There are great tanks running with just about every salt made I would bet. I have used Reef Crystals, HW Marine Mix Reefer and Red Sea Coral Pro in the past. I'm currently using plain Instant Ocean and have been for a couple of years. I would just try to find a salt that mixes as close to the parameters (Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium) that you want to keep your tank at. I really loved how easy to dissolve HW Marine was but it's alkalinity was so high I would get an alkalinity spike with even a 15% water change. That's the main reason I switched to IO....it matches my Ca and alk the best of the salt mixes. It is a little low on magnesium but that's not as critical and something I don't have to dose very often. The other reason is that it's about 1/2 the price of HW. Looking forward to seeing what everyone uses!
I just use Instant Ocean, although, I don't think mine has ever hit 11 dkh like your table above shows. Mine usually is only around 7.6 dkh. SPS/LPS keepers, tend to keep alk/calc higher than natural saltwater. Instant Ocean's Reef Crystals, has a much higher alk/calc than its standard Instant Ocean salt brand. Some of the studies out there show that higher alk/calc increase SPS/LPS growth since it makes those compounds more readily available. As Huntindoc stated, people have been successful with all the various salts in all various ranges of parameters. My best advice, is pick one and then keep your parameters consistently hovering around those numbers.
Reef Crystals are going for a great price on Amazon right now. https://www.amazon.com/Instant-Ocea...7&sr=1-1&keywords=reef+crystals+instant+ocean
Wow, that is a pretty good deal, free shipping too. The standard Instant Ocean is also around 50.00!! It would take me a long time before I could use 200 gallons worth of salt though.
I used to use Aquavitro Salinity and I loved it, I just didn't like the price and it was hard to mix sometimes. I am currently using Fritz RPM and I love it. It isn't expensive, mixes easy, and the parameters are what I want. It is mixed in small batches and tested by lot#. The particles are similar size for it more consistency. Finally, a lot of the big name vendors are using it now too to include Fraghouse Corals. If it is good enough for them, it is good enough for me. If mixed to a salinity of 35ppt (1.025sg) it has: Calcium-440 ppm Magnesium-1455 ppm Alkalinity-8.5 dKH Strontium-9 ppm Potassium-400 ppm
I have Vanessa at The Fish Tank order it for me. I talked with the owner of Fritz and they were supposed to send a box to Reef Fest but I don't know what happened.
I like those parameters on the Fritz! I may try it. How much is it? I've been getting 160 gal buckets of IO for about $40 I've never, ever gotten dKh of 11 on IO. Usually around 9.5 for me.
The only thing that I don't like is I am not a fan of boxes of salt. I prefer buckets. I end up dumping my box of Fritz into an empty Salinity bucket. Doc, I don't remember the cost at the Fish Tank. It isn't IO cheap but it isn't Salinity expensive.
Yea, I buy the 160 gallon on the IO even though the 200 gallon is the same price. I do probably have enough buckets to last through the zombie apocalypse.
Hiya, I'm finally getting back to Red Sea Pro. I really liked it, but Kevin's supplier stopped carrying it. Since then he has gotten it back. I used Salinity while I was waiting for the RSP to come back in. Hated it. Mixed dirty and would stay cloudy. Kim/Benton, AR
I've used Fritz with good results - if fish tank carried it consistently I'd still use it. I used reef crystals for a while and now I'm using tropic marin pro. I had changed to it in "eliminating" the stuff I was chasing, but seems my salt isn't the biggest problem I have. $50 for a box of IO is OK - it's about right. What I REALLY didn't like about RC is the stuff in my mixing stations left (which means that my skimmer/tank would use it/skim out/digest/waste SOMETHING) and the really high alk, ca, and Mg. I've decided to go to TMP since the numbers of the salt when freshly mixed. However, yes, many people have great tanks with it. I'm rather a fan of regular IO but if I have to special order it I might as well get it delivered to the house. And frankly, I'd like to support our local retailers even though sometimes it's a little inconvenient. When I really need them, I'd them to be there. Besides helping local folks and all that. Since regular IO is 1/2 of TMP I'm sure once I get everything where I want it I'll probably switch to a cheaper salt with similar parameters.
I absolutely love the different types of Coralline algae and am seriously going to try and collect as many colors and types as I can (even the plating kind) and was wondering if you have noticed better Coralline growth with a certain type of salt. I have a 200 gal. box of Kent Marine to start with (that I got for a great deal on black Fri.) that I will mixing with R.O.D.I water . I've never used it before but I will keep you posted.
