Changing Reef Salt - Any Concerns?

[newbie20]

Thinking about changing reef salt lately. Not yet sure if I'm going to, or if I do, to what brand.

In any event, my question is a general one. Is there any concern I should be aware of when switching salt brands? My method would be to incorporate the new salt through my bi-weekly
10% water changes on my 150gal setup. Just wondering if there would be any unintended consequences of doing this.

Thanks,
Brian

 

[kirkwood]

I just went through this process switching from Salinity to Reef Crystals.. The first time I used the new salt I did a 10% WC with half old salt and half new salt.. After that I did 5% water changes about 3x every 2 weeks just to introduce the new salt slowly just in case.. I also conducted ALK and CAL tests a day after each WC to see if I had to adjust my dosing schedule. The result is that everything is fine although these 2 salts both mix out at elevated Cal, Alk, and Mag levels - whatever change you make just compare the mixing levels of the old salt to the new salt and make sure they are on par... Perhaps I erred on the side of caution.. But in this hobby that is a good thing... I will say that I feel like my system is holding calcium levels a bit better with the RC.

 

[ringo®]

Kirkwood;897304 wrote: I will say that I feel like my system is holding calcium levels a bit better with the RC.

That's interesting. I thought Salinity claimed the higher levels.

 

[glxtrix]

Yup, all varieties of salt will have different ca, alk and mg levels. Make sure you test a new batch and adjust your dosing method appropriately.

 

[stacy22]

What is the reason why you are conisdering switching salt? What are you switching from?

 

[newbie20]

stacy22;897554 wrote: What is the reason why you are conisdering switching salt? What are you switching from?

I've just heard more negative comments about Reef Crystals lately (which I've been using for the last 9 months or so), and that I might be able to save time/money by moving to a "higher grade" salt which may result in maintaining better params than I have now for PH, mg, and ca. There've been some opportunities for me to obtain the "better" mixes at good pricing, so I'm just exploring other possible "costs" of making such a switch. In the meantime, I've started truly dosing for the first time, and that may be all I need to do.

 

[mrflameangel]

Each brand of salt is going to have it own problems. I currently use Red Sea coral pro. The problem I have seen with it is the calcium levels are lower than advertised. I have a friend that uses reef crystals and they have mag issues. So to me it just depends what you want to dose to arch the levels back to desired levels. Good luck on which ever you choose.

 

[newbie20]

Yep. One thing I've learned in this hobby is that there's never a true "correct" answer for anything. What some people think is the answer to something, is what other's consider the problem.

I was looking at the Red Sea, so I appreciate the feedback. Anyone have any feedback on Seachem reef salt?

 

[kirkwood]

Seachem salinity is a great salt. I only switched to Reef Crystals because an online vendor was selling with free shipping. I couldn't pass up that convenience. I haven't noticed mag issues yet but if I do I will switch back to salinity.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Only problem I had was that when I used the red sea coral pro, it's alkalinity was so amped up (like 12 dkh @ 1.026) that it would cause some of my corals to freak out and throw out those stringers they do when they are ticked off. I had to change from 15 gallon WC on my 110 to 5 gallon every couple days which solved the problem.
My current alkalinity is around 8 dkh fyi.

I'm using reef crystals again now, but if I can get my tank up a little in stats, i'd like to swich back to coral pro.

Only thing I don't like about coral pro is it's super dusty when you pour it in to mix it.

 

[mrflameangel]

outdrsyguy1;897589 wrote: Only problem I had was that when I used the red sea coral pro, it's alkalinity was so amped up (like 12 dkh @ 1.026) that it would cause some of my corals to freak out and throw out those stringers they do when they are ticked off. I had to change from 15 gallon WC on my 110 to 5 gallon every couple days which solved the problem.
My current alkalinity is around 8 dkh fyi.

I'm using reef crystals again now, but if I can get my tank up a little in stats, i'd like to swich back to coral pro.

Only thing I don't like about coral pro is it's super dusty when you pour it in to mix it.

I found salinity to be more of a mess than I do RSCP