Choosing Salt Mix

[Sea Witch]

Which salt mix do you folks recommend and why?

thanks

[Madreefer]

Instant Ocean because it's cheap and the only salt available in my town. My tank is a mixed reef. It works for me.

[TheMikey]

Depends on what's available near me, like Madreefer. I run a nano tank and my LFS only sells salt by the giant $100 buckets which would probably expire by the time I got through half of it. So I go to a dept. pet store and I've used a variety: Instant Ocean, Red Sea Pro, something endorsed by ORA in a silver bag, and right now I'm on Reef Crystals.

[whatcaneyedo]

40% of people on this forum chose Instant Ocean in this poll
Reef Salt Brand
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...highlight=salt
57% chose Instant Ocean in this older poll
What salt do you use?
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...highlight=salt

[fishytime]

just pick one........seriously......you will get all kinds of "this salt is good because of this" and "that salt is bad because I had this problem when I used it"(which 90% of the time, probably had nothing to do with the salt).......FWIW, I use H2Ocean because I like the idea that it is a naturally evaporated salt, not a synthetic.....whether thats a good thing or not, I dont know, but the idea appeals to me

[cathyg_99]

i know some people say the higher brand of salts are better for SPS but if your just staring out or have a mixed reef Instant ocean should be fine, thats all ive used since the start and ive got fantastic growth for 4 months

[intarsiabox]

I've used 5 different brands of salt and can't say any one performed better than the other. None caused algae blooms or killed any of my corals or fish. My current bucket of salt that I just started using is Seachem Reef because it was being sold a few blocks from my house and it was on sale.

[phi delt reefer]

most of the tank of the months on ALL Sites use instant ocean. nothing wrong with it and its hard to beat at $50 for a 200 gallon box.

I personally use the ESV component salt. A little bit of work but the salt comes in 4 base components that you mix. I bought a scale to measure the components out. I can mix and use a batch in ten minutes. Because its broken out into components everything dissolves quick. Not available in Canada though - i drive across the border to pick up a 200 gallon box but on a 50 gallon total volume tank its going to last me a few months

[don.ald]

Originally Posted by phi delt reefer

most of the tank of the months on ALL Sites use instant ocean. nothing wrong with it and its hard to beat at $50 for a 200 gallon box.

all true but hardly likely you will find a 200g box for $50. here on the island.

[Diana]

I agree IO is good, we have also been using Kent lately with good results. A batch of Reefer's Best recently caused major damage to a lot of our tanks