What Brand of Salt would you recommend?

[gmanjeep]

Hi Everyone, I ready to set up my new Reef tank soon :yay: and want to take a poll of which type of Salt you use or recommend as the best. I have used many different Brands through the years, but what do you recommend?
Thanks, Gary

 

[dkelly]

Read http://www.northcoastmarines.com/salt_comparison.htm">http://www.northcoastmarines.com/salt_comparison.htm</a>

I recently switched from Kent Sea Salt to Instant Ocean Reef Salt and noticed that it now takes 1.5 to 2 times the salt to get the same 1.024 salinity!

 

[cameron]

You can find a zillion posts here in the forums, but to keep it short the favorites seem to be Instant Ocean or Reef Crystals from either DrsFosterSmith.com (they have a great sale price and shipping is cheap) or print the online PetSmart.com price out and take it into a store and get that price.

 

[darren24]

Ditto on the Reef Crystals.

 

[victor626nj]

if your going to cycle your tank i would use whatever is cheapest cause at this point you really dont need all the additives but once your cylcled i use tropic marin pro reef but thats cause it comes with higher trace elements and i dont have to dose anything afterwords but its not cheap its probably the most expensive salt out there but its good imho

 

[blind1993]

well i say IO i use it and it is good. u can get it for $13 at aquarium showcase.

 

[dannybradley]

This salt question gets funny.. Who makes what salt and for whom is a big part of the answer. There's a only a handful of companies that actually make the salt, with the major branders sending them their trace element blend to mix in.

Up until a few years ago, Coralife made Kent's salt. Kent's is now made by Instant Ocean with a few ingredients thrown in, which I believe are Coral Vite and Zoecon(maaaaaaaybe)

Seachem wanted Coralife to make their salt, but Coralife never had the capacity. Since the Kent switch, Coralife now provides the base for Seachem's salt. Seachem adds trace elements and buffer. Infact, Seachem as far as I know is the only company that actually adds buffer. Salt mixing naturally forms sodium bicarbonate(NaHCO3 pH 7.8~), so most manufacturers rely on that as the buffer. This is one of the reasons it needs to be mixed thoroughly before use, as NaHCO3 changes to Sodium Carbonate (Na2CO3 pH 8.8~) once in the water long enough. Eventually it will balance out something close to natural levels. Seachem adds Borate (BO33- ph 9.2) for extra stablity within the carbonate blend, which should settle around 8.4.

Red Sea's claim is that their salt is made from evaporated sea salt, making their calcium more bioavalible as it's not the pharmaceutical grade everyone else throws in their mix.

Oceanic has high calcium, but that's offset by high aluminum and low carbonates, making it bad with buffering.

This study is a little old, but it still gives a good foundation of knowledge, and will help keep this post shorter... and my advice, go with what works. If you're not getting the results you want, start trying new things slowly.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/11/aafeature1">http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/11/aafeature1</a>
[IMG]http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/12/aafeature1/view">http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/12/aafeature1/view</a>

 

[dannybradley]

flaco626nj;60731 wrote: if your going to cycle your tank i would use whatever is cheapest cause at this point you really dont need all the additives but once your cylcled i use tropic marin pro reef but thats cause it comes with higher trace elements and i dont have to dose anything afterwords but its not cheap its probably the most expensive salt out there but its good imho

I believe those trace elements are in the mix anyway, it just makes Tropic Marin feel good when they print they have .000000000000007% selenium. I'd be more concerned with minor elements than trace, although not to say that trace elements don't have their importance in biological function. If I'm wrong on that, someone correct me.

If you're cycling with uncured rock, I would advise a good salt anyway, especially if you're trying to preserve the life barely clinging on the rock.

 

[victor626nj]

DannyBradley;60784 wrote: I believe those trace elements are in the mix anyway, it just makes Tropic Marin feel good when they print they have .000000000000007% selenium. I'd be more concerned with minor elements than trace, although not to say that trace elements don't have their importance in biological function. If I'm wrong on that, someone correct me.

If you're cycling with uncured rock, I would advise a good salt anyway, especially if you're trying to preserve the life barely clinging on the rock.

well the only reason i said to use what ever salt is cause like i said i use tropic marin 78 dollars a bucket ok but i dontwant to use that to cure lr i got a bucket of io 40 bucks thats whaat i mean by that im not telling him to use morton just not to get carried away with what he is buying cause lets say he has a high almmonia spike and he needs to do a 100%water change dont want to use the expensive stuff for that and you might have to do it a couple of times jmho

 

[gmanjeep]

I currently have a 65 gallon reef tank and am I am pretty much going to move all my things into the bigger tank.I really shouldnt need to cycle it per say.I have approx. 80-90 lbs of cured rock in my tank now.

 

[mvm]

Not To Be A Jerk, But Typing Without Punctuation Is Almost As Annoying As Typing In All Caps. Sorry, My Wife Is An English Major.

 

[mvm]

PREVIOUS post was typed in all caps for emphasis, but was corrected by the site software:thumbs:

 

[stanfill reef]

We use tropic marin.

 

[mvm]

Now to actually post some informative info. I've tried two salts recently, seachem reef salt and tropic marin. I started with seachem and all was well. At the third bucket-I did a water change- the corals all lost color. I immediatly tested the mix. The KH was low. Apparently seachem uses borate to buffer....I'm not a chemistry major, but the borate levels don't register on most tests. I switched to tropic marin salt and love it. It is expensive, but I love it.

 

[jgoal55]

I dont know if this would be considered a thread steal but does anyone know what the Aquarium uses?(the GA? or most other aquariums for that matter....I am guesing that most of them probably use the same thing....maybe wrong)....

Sorry if this is a steal, if it is I'll open another forum later and feel free to remove.....

 

[jgoal55]

nevermind....found it.....

"To salinate the water for the marine exhibits, the Aquarium used 1.5 million pounds of Instant Ocean® sea salt. Keeping the water salinated requires very little additional salt."

back to original thread topic i guess. thanks.

 

[dannybradley]

flinster;60866 wrote: Now to actually post some informative info. .

Excuse me, but the only thing you posted that was actually information was "seachem uses borate to buffer", and I had already mentioned that. Did you even read the Inland Reef Aquaria Salt Study I posted? All you posted was an opinion. Please choose your words more carefully in the future.

 

[FutureInterest]

Chillax Danny . Opinion can be informative to. Anyways +rep for your post in #8 good info there.

 

[dannybradley]

I'm an over-reactor.

 

[cameron]

IMO, quality salt companies are rarely and I mean very rarely responsible for serious problems with a tank. This is one of the more argued points from time to time, but you will find that any major salt manufactorer produces salt pretty much as good as the next. There are some variances here and there, but most times there is a problem with a tank and salt is blamed it can likely be tracked to another source as well. That said, it doesn't hurt to test incoming salt water from new salt buckets just to be safe.

IO and RC are probably the widest used aquarium salt out there and viturally everyone who uses the salt believes it to be a quality brand. I have read some minor dings, but I have heard the same things with practically every brand out there.