What brand of salt do you use?

[racefan]

To make a short story long, the LFS in Longview just takes city tap water adds Prime to dechlorinate it & adds salt. I just bought a RO/DI unit & am going to start making my own salt water when I get it hooked up & going. What brand of salt do you use & why? Mike

[Michael7979]

I have used Instant Ocean, Pacific Coast, OceanPure, and Kent.

 

Instant Ocean -fine as long as you stay up on testing. It seems short in some areas.

OceanPure - I got a batch really high in ALK and I haven't tried it since.

Kent - All around the best salt for me. Never a problem. (knocking on wood, still using this one)

Pacific Coast Salt - I think is a lot like Instant Ocean.

 

Your best bet is to find one you like and works for you and stick with it. Always test a batch first before using, out of a freshly opened bucket/bag.

[coralreefer]

I used to use Reef Crystals...now I use gettanked salt #2...

 

DrMerle

[Lowman]

In my newest system I am using the D&D Reef Salt.

[gradth]

On my second bucket of Oceanic. Used IO before and didnt like the residue it left after mixing, plus I read a bunch of stuff on RC downtalking the stuff. Honestly, Im still a newb at this, but Oceanic seems to be pretty good. I dont have anything out of whack(scary).

[Rick]

Been using Ocean Pure for a few months now. I switched to it because it was supposed to have decent calcium levels. So far no problems and my calcium was at 500 last time I checked. Alk was at 10, Mg was at 1200. Note though that this reading was shortly after adding a bag of new sand in a new 125g tank. The time prior to this my calcium was around 420 in my 85g. Since switching to it I haven't needed to dose calcium.

[lancecobb1]

I use kent, Never any problems! Never tried anything else, if it isnt broke dont fix it!

[finch6013]

I use kent and so far no problems and I keep mostly sps

[Saltfinsax]

I like to use Kent before I got my calcium reactor, seems to have a high calcium.

Now with the reactor I might look for a cheeper one. Kent seems to be kinda spendy.

I guess you get what you pay for though.

[stylaster]

i started with kent, then went to tropic marin pro reef (which i like a lot) now im trying d-d reef salt

[snowpunk]

I just switched to D&D a few months ago and I really like it. Was having issues with keeping calc and alk up but everything is in balance now that I switched.

 

 

D&D!!!(rock2)(rock2)

[markdadof2]

I have used:

Red sea: did not mix up real well

Tropic marin (Not the pro) - found levels to be very low on Ca and Mg

Kent - so far the best of the the 3 for me. Using it currently.

[CCR]

using D+D cal. at 580 alk at 7 no I haven't liked it at all yet. Had to do a lot of buffering. I thought my test kit's where out of whack so went to Jason's and the read was the same. So I'm holding out to see. fter a couple of weeks( about 4) yesterday read cal at 480 and alk at 5. Just not good readings from the salt

[Fish]

I use D & D Reef, Seachem Reef, and Kent reef. What ever is on sale. All good so far.

[snowpunk]

using D+D cal. at 580 alk at 7 no I haven't liked it at all yet. Had to do a lot of buffering. I thought my test kit's where out of whack so went to Jason's and the read was the same. So I'm holding out to see. fter a couple of weeks( about 4) yesterday read cal at 480 and alk at 5. Just not good readings from the salt

 

Something I have heard with D&D is you need to remove the bag and mix it around pretty well. Readings will fluctuate until you do that.

[CCR]

Something I have heard with D&D is you need to remove the bag and mix it around pretty well. Readings will fluctuate until you do that.

 

I'm almost through a 200 gal bucket but i'll mix up what's left and recheck raw readings

[Chief]

I have used Instant Ocean, Ocean Pure Pro, Red Sea Coral Pro, and Kent.

 

I really liked Ocean Pure, but it was no longer available in the Eugene area. I tried RSCP, but it was kinda spendy.

 

Kent is by far the most stable with the numbers I want.

 

Jay

[snowpunk]

When I was researching salts I came across a few posts like yours and someone said they started rolling it around and stirring it first and it put the levels back in check for some reason. I haven't tested it in a while but now I think I should...

[CA2OR]

regarding D&D, I have also heard that you have to spin it up and then wait 24 hours or so for levels to....level.

 

I use a 50\50 mix of Tropic Marin and Tropic Marin Pro Reef...the only problem I have is my corals grow to dang fast(naughty)

Snowpunk is my witness.

[nwcoralfarm]

I am with Lowman on this one. I took his advice and picked up a bucket, ran a few tests and every one came out to be what I was looking for. I have seen a nice improvement in growth as well as color in some of my corals.

 

However this is on the spendy end of salts, as far as salts go. If I remember right you are running mostly softies in your tank, so your calcium levels wouldn't need to be as high as mine.

 

As far as removing chlorine goes, just leaving your change water out to sit for 24 hours will do miracles. However with your new RO/DI you wont have as much to worry about.

 

Shoot me a line of you would like some help setting that up, I can also get you a list of the salts I can get for you.

 

Good luck

[coralreefer]

Here is part of the problem...buckets settle, with separation of calcium granules, from salt granules etc, etc, etc...the water made from the top of your bucket may show different parameters than that from the bottom...regardless, I think it is important not to "just except" new batches of water change water are going to be spot on with their parameters.

 

My recommendation for everyone is test--every batch, everytime...you will catch off batches before they go into your tank and you start to adjust other practices later that were not a problem to begin with...

 

Do your tank a favor...do regular water changes!!!

 

DrMerle

[chewie]

Something I have heard with D&D is you need to remove the bag and mix it around pretty well. Readings will fluctuate until you do that.

 

This is standard in ALL salt mixes. The CA/DKH/MG salts will settle to the bottom of the bag/bucket. Rolling the container around and fliping it over a few times helps considerably.

 

I use OceanPure, and D&D H2Ocean.

[undrtkr_00]

I never knew so many people used the D&D salt. I don't think I've even seen it before. Where are you all getting it from?

[impur]

I started with Oceanic and had good luck with it. Then i got horrible cyano and changed to Kent. This was a great salt, no problems but if i let it stay in the mixing tub for a day or 2 i would get residue in there. No biggie and never cause problems in the tank.

 

Now i'm using Reef Crystals and love it. Pretty consistant readings.

[snowpunk]

I never knew so many people used the D&D salt. I don't think I've even seen it before. Where are you all getting it from?

 

I had some interest after researching and Eric had already asked Lowman if he could get it. I think he had one bucket already at DJL. Worked out nice for me... It is a little pricey but it's good stuff.