Replacement salt for Tropic Marin Pro Reef

sharis100 said:
BRS did a whole entire series about this topic and why TM is such a good salt- the purity of the composition, clean mix, ability to be stored and maintain its levels, stability, etc.
Click to expand...
I do like the BRS videos and I have watched most of them including the ones on salt. Their vids are good but also very self serving at times. Very rarely do they offer any information about brands they don't carry. Just like the way they trashed Black Box leds as a fire hazard but recently reviewed the Viparspectra's and one other BB brand in the 360 Live series. They have a business to run and I get that. But that fact needs to be taken into account when researching.

I've seen nothing I can find on the net about anything other than the big three parameters for TM's salt. Nothing else is listed.
  • Alkalinity – 8.5 DKH
  • Calcium – 450 PPM
  • Magnesium – 1380 PPM
I used LA for a year and a half before I shut down my system and I have a little over eight boxes left. It always mixed up clean and right where I keep my parameters, they offer info on a little more than the big three. LA also states it's synthetic.
Parameters
Salinity: 35 ppt (1.026 sg)
Calcium: 400-450 ppm
Magnesium: 1,350-1,450 ppm
Alkalinity: 8.0-9.5dKH
Strontium: 9 ppm
Potassium: 400 ppm

I keep my salinity at 1.025/33.5ppt and it mixed up at 420-430, 1400 & 8.5~9dKH. I also ran several ICP tests in the time I was using it and other than being a little low on Bromine everything else was right in line. Since DR's F & S was shut down pricing on all of the lower end salt has gone up. I'm not opposed to spending a little more if something is really good, I'm just having a hard time finding an objective review that states why TM is better. I'm not trying to be sarcastic with this I'd really like to know. Until then I can't see switching with as hard as their products can be to source at times along with the elevated prices.

When I started in the hobby Aquavitro Salinity was "it" salt here and on a lot of other boards. It has to be the brand that had the most detailed info about what's in the bucket of any brand I've seen. Guaranteed analysis sticker on every bucket listed per batch. Five years later I hardly hear the name mentioned anymore. That's a SeaChem brand too, it has to be bought in a store now, not online. But it's $20 cheaper than TM.
 
From my understanding TM is made from pharma grade synthetic salt. I cooked my rock with that cheap orange box stuff. It has a lot of residue that wouldn’t dissolve. I didn’t cook it long enough and ended up with a bacteria bloom. I used Red Sea to get me through that. It too had a lot of trash. I switched to TMPR from cycling to now and you can look at the bottom of my mixing tank and there is no trash...period. I’m on my 3rd bucket.
 
TM is a German brand and you’d be hard pressed to get them to tell you the ingredients in gummy bears let alone anything else. That said, I lived in Germany for a few years and I just trust them. They are very dedicated to reefing and are some of the most environmentally minded people on the planet.
 
Adam said:
I do like the BRS videos and I have watched most of them including the ones on salt. Their vids are good but also very self serving at times. Very rarely do they offer any information about brands they don't carry. Just like the way they trashed Black Box leds as a fire hazard but recently reviewed the Viparspectra's and one other BB brand in the 360 Live series. They have a business to run and I get that. But that fact needs to be taken into account when researching.

I've seen nothing I can find on the net about anything other than the big three parameters for TM's salt. Nothing else is listed.
  • Alkalinity – 8.5 DKH
  • Calcium – 450 PPM
  • Magnesium – 1380 PPM
I used LA for a year and a half before I shut down my system and I have a little over eight boxes left. It always mixed up clean and right where I keep my parameters, they offer info on a little more than the big three. LA also states it's synthetic.
Parameters
Salinity: 35 ppt (1.026 sg)
Calcium: 400-450 ppm
Magnesium: 1,350-1,450 ppm
Alkalinity: 8.0-9.5dKH
Strontium: 9 ppm
Potassium: 400 ppm

I keep my salinity at 1.025/33.5ppt and it mixed up at 420-430, 1400 & 8.5~9dKH. I also ran several ICP tests in the time I was using it and other than being a little low on Bromine everything else was right in line. Since DR's F & S was shut down pricing on all of the lower end salt has gone up. I'm not opposed to spending a little more if something is really good, I'm just having a hard time finding an objective review that states why TM is better. I'm not trying to be sarcastic with this I'd really like to know. Until then I can't see switching with as hard as their products can be to source at times along with the elevated prices.

