What Salt do you use?

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Red Deer Reptiles

sorry guys thought someone wanted to know what was a good marine salt

Ya, but your other ID didn't say anything. If you have lab results you'd care to share, feel free.

[Skimmerking]

Ben can you tell me what it takes to make up a 20 gallon tub of water for supplements
IE how much Magnesium
how much Calcium

I thought about doing that what you do. take the RO/DI water add so much magnesium? mix it for 24 hours
then you add Calcium I can't remember how much.

[littlesilvermax]

Originally Posted by asmodeus

Ben can you tell me what it takes to make up a 20 gallon tub of water for supplements
IE how much Magnesium
how much Calcium

I thought about doing that what you do. take the RO/DI water add so much magnesium? mix it for 24 hours
then you add Calcium I can't remember how much.

For IO salt this is what I do (I mix 40 gallon drums, but I will do the below assuming a 20 gallon container):

For 20 gallons of water:

-fill container with 20 gallons of RO/DI water
-start mixing with pump (will also heat water, so a big pump is good, then you don't need a heater!)
-add 27 tsp of magnesium, will bring IO salt from about 1200 to 1380 ppm
-mix till it is all dissolved
-add 4 tsp of calcium (Calcium Hydroxide Dihydrate [DOW's flake]), this brings up level for IO salt from about 360 to 430 ppm
-mix till it is all dissolved

-then add the salt to bring specific gravity up to about 1.024-1.026
-wait for at least a few hours.

DONE!

[BlueAbyss]

Hmm... so if starting a NEW tank, most people would choose... Instant Ocean?

I wonder if the Tropic Marin Pro (which is probably what I'll start with) is more expensive because they can guarantee the purity of their salts? I've been reading some salt horror stories lately and I'm a little scared that if I don't use a salt that I've NEVER read anything bad about, I might end up with an expensive mess on my hands.

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by BlueAbyss

Hmm... so if starting a NEW tank, most people would choose... Instant Ocean?

I wonder if the Tropic Marin Pro (which is probably what I'll start with) is more expensive because they can guarantee the purity of their salts? I've been reading some salt horror stories lately and I'm a little scared that if I don't use a salt that I've NEVER read anything bad about, I might end up with an expensive mess on my hands.

For cycling a tank, I would say you should save the money and cycle with a bucket of IO or another cheaper brand... then switch to your preferred Salt before you start stocking corals heavily... This should help avoid any shock to the system (horror stories)..

[fishytime]

KZ reefers best.

[RuGlu6]

Originally Posted by fishytime

KZ reefers best.

Same here, KZ reefers best.
Just switched from Tropic Marine Pro.