Does it matter what brand of salt used?

[nm]

Just want opinions on salt. I use Instant ocean reef crystals. I also used coralife brand.
Does it really matter or are they pretty much all the same. Tropic marine, kent, red sea...
Could there be a best brand of salt out there?

 

[Roach]

I get Practical Fish Keeping magazine every couple of months or so. A few issues back they did a big study on some of the salt mixs out there. They gave a lot of information on some of the most popular salt mixes out there. They also scored them on a 1-10 basis, with 10 being the best product. Reef Crystals recieved an 8/10, Instant Ocean recieved an 8/10 and was also the "best overall". It scored the highest out of all there test which included phosphate levels, nitrate, pH, calcium, available nutrients, dissolvability, and value. The others tested were Tropic Marine (7/10), Kent Marine (8/10), Seachem (6/10), Red Sea (8/10), and Waterlife UltraMarine (5/10). Don't know if this helps but I thought it was a pretty good article.

 

[davelin315]

I think what is important is to use the same brand consistently, or to mix brands at given intervals. I'm not a salt expert, but have always used instant ocean and never had any problems with it. There was a thread a while back that talked about how some company rated the various salts out there, and how it seemed to be b.s. and then people talked about their success with various salts. I think there are a lot of users of instant ocean out there based on what it contains, and also, how cheap it is.

 

[EmilyB]

I personally have used Kent for over two years, and am ecstatic with the results, this is purely a personal preference, and obviously it goes well with my water. And of course, it matters what you choose:

Check out the comparison of salts, and make your own decisions, cause there are some really bad ones out there

http://fpage1.ba.best.com/~cbingman/

 

[cubera]

They are all good. We use IO/Reef Crystals or Kent. The least expensive 10 gallon buckets get the vote. we have never had a problem with any of them or even blending/mixing them on occassion. I have read the Bingman article and for the most part differences are minimal especially for those of us overriding salt mix chemistry by continuous infusing of ARM.....bla bla bla.

 

[EmilyB]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr> I have read the Bingman article
and for the most part differences are minimal especially for those of us overriding salt mix chemistry by continuous
infusing of ARM.....bla bla bla. <hr></blockquote>

I don't understand what you mean ? Can you elaborate ?

 

[MattM]

Coralife tends to be a bit low in Magnesium.

Reef Crystals is Instant Ocean with added trace elements, according to the manufacturer, but Instant Ocean has tested better in all of the analyses I've read, and it costs less than Reef Crystals.

We recommend Instant Ocean, Tropic Marin, or Kent to our customers.

 

[nm]

So is regular Instant Ocean just as good or better than Instant Ocean REEF CRYSTALS for reef tanks?
I assumed reef crystals was better, It certainly cost more.
Who out there uses regular IO for there reef tank?

 

[davelin315]

I use regular instant ocean. If I remember correctly, the added elements in reef crystals don't have a big effect on the overall water quality, so IO is more cost effective without sacrificing quality.

 

[desktopsilver]

I applied to work at instant ocean about 12 years ago,,saw ad in paper and went to san carlos,redwoodcity border area in bay area,,any way i filled out application it was long but they had some funny questions on there,,relating to comunisam the application asked if i was or had any relations to comunisum,,i laughed at that there were some other questions on the app getting to the same point,,,then came the interview,,,i told the guy i thaught that was funny,,and he replied with a stearn fraudial face we get all kinds in here thats not funny,,he was then like are you and i said no ,,why are you,,then he gave me a tour,,and briefly showed me what i would be doing,,mixing stuff,,i was surprized how small the operation seemed for such a large volume of sales i thought they had,,,hmm they also had a small tank in the waiting room that wasent very impressive,,,any way i didnt pursue the job..and thaught that was a strange line of questioning and realy think it was a joke,,i use instant ocean my self though i have heard its the best

 

[-JB]

FWIW I used to use IO and recently tried reef crystals, and am not happy with it. When using the Reef Crystals my tank water is cloudy for about 5 hours after doing a water change, even though I mix the salt 24 hrs before putting it in the tank.

 

[cubera]

Emily: What I meant is that the minor differences in composition of these commercially available salts are really a non-issue if we are constantly dripping minerals/trace elements back into the system via Aragonite Reactor Media....AKA A.R.M. by Caribe Sea.....or any other suitable media. Reef Crystals are too expensive compared to Instant Ocean....they are made by the same company and like Kent are excellent and whichever of these cost the least are what we use FWIW.

 

[lionfish1]

they are all good

 

[Toadally1]

I use Coralife and have from the very start. FWIW - my magnesium is always high, last time I checked it was 1500ppm.

 

[danmhippo]

If you are dosing additives and checking their levels, I don't think the brand matters. I dose Mg, Lugols, and Sr (& check them in "regular" intervals, kinda of). I found that it doesn't matter which brand I use, their levels are all low, I might as well use the cheapest brand and keep up with the dosing regiment.

Recently swithed to Catalina waters and their levels are low as well.

 

[EmilyB]

Thanks for clarifying cubera, I don't do additives, so I guess that is when the salt mix becomes more important.

 

[JeremyR]

<<Recently swithed to Catalina waters and their levels are low as well.>>

Interesting since that's natural sea water. How well do you trust your test kits? It's a grand conspiracy.. they make the iodine and strontium kits to purposely test low, so that you buy additives you prolly don't need and dose them. Hehe.

 

[cubera]

We use no additives whatsoever (besides reactor effluent....) We find consistent levels of everything we test except iodate/iodine which is almost always low or absent. Strontium is very hard to test with any precision but with Salifert tests it is usually in the "NSW" range. It seems these numbers remain fairly constant except for Mg+ which is always 1500ish after adding Kent. We don't do any water changes but have to add freshly mixed replacement water frequently but variably due to lost H2O from shipping.

We only have experience with IO/Reef Crystals, Kent, and Fritz (make-up salt) and they are all great products IMHO. It is understandable that people have strong preferences! (My own is IO....) We just buy whatever is less money in the big buckets and so far so good! HTH

 

[Anonymous]

I am currently using coralife salt.However,I am going back to IO. It seems to be mixed better than coralife. But all in all,I think they are all similar. I also agree that consistency is best. If you use one salt,stick with it. So now I go back to my old standby,IO. There I shall remain.

Dan