What salt mix would you recommend?

what is in your tank?

 

Until your load gets really heavy, reef crystals will do you great.

Eventually once your tank is super loaded you can upgrade to Seachem.

 

Seachem Aqua Vetro, available at AC&C, a bit more money but well worth it in the long run when you compare how many gallons you'll get at a SG of 1.025 out of a 200 gallon box of RC compared to the 225 gallon bucket of Aqua Vetro, good stuff.
Reef Crystals is a very good salt used by many, including myself, Aqua Vetro is a higher end salt that is batch specific.
Good Luck

 

Reef crystals all the way.

 

reef crystals for me.

 

Since this thread may be searched in the future by others, we should add that "it depends" a little too. For example, I currently am using Reef Crystals, although I am going FOWLR. I've contemplating switching to straight Instant Ocean for a couple of reasons. The trace elements aren't as critical, there are "experts" (whatever that means anymore) at ReefC that say that the trace items aren't enough to get much real benefit for reef keepers, and Instant Ocean is $10 less a box.


So, for me, I may switch (slowly) over time to the most basic Instant Ocean, but for others with awesome reef tanks, it seems like they are seeing positive effects of those trace elements in the Reef Crystals and the even more expensive (possibly more refined and tweaked) Seachem.


What would be helpful for this thread is if those people with nice reef tanks also noted what other supplements they were adding, if any, so that people can make a better call on what is contained in different salt mixes may or may not still be lacking. I would, but again, I am just a FOWLR guy...

 

I recently switched from reef crystals to Red Sea coral pro from brs. I just got tired of dealing with the brown film. So far, so good. Brs also has super fast shipping.

 

I also started with Reef Crystals but made a move over to the new Kent Reef salt. IME the Kent is awesome. As soon as I switched all my corals were open more then ever and started growing. Another big thing that I like is it dissolves in just a few minutes. Perfect for people who make water up as they go for water changes like me. ( Mixed variety of coral in tank and have dosed kalk during both salts )

 

I have been using kent marine. but am actually thinking about switching to Red Sea coral pro. any body use that stuff?

 

True - but it would need to rely on facts and documented case studies in controlled environments versus personal preference.


Salt brand, as well as a handful of other topics related to reef keeping, is highly opinionated. Where one person has great success another using the same salt brand fails as the environment and husbandry is different.





My opinion:


Instant Ocean is a product that’s been around for quite a while and is one of many solid choices for a salt mix. I like the fact that it priced competitively and easily obtainable. My personal belief is that the additional elements present in “reef specific” salt mixes are quickly depleted in the home environment and need to be replenished for continued success.


The original poster indicated that he’s looking to move salt brands for elements to raise parameters – IMHO Instant Ocean is a fine choice but no stand alone salt mix can provide everything necessary in our home reef tanks. Reef Crystals can be duplicated by dosing calcium into Instant Ocean.


-Eric

 

Reef crystals is all I've used for the 5 years I've had a reed. Great for the money.

 

The thing with salt mixes is there all different, to this day I still use I/O and Oceanic mixed and have never had a problem, switched to Tropic Marin Pro, big mistake( coral wise). It's pretty much whatever works for you and you adjust from there Cost also factors in for a lot of people as well.


"so say i have light coral bio load and mid to high fish bio load...would using a high end reef salt have negative effects on the livestock? Especially if magnesium,calcium and other trace elements are at high levels and their is not enough livestock in the tank to deplete these elements?"

Your corals may not like it in the beginning but after everything gets put back into sync should be fine. Animal wise they may be irritated but they'll adapt.

 

Don't you have a thread topic on here somewhere about your parameters being low though? Not criticizing, just an observation.

 

I've been using Reef Crystals for a long time with good results. On suggestion is to keep an eye on the dKH cause sometimes they have discrepencies in their batches for some reason. But it's been a long time since I've heard of any issues from that.