What brand of salt do you use?
- Thread starter Newt
- Start date
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.
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.
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.
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... 
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.
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.
