Best salt to use?

[krschulz]

What are some of you using for salt? It seems I can never get the same kind twice and am getting conflicting opinions of which are good and bad. I notice that my Ca, Mg, K and Hardness all change depending on the salt I use. I would like to stick to one brand, any advice for a reef tank? Is this just the "fun" of reefing, ie balancing things?

[i have crabs]

http://reefsaltanalysis.googlepages.com/AWT_Salt_Analysis_0208.pdf

[jasond]

I started with Instant Ocean, and in the last couple months have switched to Tropic Marine Pro. I like TMP better, less dosing, and everything seems to be doing well. I think the top of the line would be Reefers best, by Zeovit. From what I gather, it depends on how much you are prepared to dose. I have seen some tanks in town that use IO, that look great, so it just depends I guess.

Hope that helps!

Jason

[bv_reefer]

i switched from kent as i was getting low calcium readings, now i switched to seachem reef salt and very happy so far, didn't test it so far for magnesium however, calcium readings higher than kent, and also getting decent alkalinity readings from it

[mseepman]

In looking at this testing, I have issues with how they did their tests...would a competent lab mix less than one cup of salt to do marine salt tests?

Secondly, since partial packages were used, instead of the entire package, how do you know which part of the package was used...or whether the salt was pre-stirred to provide a well balanced sample. I find, especially with cheap salts that stirring them helps give me better batches for my tank.

I have other issues with the tests, but this is not the forum for it.

In answer to the original thread, I use Aquacraft Marine Environment or Aquacraft Biosea both of which give me results.



http://reefsaltanalysis.googlepages.com/AWT_Salt_Analysis_0208.pdf

[kwirky]

here we go again...

I think expensive salts are good for their trace element contents. Calcium, alk, and magnesium can all be added to any salt.

I've used kent, oceanpure pro and reefer's best. kent's not bad if you test and correct each batch you mix. mixes pretty slow. oceanpure pro mixes super fast but I've never liked it's skyhigh magnesium. I use reefer's best now because it has good alk and magnesium and mixes SUPER fast. You have to mix up the salt crystals well before each use though.

Greg (snappy) uses reef crystals and look at the results he gets from his tank. You don't HAVE to spend lots of $$ on salt if you have the time and knowledge to correct your salt batches.

[Zylumn]

X 2 on the Reef Crystals