I've used IO for 15 years with zero problems. I tried a pail of Seachem once and my tank went for a crap for that time period.
I'll also add that i'm a very lazy reefer. I've never rolled my buckets and quite often when i'm making up my salt water I only mix the water for 2 mins max.:redface:
I have a mixed reef with mainly SPS.
Here in PG a pail of IO is $69 and at one time I paid $119. I have pics to prove

Holy crap, $10 bucks is nothin then eh?! :wink:

Just had a read through THIS. Mixing salt can get quite technical apparently

I usually mix overnight but in a pinch, I'll mix for 2-3 hours till its all clear and the right temp.

Well Anthony this is not directed at you.

People in this hobby really do worry way too much and also fiddle around too much as well. I'm no expert but 15yrs and not one tank crash. I had problems when I fiddled. Sorry fellow reefers but rolling buckets and mixing SW for a week is laughable to me. I find this hobby consumes up far too much time that well.....you just can't get back. I'd rather spend my time sitting watching my inmates in my tank than working on it.:biggrin:
Wish me luck but no excessive mixing or constantly mucking around in my tank nor my clients tank. I bought all the Hanna checkers a year ago cuz I hadn't had any test kits in years. Well the checkers are still in the package. People quit worrying, it's a pretty easy hobby.
Ok sorry BACK ON TOPIC

Agreed. My most recent batch of salt mixed for 20 minutes. Rolling salt is silly. It moves in a laminar motion within the bucket, it hardly mixes at all. But ya, stop making things difficult everyone!! :)

To be honest, I have only rolled my bucket of salt once, and that was mainly because it had been sitting in my car port for several months and I was worried it was getting crusty on top. I was also reading a couple of threads about rolling buckets so I thought I'd do it just in case.

What I try to do is set up the barrels in front of my tanks in my living room late at night so its not in everyone's way during the day. Then in the morning, after my morning coffee, I siphon water out and pump new sw in from the barrels. I usually do 2 or 3 barrels at a time and try to get all my tanks done at the same time. Then I can put away the water change barrels and reclaim my living room until the next big water change.

I use IO and the only time I switched, I used Kent salt just when they had the major problem with the salt chemistry and I ended up with 2 buckets of salt I had to exchange for a new batch. No problems with IO. (knock on wood)

:lol: After 15 years I'm sure it IS easy, but don't try to fool us that your tank was awesome 15 years ago! ;) Mine sure wasn't, but then again I was still in highschool and was still winging it because I was the only person I knew that had a saltwater aquarium! :D

Haha no no Mindy I'm not trying to fool anyone. Of course my tank was just like any other newbie tank. There wasn't a lot of info to be had back than. I wasn't in to SPS back than, all softies and not much you can do with the ol top of the line Seaclone skimmers and cannister filters :lol:
Was just barking about my experiences. Oh and thanks for the reality check on my age :lol: