A question about switching salt

Keri · #1 11-10-2008, 07:40 AM

I'm in the process of setting up a 120 (still painfully waiting for the RODI to produce enought water) and I'd like to change salt brands. I still have more than half a bucket of red sea pro coral salt but I want to switch to instant ocean. I'm not so impressed with the RSPC that I feel it's worth the price difference between the IO and I see a lot of people with BEAUTIFUL tanks on here using the IO.
My question is: can I use the rest of the RSPC salt PLUS IO to get the 120 started and then continue to do water changes just using the IO?

Thanks for your input!

a4twenty · #2 11-10-2008, 10:40 AM

do you have enough RSPC to fill the 120?? are you upgrading / moving a tank?? or are you starting fresh??

i find that if you start off with small frequent water changes to not shock the tank you can easily switch salts with no ill effects.

JDigital · #3 11-10-2008, 12:55 PM

you should be fine if you just do 50/50 mix of each until you run out of RSPC..

michika · #4 11-10-2008, 02:55 PM

Yes to your first question.

Just finish it off and then start up with the IO. You don't always have to 50/50 it if there is nothing in the tank to impact.

JDigital · #5 11-10-2008, 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michika

Yes to your first question.

Just finish it off and then start up with the IO. You don't always have to 50/50 it if there is nothing in the tank to impact.

Whoops... my bad.. I read it as switching to a bigger tank, not starting fresh... damn, monday mornings.

Tom R · #6 11-10-2008, 03:38 PM

I would just use both salts and after the water is well mixed thoroughly test the new water.

I have used IO for years and I find it to be low in both CA and MAG.

Tom R

christyf5 · #7 11-10-2008, 04:29 PM

I'd use a 50/50 mix of the two. I did that when I had to do an emergency waterchange with seachem once. A bucket of my regular IO became available shortly after and I ended up mixing the two for the rest of the seachem bucket. It actually worked out quite nicely as the two complemented each other (IO sucks for mg, seachem is quite good). However, I had had some issues with just seachem on its own.

Keri · #8 11-10-2008, 04:52 PM

Thanks all!!
It is starting fresh but I will be switching over everything (LR, fish and inverts) from the 65 into the new 120.

I could start doing my water changes into the 65 with IO if that would help?

Also: I don't want to lose all of the inverts in my sandbed, what's the safest way to bring the sand from the 65 over to the 120? (I was thinking very slowly, a bit every day/couple days)