I’m about to start filling up my 50 gallon soon. I wanted to ask every one what’s a good salt I should begin with? I was going to let the rodi tube fill the water up and put a bag of instant ocean to get it start but after that start using esv. What do you guys think?
Beginner to reefing
- Thread starter Cumboxgj
- Start date
There's nothing wrong with doing what you are planning to do, anyway it would be better to start with ESV if you are planning to use it in the future anyway.
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ducati335i
Well-known Reefer
- Location
- smithtown, long island
Instant ocean,, cheapest and literally no reason to use another… over 20 years and tried many salts… my tank is doing the best it ever has done.. salt doesn’t matter, maintenance and knowledge does.
I think you're going to get different answers from everybody with a forum topic like this because it all comes down to our individual experiences.
Since we're only talking about 50 gallons, personally I would start with whatever salt I planned to continue with. If you were filling a huge tank, I can understand why you may want to save a little bread, but the savings here are so nominal I don't see a big upside.
Although nobody I know in real life uses IO, I've read comments from hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of hobbyists over the years that swear by it. If the levels of the salt you start with and the salt you're switching to are identical or very close to one another, I suppose I don't see the harm. I used D-D salt buckets a couple of times when Red Sea Coral Pro was sold out. Four years into using RSCP, I switched to Aquaforest Reef Salt without any hiccups.
So I guess in summary, my personal experience in switching salts is that it hasn't caused me any problems. Although I wouldn't start a tank with one salt and switch to another unless it was going to save me considerable dough.
After years of using Red Sea, for twice the cost of Instant Ocean, I think I am going to try to switch to IO. All salts mix a big gritty, except for Tropic Marin, in my experience. BUT, TM is almost 3x as much as IO and IO is half as much as Red Sea. I run an auto water changes system, so go through a great deal of salt. All salts are pretty good these days. Best to look at the levels of each individual salt after mixing at your desired SG, go with what matches your goals and stick with it. Pretty much can't go wrong with most brands out there.
Hope that helps.
Hope that helps.