Aqua forest reef salt

[henri2009]

I have been using AF Reef Salt (in conjunction with Chemi Pure Blue and Seachem Matrix) since starting my first tank about 5 months ago. I had a serious cyano and brown algae issue which I thought would eventually calm down after cycling but around the 4 month mark, nothing was changing and it was rather ugly.

About a month ago, I did a heavy cleaning to rid most of the algae, water change and changed out my media to start using AF Phosphate Minus and AF Carbon with the daily dosing of AF Pro Bio S and AF NP Pro. My algae is now well under control and I'm very happy with the results.

My idea when starting my tank was to go all Aqua Forest products (which I didn't) but happy I eventually went that route. With the addition of more coral in the future, I plan on dosing AF Magnesium/KH/Calcium and the use of AF Build and AF Energy.

Everybody's experience seem to be a little different by I found using Aqua Forests media products in conjunction with the AF Reef Salt yields the best results. Pricing is pretty reasonable too.

[H2o2]

Myself had all the same issues that most have been talking about in this thread.I gave up and went back to RC and never looked back.The one nice thing is the last bucket of my AF reef salt is great for melting ice on my drive way

[FlamesFan]

I switched from KZ reefers best and zeobak/food to AF Probiotic salt with Probio S / NP Pro and have not experienced any of the problems in this thread that I would contribute directly to to the salt. The probiotic salt is designed for peopole using the ULNS from AF.

[DKoKoMan]

I used AF Reef Salt for some time, had issues with cyano and dino’s. I pulled the plug on AF and went back to RC. Everything is happy including my SPS, no reason for or me to change at this time.

[Frogger]

I have had nothing but problems with Aqua Forest products. Had a bad dyno outbreak on one of my tanks after I started using the reef salt. Really bad.

Then I tried using some of the additives (reef build etc) on my other reef tank (never had a problem with dynos, cyno or algae before and since) Using at half the recommended strength started to have what appeared to be dynos growing on the sand after about 3 weeks, could have been diatoms but didn't wait around to see, stopped using did a major water change and it went away. This was about 6 months ago.

I think each tank is different and it can cause problems on some tanks and for some tanks its the miracle drug.

[DorySaid]

For everyone complaining about using AF probiotic salt causing issues in your tank, don't expect to add a new product without having some adverse effects. You cant change something as significant as your salt mix and think its magically going to make your reef better or solve problems without understanding probiotics. If the salt contains a carbon source for bacteria and you make a huge 75 or 100% water change its pretty obvious you could face immediate problems. Not to mention messing with the general water chemistry in which your reef was used to.

[Frogger]

Originally Posted by DorySaid

For everyone complaining about using AF probiotic salt causing issues in your tank, don't expect to add a new product without having some adverse effects. You cant change something as significant as your salt mix and think its magically going to make your reef better or solve problems without understanding probiotics. If the salt contains a carbon source for bacteria and you make a huge 75 or 100% water change its pretty obvious you could face immediate problems. Not to mention messing with the general water chemistry in which your reef was used to.

I wasn't switching to the pro-biotic method only switching brands of salt. The reef salt isn't supposed to contain pro-biotics. I have been keeping fish for over 30 years. I have never had a problem changing the salt from 1 brand to another depending on what was on sale. Also I never used 100% Aqua Forest reef salt I mixed it 50% with Reef Crystals.

I am only commenting on my experience with Aqua Forest not someone else's.

[DorySaid]

But aquaforest salt is not the cheapest salt so for those of us that changed were expecting results of some sort. Because as good of a deal aquaforest products are, their reef salts are still a lot more than the cheapest on sale such as Instant Ocean.

[ReefMadness]

Originally Posted by DorySaid

For everyone complaining about using AF probiotic salt causing issues in your tank, don't expect to add a new product without having some adverse effects. You cant change something as significant as your salt mix and think its magically going to make your reef better or solve problems without understanding probiotics. If the salt contains a carbon source for bacteria and you make a huge 75 or 100% water change its pretty obvious you could face immediate problems. Not to mention messing with the general water chemistry in which your reef was used to.

the thread is asking peoples experiences with aquaforest salt (most of which use their reef salt) so it only makes sense that people reply with their reactions so i'm not sure what else there is to say about that.
otherwise, i don't think its a matter so much of a simple salt change causing adverse reactions in peoples systems. it's more about people switching to a "carbon enhanced" salt that also focuses on adding trace elements. in my case my tank didn't need those secret additives and it sent my tank into a tailspin that was resolved when i changed out of it.
personally, i feel like it is a salt that better suits biologically established systems as you'll also see many complains about new systems struggling with it. especially ones that start with dry-dead rock.

[DorySaid]

Originally Posted by ReefMadness

the thread is asking peoples experiences with aquaforest salt (most of which use their reef salt) so it only makes sense that people reply with their reactions so i'm not sure what else there is to say about that.
otherwise, i don't think its a matter so much of a simple salt change causing adverse reactions in peoples systems. it's more about people switching to a "carbon enhanced" salt that also focuses on adding trace elements. in my case my tank didn't need those secret additives and it sent my tank into a tailspin that was resolved when i changed out of it.
personally, i feel like it is a salt that better suits biologically established systems as you'll also see many complains about new systems struggling with it. especially ones that start with dry-dead rock.

I think you brought up a lot of good points. This is just it. Its not so much about one salt is crappy its about the balance of your system can be thrown off.