Salt Comparisons

[Alex Brown]

My Red Sea Pro Coral sand has run out. I was wondering if would cause any problems if I switched to the Aqua One sea salt? Only reason is that its cheaper for the bucket load.

Cheers.

 

[Truck]

My Red Sea Pro Coral sand has run out. I was wondering if would cause any problems if I switched to the Aqua One sea salt? Only reason is that its cheaper for the bucket load.

Cheers.

from what ive heard, aquaone is one of the worst salts you can get, try reef crystals, buy in big buckets as its cheaper

 

[scott133]

what is bad about aquaone salt only tryed it once but i prefer instan ocean

 

[Alex Brown]

No way! Its £20 more online than I have found Red Sea Pro Coral salt for.

 

[TigerIssey]

Some salts are severely lacking in the Calcium department. If you are intending dosing lots of calcium for LPS this is not the end of the world. However, if you want to manage calcium with water changes, you would be better with a salt that has a decent calcium content in the first place.

Sometimes it is best to weigh up the cost of additives against the saving you will make on the cheaper salt.

 

[Alex Brown]

Good advise. I added my first SPS today, a small Montipora Confusa frag, so I'm now hoping to learn more about hard corals and their needs. I would rather not dose anything, as it adds more maintanence to my farely low maintanence reef right now.

I do fortnightly 25L (12.5%??) water changes in my 250L (actually holding 200L of water, rock displaces the rest). Would you say thats sufficeint with a good quality salt mix in terms of calcium and things like trace elements?

To be honest, I was will probly stick with Red Sea salt. The 22kg bucket lasted me 8 months, which included tank setup and a 100L emergency water change when my boxfish got caught in a powerhead.

 

[TigerIssey]

Keeping LPS and SPS you should still be testing Alk, KH, pH, Calcium and Magnesium (Alk / KH is same test kit), you may be able to keep these ok with water changes if your Ca consumption is low (less hard corals) however you may still need to dose some additives even with a good Ca level salt. It just means you will be dosing less.

 

[SkiFletch]

If you want my oppinion on salts when keeping hard corals, find yourself one with high magnesium above all else. Mag is one of the more difficult suppliments to locate whereas calcium and alkalinity are simple to find/adjust. Then again, if you can find a good Mag adjustment, go nuts and use whichever salt you want. Aside from plaing with your chemistry levels to some degree, switching salt brands should be of little concern if you're testing dilligently.

My personal reccomendations:
Coralife, Seachem, or TMC Pro seem to be some of the better ones out there
Instant Ocean is great ofr FO tanks, but has low just about everything in it, especially mag. Cheap, but if you can't find suppliments similarly cheap, don't bother
Reef Crystals is made by the IO people, just with more calc/alk, but still lower Mag. so if you have good mag suppliment, its' a good idea, otherwise, might be worth avoiding the hassle

 

[rabbut]

AquaOne salt is no good for a reef IMO. I used it for an age, and it was costing a small fortune adding additives to correct it's deficiencies It lacks Alk, Ca, Mg and most trace elements. It's cheap for a reason. You'll do fine with it if running FO/FOWLR, but for a reef it is no good It isn't due to me testing a dodgy batch, in the 8 months I was using it, I had water from about 50 buckets across 4 or 5 batches (getting it from the LFS at which I work..)

I use Reef Crystals myself. While one bucket isn't a representative sample (an I've only used about 1/8th ish, so mixing issues may also lead to deviation within the bucket itself...), Mg, Alk and Ca are all good, if slightly too high, out of the stuff I haven't tested the trace elements for it though, so can't comment on them.

It's hard to recommend the salt brand for you without knowing your objectives. The reason for so much product variation goes further than price, different people target different levels for Mg Alk and Ca in their tank, so you need to try get your product to suit a different group of consumers when you enter the already saturated reef salt market with a new product, so you mix to get slightly different levels for each thing tested for to what your competitors produce

All the best
Rabbut

 

[seffieuk]

AquaOne salt is no good for a reef IMO. I used it for an age, and it was costing a small fortune adding additives to correct it's deficiencies It lacks Alk, Ca, Mg and most trace elements. It's cheap for a reason. You'll do fine with it if running FO/FOWLR, but for a reef it is no good It isn't due to me testing a dodgy batch, in the 8 months I was using it, I had water from about 50 buckets across 4 or 5 batches (getting it from the LFS at which I work..)

I'm finding the same thing with Instant ocean

I use Reef Crystals myself. While one bucket isn't a representative sample (an I've only used about 1/8th ish, so mixing issues may also lead to deviation within the bucket itself...), Mg, Alk and Ca are all good, if slightly too high, out of the stuff I haven't tested the trace elements for it though, so can't comment on them.

Got me to thinking..............we probably all use lots of different makes - could we all post the content levels, then we could work out what would be best for which situation:

FO
FOWLR

Reef with no hard corals
Reef with a few hard corals
Reef with lots of hard corals

etc..........

It's hard to recommend the salt brand for you without knowing your objectives. The reason for so much product variation goes further than price, different people target different levels for Mg Alk and Ca in their tank, so you need to try get your product to suit a different group of consumers when you enter the already saturated reef salt market with a new product, so you mix to get slightly different levels for each thing tested for to what your competitors produce

Yes, I am just about to buy a new tub of salt and could really do with some help here

All the best
Rabbut

By the way Alex, a good thread

Seffie x

 

[seffieuk]

Just been to have a look on the Instant Ocean tub for breakdown of contents.............and there isn't one

Now I am sitting on the floor in the kitchen looking at the old kent Marine salt container that I use for mixing the salty stuff in - just looked at that and guess what, that doesn't have a breakdown on it either

So, do i assume that none of them have a break down on the containers

Will go have a look as I want to buy a salt with higher calcium etc levels - Instant ocean isn't doing it for me, would need to supplement even though I only have three hard corals - although must admit my hammer is getting a big boy now

Seffie x

 

[seffieuk]

http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/...p?article_id=57

The only thing I can find after five minutes of looking and this was writtten in 2002

Seffie x

 

[Truck]

D+D h20 pro ocean salt high mag, calc, alk

 

[TigerIssey]

TMC Reef Pro salt has a breakdown on the tub, let me know if you want me to look at it.

Its high mag, high calc etc.

 

[seffieuk]

D+D h20 pro ocean salt high mag, calc, alk

But when you say high - what do you mean, higher than other salts, higher than sea water ........................

Do you have a tub to tell us what it says on the side?

Yes please Tina, can you have a look oh hold on, should you be getting down that low, second thoughts, ask Andrew

Seffie x