When I started in the hobby Aquavitro Salinity was "it" salt here and on a lot of other boards. It has to be the brand that had the most detailed info about what's in the bucket of any brand I've seen. Guaranteed analysis sticker on every bucket listed per batch. Five years later I hardly hear the name mentioned anymore. That's a SeaChem brand too, it has to be bought in a store now, not online. But it's $20 cheaper than TM.
Click to expand...
I love Seachem myself. The videos BRS out out in the salts were in multiple parts- lots of videos to get their overall opinion and review and yes very limited ‘salt contestants.’
 
I'll just keep doing what I have been. If I switch from LA/Fritz it'll be to Aquavitro. Just have to figure out if any LFS's carry it support two local businesses that way.

I'm still going to cycle all the tanks with plain Ole IO salt. 😁
 
I used HW Marinemix in my first saltwater tank, decades ago. It is one of the oldest brands and the original pharmaceutical grade manufacturer. They also manufacture for other brands...

So I ask, how many German brands are made using pharmaceutical grade ingredients? You do the math as to who makes them.

HW also uses amino acids to chelate their salts & do not use surfactants, as some other brands do. This helps to ensure clean rapid solubility with the added benefit of an organic carbon component, similarly to natural sea water. It mixes up to give the chemical profile I believe will provide the best environment for my system. Why fight the numbers?

This is why I’ve chosen to use HW, again.

www.bulkreefsupply.com

Purely Synthetic Salt - HW MarineMix | Product Spotlight

Marinemix has been around for over 50 years. Popular in Europe, they not only manufacture their own salt mixes but are also the actual manufacturer for many popular brands of salt. The hw-Marinemix is a unique aquarium salt because it uses no evaporated or mined salts. It also does not use salt...
www.bulkreefsupply.com www.bulkreefsupply.com
 
Adam said:
Call me cheap but I just can't see paying $500 to $600 on salt to fill my systems. Hell, it's probably closer to $800 when the mixing tank is filled back up. It'll be less than $400 with IO salt.
Click to expand...
I cooked my rock and cycled my tank with cheap salt but thats as far as I will go with cheap salt. Some of the salts people are claiming are good here I've never even heard of. With TM I know salt will not be the cause of an issue that might come up. Thats why I'm using it but I know what you mean. Early on I had a bacteria bloom and I went through a whole box; a BIG box of IO. If that were TM that would have hurt.
 
I ran my tank for 7 years with plain old IO. LOL, I am absolutely sure all the bad stuff stays in the mixing barrel. Seriously, I would have no problem using it in a pinch or fill a new tank. The biggest reason I switched to TM Pro was the 7.0 alk it mixes to. It gives me more opportunity to dose Kalk to improve ph. The clean mixing barrel was a bonus.

A lot of the problems people have with salts are caused by mixing errors, not the salts themselves. These errors usually result in some precipitation of the elements and then you end up with parameters being off.

Also, if you do 5-10% water changes your tank will not notice the difference if you use a different salt. For example, If your Mg is 1350 in your tank and you do a 10% water change with salt at 1400, the resulting Mg would be 1355. The difference is way below what most test kits can detect. And your tank will not know the difference. I understand our stickiness to particular salt brands. I plan to continue using TM Pro. But I worry that discussions like these create unnecessary fears for less experienced reefers. Any of the long term brands will be suitable. It is more about what parameters the salt mixes to and where you want to run your tank. If I could save $400 dollars by using IO to fill my tank, that would be an easy decision. Or, if I wanted to spend my money more on corals or fish than salt, I would have no problem using IO.
 
Adam said:
Call me cheap but I just can't see paying $500 to $600 on salt to fill my systems. Hell, it's probably closer to $800 when the mixing tank is filled back up. It'll be less than $400 with IO salt.
Click to expand...
I don't use salt like that 🤷‍♂️ ... I am on moonshiner method. so i only use salt to make corrections or to remove something from my water.
 
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