AquaVitro Salinity Reef Salt

[asylumdown]

I'm pretty sure this was the salt I used to initially start up my tank. Scratch that, not pretty sure, 100% sure. I still have one of the empty buckets right here that I store filter socks in until it's time to wash them (love that easy to open lid!). The bucket says it can make 225 gallons of 1.026 water, but if I remember correctly, it took over 2 full buckets to get my water up to level. I also remember that my tank looked like milk for a week. Some of that was due to the sand of course, but since I added sand and rock first, and then took 3 days filling it with R/O water, it wasn't nearly that cloudy until the salt went in.

Looking back at my earliest tests right after the tank was filled in April, before i had any corals in it or was dosing anything, my dKH was 10.5, and my calcium was 520 (never tested magnesium).

My first couple of water changes were with salinity as well, and it irritated me to no end to find the water still cloudy after 8 hours of mixing with a powerhead. The water in my tank would be cloudy for almost a full day after the water change too.

My general rule is that I don't like to use anything that doesn't turn mostly clear within 20 minutes to half an hour of mixing, so I switched back to using D-D H2Ocean after the salinity was used up. It's on the pricey side, and made even pricier as I seem to need more cups of it to get the right salinity than something like instant ocean, but it's 90% clear within 15 minutes of mixing, and it's levels are all exactly what I try to dose to anyway. When I was trying to replicate reefbuilders 'Ecoreef One' tank while my house was still under construction, I used H2Ocean for 100% weekly water changes on a 5 gallon tank, and the corals never seemed irritated or stressed.

[Dogger]

I am on my first and last pail. I mixed it before using any. I thought I did a good job with that. I never tested the water when I started with this salt. Now at the end of the pail I tested the new mix and got a 540 calcium with Hanna Checker. I checked the mix only because I got an over 600 on display tank with the Hanna Checker. I have not been dosing Calcium. I am switching back to Reefers Best, and will watch more closely.

[denny_CC]

Originally Posted by Dogger

I am on my first and last pail. I mixed it before using any. I thought I did a good job with that. I never tested the water when I started with this salt. Now at the end of the pail I tested the new mix and got a 540 calcium with Hanna Checker. I checked the mix only because I got an over 600 on display tank with the Hanna Checker. I have not been dosing Calcium. I am switching back to Reefers Best, and will watch more closely.

salinity is made with high calcium the idea is to dose less , if your tank doesnt need a high grade salt then i would switch to something different , the salt you use and what or if you dose is based on your corals and livestocks needs.

salinity is a great salt but has high parameters and isnt always consistent , reefers best is def a better salt(imo) but not always accessible.

[Proteus]

I like RB salt. But like Denny said availability is hit and miss. I use salinity and have had issues with high values. But. To break up high swings I cut my water changes in half and increased frequency. It's depending on your system as to what's used. I do a WC every three days and still have to dose in between.