Reef Crystals

[ECFENCING]

I wanted to get some input from other Reef crystal salt users and their experience with this salt as far as potentially causing cyano and/or diatom blooms.

I recently switched from Coral Life salt to Reef Crystals and have seen cyano and diatoms over the past month. The reason I switched was due to the availability of this salt from a local fish store.

The diatoms and cyano could have had something to do with the addition of recent livestock all at once (two clowns and anemone and a torch coral)

Tank has been running for a little over a year now and I never had an issue with Coral Life. Nothing has changed other than adding the recent live stock.

I also ran my tank without a skimmer for a week due to a recent upgrade.

I am going to rule out other causes but I've checked my Ro/Di with both a handheld TDS meter and the inline both showing zero....

Will also check my lights...since I purchased this fixture used and the bulbs were presumably only a month old.


Nitrates are 2.5 ppm per Salifert and I need to check Phosphates which I haven't tested in some time but they were at .04 checked with a hanna meter.

If anyone in North Jersey has a hanna meter and can check my phosphates please pm me.

 

[ZANYMASTER]

Same here when I had the 90g.Went from Seachem to that and got the Dino but other factors could cause that like already existing problems with PO4's and silicates.

 

[Salty Dog]

been with crystals for almost a year and have not had any real issue's. There are better salt mixes out there but Me too am stuck with whats avalible when I need it. I would love to go with Trpic Marin or D DH20

 

[ECFENCING]

So Nelson do you still use Reef crystals on your smaller tank?

Salty dog: Thanks for your input. Glad to hear that the Reef crystals has not caused any real issues for you. Maybe I just had a bad batch or something else is going on.

 

[CancerverO]

that was my case.. I used to use coral life.. livestock was beautifull.. had to change for the same reason to RC and boom.. cyano and I lost couple of frags.. I didnt add anything .. however I found out that the bucket that I bought was bad.. PH was really low.. I got another bucket and my tank is coming back.. I believe it was that bucket what caused a lot of problems...

 

[ZANYMASTER]

No,Went back to Seachem for it's buffering abilities.

 

[ECFENCING]

Javier:

Thanks for sharing. Maybe it's just a bad batch with me as well. I need to test my batch of RC.

Nelson: Thanks...

 

[Alex]

I would think that with all the reefers getting the same or similar problems that it would be more than just a bad batch. Maybe RC has some quality control problems.

BTW I only used IO and was thinking of going with the RC but after reading so many reefers with issues I just might go with DD H2O.

 

[ECFENCING]

Thanks Alex....D&D H20 ...have to look into that one...I'm thinking of trying Brightwell Aquatics but its new to the market

 

[Will C]

I have been using RC for 2 years w/ no incident until my last batch. I had a extraordinary outbreak of cyano and didn't understand why until I hit this thread. I always keep up w/ weekly 10% wc and upped it to 20% on 2 weeks ago when the cyano hit, changed bulbs etc, my greatest surprise was there was no decrease in the cyano right after the wc (a reasonable expectation). I should have figured it out ab the salt but it didn't hit me - until now! I bought 5-25 gallon packages of Bulk Reef Supply's salt and will see what happens -

 

[cali_reef]

Ernie, did you check the NO3 of a fresh mixed batch?

I use a combination of IO and RC, I have not noticed any issues relating to the salt. Cyano and Diatom are easy to deal with, try some of the bacteria additives for a week or two and they should go away provided you have other proper nutrient removal (skimmer) and sufficient flow in the tank.

 

[CHEMCHEF]

I had used tropic marin pro reef and never had any problems. I tried Coralife because it was much cheaper,,, and I got what I paid for. Cloudy water, cyano. I switched back and in time all was well again. Then I could not find any TMPR in my area. So I bought a bag of reef crystals,,, Never Again ,,,, Same as the Coralife but even cloudier water.
So the only luck I have had so far is TMPR an NSW from the long island sound.. Believe it or not,, I ran NSW from 20 feet off shore and my tank never looked better than that,,, But it is alot of work when you live on the second flor and weigh 330 LOL

 

[ECFENCING]

Pierce:

I am running the ATB Deluxe Skimmer and have 1 vortech and 1 6055...I will test the Nitrates from the new saltwater mix. I'm testing the vortech to see if I want to get another one.

When are you getting the cube running?

I was going to try to add a bacteria that Pecan recommended Microbe Lift Special Blend. Either that or maybe Brightwell MB7

James: Thanks for your input.....Hope all is well with you and post some pics of that solana when it's up

 

[ECFENCING]

Will C: Thank you for your post...I performed a 20 gallon water change on Sunday and I still haven't noticed any decreased levels of cyano and diatoms...they just keep on coming back.

Please post back.

I don't have a bad outbreak cyano is just isolated but diatoms cover maybe 20% of every rock...

Also just tested a fresh batch and it read between 1 and 5ppm for nitrates

 

[Salty Dog]

wow, not good for RC, next time I but Im ordering Tropic Marin or D-DH2o