There are numerous amounts of salt mixes available. Some are way more costly than others. Some have high amounts of essential elements and others not as much. Why is that there are fewer hobbyists that buy the cheaper mix and just raise the parameters in the mix container to the desired amount then do a water change? Take into account the costs of the cheaper mixes and the local availability vs the premium salts.
Salt Mix Discussion
- Thread starter marquiseo
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that is what I used to do...I would By Cheaper salt then Would dose my water with ph buffer,Trace elements, Ca,KH,MG and every other two letter combo they could sell me...I figured over all it was cheaper to buy Red Sea with the elements allready in there then manually dose (and alot more accurate)
Personally, I think most of the product differentiation in salt is just marketing, designed to give buyers a perceived product difference, when in reality there is not much.
But, I think the perceived value and price difference is not as much of a factor the smaller the system you have and/or the less frequent you do water changes. If I go through one 160 gallon bucket of Red Sea salt in a year, I probably won't give the price of the Red Sea salt as much consideration vs the one 200 gallon box of Instant Ocean a month I actually use.
If you evaluated the costs involved, more so regarding larger volume systems and higher salt use rates, you will be cheaper in the long term to buy the inexpensive brand of salt and correct any magnesium, calcium or alkalinity issues with separate components.
This would also be affected if you do nothing except water changes, meaning you do not dose 2 part, run a calcium reactor, or dose Kalk, meaning you cannot really compare a 10 gallon nano system doing nothing but water changes to a 210 gallon reef tank that could not operate the same way and has to have separate supplementation via 2 part, calcium reactor or kalk.
I absolutely, positively guarantee you that in my 465 gallon SPS reef, it is much less expensive to buy and use Instant Ocean salt and just dose Randy's 2 part for mag and some calcium chloride hexahydrate from BRS separately.
But, I think the perceived value and price difference is not as much of a factor the smaller the system you have and/or the less frequent you do water changes. If I go through one 160 gallon bucket of Red Sea salt in a year, I probably won't give the price of the Red Sea salt as much consideration vs the one 200 gallon box of Instant Ocean a month I actually use.
If you evaluated the costs involved, more so regarding larger volume systems and higher salt use rates, you will be cheaper in the long term to buy the inexpensive brand of salt and correct any magnesium, calcium or alkalinity issues with separate components.
This would also be affected if you do nothing except water changes, meaning you do not dose 2 part, run a calcium reactor, or dose Kalk, meaning you cannot really compare a 10 gallon nano system doing nothing but water changes to a 210 gallon reef tank that could not operate the same way and has to have separate supplementation via 2 part, calcium reactor or kalk.
I absolutely, positively guarantee you that in my 465 gallon SPS reef, it is much less expensive to buy and use Instant Ocean salt and just dose Randy's 2 part for mag and some calcium chloride hexahydrate from BRS separately.
I use Salinity and find it about the same cost and much easier overall. I am a Huge fan of weekly water changes, it keep things in check. I change 15 gals weekly of a total of 110 gallons total. So that's about a bucket every 3 months. About $250 - $300 a year or $5 - $6 weekly to change about 50% of my water monthly.
Dave makes a great point. I run 3 tanks all 30 gallons or less. doing weekly water changes I found I do not need to supplement at all, so to make me feel better I buy Red Sea Coral Pro salt. if I ran tanks any larger I could not justify the cost of the salt. but it is nice for one bucket to last a year!
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Why don't more people do that? Because it's more work and testing.
Not to mention a more mature tank will have higher daily consumption so you're not going to be able to get away with only doing water changes if you're trying to keep SPS. In a week my frag tank (not mature and nothing really big) will consume enough cal/Alk that weekly water changes will cause way too much of a swing.
I dose to keep my salt mix parameters at the same number. I use ESV four part salt mix so mix to my liking. Daily dosing just keeps those numbers there so WCs don't shock my corals at all. And my phone screen is going nuts right now so I can't really see what I'm writing hopefully auto correct is working
Not to mention a more mature tank will have higher daily consumption so you're not going to be able to get away with only doing water changes if you're trying to keep SPS. In a week my frag tank (not mature and nothing really big) will consume enough cal/Alk that weekly water changes will cause way too much of a swing.
I dose to keep my salt mix parameters at the same number. I use ESV four part salt mix so mix to my liking. Daily dosing just keeps those numbers there so WCs don't shock my corals at all. And my phone screen is going nuts right now so I can't really see what I'm writing hopefully auto correct is working
