What brand of salt do you use?

[Newt]

I use Oceanic Sea Salt mix. I tried Instant Ocean, but it just seemed like the stuff never dissolved!

What salt do you like the best?

[Nic]

i used to buy oceanic but then i started buying my saltwater from the lfs cheaper and easier

[FormulatedFire]

i use io and don't really have a dissovle problem

[lizardfishman]

i use instant ocean

[Zoodiver]

I use Instant Ocean as well. So do most of the aquariums I know of (Georgia Aquarium, Dallas World Aquarium, Predator World - in Branson, MN Zoo, etc...)

[jenBLKAROWANA]

I use Oceanic salt in my Brackish tank....LOVE IT!!

Jen ;)

[SteveO]

Initiall I stared off with Instant Ocean, then I made the switch to Reef Crystals because of the 'better' mix they claimed; but after reading all the info on Reefkeeping.com for their salt tests, I switched back to Instant Ocean.
After doing waterchanges on my reef with Reef Crystals, I always noticed immediate coral closings/deflating... but I have never witnessed anything but positive with simple ol' Instant Ocean. Also for simple brackish tanks, I would stick with the Instant Ocean.
Anyone else have issues with Reef Crystals?

[fatsolomon]

i also use IO for my brackish and reefs. i just mix a bunch in a bucket and leave it with 2 powerheads in it for like 10 min to make sure it is all mixed.

[Atarax]

Instant Ocean wins again :headbang2 Ive used it for a while now and no complaints. My fish dont seem to say much, so i assume they agree

[ridether]

Doc wellfish's

aqauarium salt..

[ogre929]

When I lived in San Diego, I used the water from the Scripps Aquarium for free. But then I moved and I used Instant Ocean. It worked the best for my reef tanks and I could get it cheaper than anything else.

[Newt]

Well, Instant Ocean seem to be the brand of choice here!

The problem I had with IO was with my brackish tank. I'm lazy and just measure out the salt going into the tank durning water changes in a cup, then mix a little tank water in the cup and pour the whole "salt slurry" into my HOB filter. The filter then mixes the salt for me into the brackish tank as I'm adding fresh water with my Python. IO didn't seem to dissovle fast enough and would clog up the fliter or just settle in the tank. Oceanic dissolves as soon as it hits water.

Now with my reef I'm more careful. I mix up 5 gallons of salt water the day before I do a water change and airate with a powerhead all night. I suppose IO would work fine that way, since it would have all night to dissolve.

[Syffe457]

oceanic is the best!!!!

[thomas a]

i use reef crystals never had a problem i mix the water up a week before i change the water

[beer_baron1]

My girlfriend brought me some 'RED SEA' brand salt, but I'm not sure if I'm going to use it yet. Any comments on this brand. I think it came from Petco or Petsmart.

[Princley]

i have used RED SEA salt ...( Reef crystals which I liked very much )And( Coral Life JUNK)

NOW i use REAL sea water by Natures Ocean... there is NO comparision REAL WINS

[bsauer]

I use IO also.

[K C]

I've used Red Sea salt, when stored, it gets damp & kinda wet after a while, not an issue for me since I'm gonna dump it in the water but I've tried better ones... :(

[Scuba Oz]

I used IO for all the years of my salt tanks until just two months ago. I switched to Seachem Reef Salt. The reason was many but to state a few, first off it dissolves just as well if not better than IO, But the biggest reason is the water params are excellent with this salt and it cuts my dosing down to almost nothing. IO mixed at 1.026 has a CA reading of 330-350, with Seachem Reef its 390-400 so dosing to get to 430 is less, the ALK of Seachem comes out at 2.9 megs and PH comes out at 8.3 @ 79*F. This takes a huge chunck of time away from getting the water to where I keep my tanks at and gives me more time to enjoy the tanks instead of dosing this, buffering that, adjusting this.

Dont get me wrong IO is true and blue salt, If I had a Fish Only I would still use it, but with the corals I have, the switch just seemed to make sense. My two pennies anway.

[slammer]

IO all the way here.

[i8a224u]

i like marine mix crystal sea, its cheaper, disolves quick, and doesnt contain nearly as much copper as other salts, instant ocean contains 4x the amount of copper than crystal sea, not enough to kill inverts but why put it in there?

[H20Boy]

I have never had a problem using Instant O--most avilable

[Motoraygirl19]

I used to use Instant Ocean, but then I actually switched to the pre-pacaged natural water. It's kept my tank perameters really stable, and it's really not that expensive.

[dmarinko]

instant ocean dissolves but there are others

[Crucigen]

i like marine mix crystal sea, its cheaper, disolves quick, and doesnt contain nearly as much copper as other salts, instant ocean contains 4x the amount of copper than crystal sea, not enough to kill inverts but why put it in there?

IO does not have any copper I would check your source water

[Justin_James]

I use Instant Ocean. It's the best in my opinion. It was said in an earlier thread that it contains copper but if your salt has copper in it then you have some serious problems.:nilly:

I have tired crystal sea "once" since it was cheaper but soon found out why. It takes forever to disolve and if you setup a new tank and mix the salt in the tank at the time (since it is a new setup it doesn't matter if you mix it in the tank) then the tank will look like you put sand in for a substrate because it take so long to disolve.

[TankBuster]

I use instant ocean. The problem with Oceanic is that it lacks buffering capacity in a big way. Really, ask a professional about Oceanic and they will tell you. Seachem is outstanding but I print up a Petsmart.com price sheet on the big bucket of IO and bring it to a Petsmart store and it costs half the price that way. $24.00 for all that salt. Nice.

[pete620]

Reef Crystals. I've thought about switching to Kent sea salt (I have a friend that swears by it) but after the reacent problems with alk. due to them reformulating the salt I'm hesitent. Does anyone else have experience with Kent salt?

[Elasmofreak]

I use deep ocean in all my f/o tanks/ponds. & Reef crystals in my coral tanks. I used to use instant ocean, however i found it to be a problem with my PH, Alkalinity/hardness. I could never keep it up where it needed to be, no matter how much buffer i used! I dont have a problem now with reef crstals. Deep ocean is a much better blend salt than instant ocean, and i do not have the problem with hair algae and red slime like i used to. Its cheaper also, cant complain there.:headbang2

[craig]

IO all the way. Red Sea is not very good. I tossed a 5gal bucket of red sea. It took forever to dissolve.

[sprayin70]

I use Oceanic but I may switch to IO Reef Crystals.