, Alk, and Mg supplement allow me to match any premium salts elemental concentration at a fraction of the cost.

[otter]

What do you gain by using the Reef Crystals vs regular IO? If the cost was high it may not be worth it but if it limits extra dosing maybe a few dollars is worth the convenience.
Any experience or research done on this?

[dzhuo]

Originally Posted by otter

What do you gain by using the Reef Crystals vs regular IO?

There might be additional vitamins or organic in the salt. No one can be sure if these are useful or not. Here is Randy's response:

I don't want vitamins or anything else organic in my mix (because I doubt their utility, they degrade with time to who knows what, bacteria may thrive on them as I store new salt water for a substantial period, they are totally undescribed with respect to amounts or identity, they are often not naturally present in natural seawater at appreciable levels, and because I've occasionally had them mess with my skimmer), so that tosses out some like Reef Crystals, hW Marinemix Plus BioElements, Kent, Coralife, and Nutri-SeaWater.

From a personal experience stand point, I wouldn't use RC because of the brown residue always left over after a clean mix. I was told RC has GFO added and that's what's causing the brown residue. I don't believe that so I stop using it.

[cody6766]

My memory is a little hazy, but think I remember seeing a pic of tons of IO salt by the Atlanta Aquarium. I'd assume that that's a good enough for us unless they have a custom order.

I've used RC, Oceanic, IO and Brightwells and never saw a difference. RC has been my primary salt for a long time. Just be aware of your alk levels. I'm not ready to blame RC salt just yet, but my alk is through the roof. I'm thinking it may be another problem because I've used that salt for several years w/o issue. There's no need to avoid it, but trust and verify you're getting the results you need.