What brand of salt to use?

[DrDave88]

Hey reefers

I am starting a tank soon, and have no clue what brand of salt to use. I will have a 75 gallon with 50 lbs of LR to start with. I will have some corals and what not, but am jsut going to concentrat on a few fish and learn the basics from there. I will use an RO unit, for the water.

so, what salt should i use, why?

-dr

 

[MattM]

There are three we recommend:

Instant Ocean - The most popular salt by far. Nothing wrong with it.

Kent Marine - Less expensive than Instant Ocean. Does not dissolve quite as well, but works just fine.

Tropic Marin - Usually a little more money than Instant Ocean. Contains all 70 trace elements known to exist in seawater.

You can't really go wrong with any of these three.


And a couple we recommend you avoid:

Coralife - Chronically deficient in magnesium, will usually lead to problems maintaining alkalinity and calcium.

Red Sea - Made by evaporating sea water, which causes the constituent ions to combine into some non-soluable compounds.

 

[Anonymous]

Well here's a topic that has come up before. I have read through some older threads on the topic, and there are a number of people who use each of the major brands (IO, Reef Crystals, Kent Marine, Coralife, Tropic Marin). IMO as long as you avoid a cheapie brand you will be OK.

FWIW, I have used Kent, IO and Hawaiian Marinemix and not noticed any difference in the health of the animals.

 

[IcantTHINKofONE]

I get my salts from Aquacraft.net Most expensive salt I have ever come across though but friends of mine swear it has helped their corals and fish alike. Just a thought.

 

[Anonymous]

Instant Ocean - The most popular salt by far. Nothing wrong with it.

Coralife - Chronically deficient in magnesium, will usually lead to problems maintaining alkalinity and calcium.

wow. i used to use instant ocean but switched to coralife because it dissolves much faster. i didn't know it wasn't a very good salt. also, it's about $6 more than instant ocean. go figure. :?

 

[fishfarmer]

Coralife - Chronically deficient in magnesium, will usually lead to problems maintaining alkalinity and calcium.

It figures that the only cheaper salt I can find up here now is Coralife. I now have TWO free T shirts :roll: . Guess I gotta drive out of state to find a bucket of IO :roll: .

 

[hossfly]

reef crystals when I can find it locally. instant ocean is the most popular in the stores around here though, so I use it when I can't find my preference. I have put reef crystals straight in the tank after mixing and saw no harm done. others I've tried closed everything up for a couple days.

 

[toyota44]

I've been using Aquacrafts Marine Environment two part system for a couple of years now. I love it. I had the same problem of cloudy water in my mixing tank and finally realized that it was because I was adding the liquid supplement into the water and it wasn't being
absorbed...duhhhh 8O I swear by it, it is a little pricey, but every time I look in my tank I know it's worth it!

 

[Anonymous]

It figures that the only cheaper salt I can find up here now is Coralife. I now have TWO free T shirts . Guess I gotta drive out of state to find a bucket of IO .

if you find some IO in the near future you could get a free powerhead to go with your tee's

 

[Anonymous]

Coralife - Chronically deficient in magnesium, will usually lead to problems maintaining alkalinity and calcium.

i used to use instant ocean but switched to coralife because it dissolves much faster.

That is the reason it dissolves faster, the lack of mag.

 

[reefland]

I've used Instant Ocean for years. Past year or so, I've had issues getting the salt to dissolve right -- and I frequently have these black pellets at the bottom of the bin.

I recently tried a bucket of Tropic Marin and was very impressed:

1) The bucket is very easy to open. You don't need to fight with the bucket like you need to with Instant Ocean. Just slide a finger under the lip and off it comes. And re-seals very nicely.

2) The salt inside the bucket is bagged. Instant Ocean is exposed to the air in the bucket. The Bag is closed with a double locking plastic zip-tie gizmo. It's easy to get almost all of the air out of the bag.

3) Dissolved in about the same amount of time as Instant Ocean but I no longer have off pellets and flakes at the bottom of the buckett. And I haven't had any issues with the calcium precip. to the side of the bucket which I've had happen from time to time with Instant Ocean.

Instant Ocean is a great salt, but if you happen to have a choice or if IO is out of stock. I'd recommend you try Tropic Marin.

 

[Lady Godiva]

I was sent this link sometime ago. Its a "analysis of eight commercial formulations of synthetic seawater" written by Dr. Marlin Atkinson and Dr. Craig Bingman

http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish2/aqfm ... efault.asp

 

[JeremyR]

I truly believe that the formula of instant ocean changed when marineland aquired aquarium systems,too many people have had the same thing happen as reefland describes. These days I use MEI's crystal sea.. cheap salt, and I've had no issues with it... I've never seen anyone switch from IO and go back.

 

[Chucker]

I've only ever had one problem with IO, but I can't say it gives me a warm fuzzy... If the new saltwater is left to mix for more than 2 days, the water develops a rusty tinge, and a thin slimy rust-colored deposit is left on the sides of the container. I've thoroughly cleaned out the container after each use, but it returns.... :?

 

[Anonymous]

Chucker,

Maybe diatoms? I get the same thing if I let it mix more than 2 days.

 

[dizzy]

We still use IO in our store with good results. However my sources have been informing me of QC problems at IO. I hear stuff like rusting mixing blades and very cheap IO being peddled on the streets of Cleveland. It all makes it sound like IO needs to do a little maintenance and housekeeping. A new broom may sweep clean, but bigger ain't always better.

 

[EmilyB]

I have always used Kent salt with the exception of one brief time using IO for water changes. That resulted in an immediate hair algae explosion, but I assume it may have been the mixing of brands. In any case, Kent has always kept my occupants happy and I would never change unless I couldn't get it around here anymore. I think then my next choice would be Tropic Marin.

 

[Ben1]

I know this is bringing out an old topic but I just switched from IO. Only because my LFS was out and they had buckets of tropic marin for 50$ and buckets of Crystal seas for 20$. I was cheap and went with crystal seas, so far I have noticed it takes awhile to dissolve and awhile to clear out well. Besides this it seems to be fine, after I did my first water change in my softie tank everything looked great. I was wondering who else had tried this salt? Any other opinions?

 

[Anonymous]

i used red sea exclusively and liked it-never had a problem.

 

[Anonymous]

IO IMHO.

L