Salt Mix

[MikeDeL]

I was wondering what ya'll would reccomend for salt mix. Right now I am using Instant Ocean. Its not the best desolving stuff in the world. Im sure there are a million of them out there so ya'll help sorting through them would be appreciated.


Thanks,
Mike

[StephenA]

I use Oceanic, disolves fast, CA is better than IO and my tank looks great.

[Sunhutch]

Ive been very pleased with Oceanic as well.

[DeAngelove]

Red Sea is better than IO as far as dissolving, minerals, and encouraging coralline growth, but I keep hearing that Oceanic is 'the best'. I still have half of a 200G bucket to use up, but plan on trying it next time I purchase salt mix. ;)

[captexas]

I've been happy with Oceanic. It is not "the best" mix out there, but it does a good job, much better than IO for sure.

[btacker]

So I've got a lot of IO left... would it be worth while to get some Oceanic and mix the two until I get rid of all IO?

[Ram_Puppy]

RO water and oceanic, I am sure any would agree, the water you mix your favorite mix with is just as important.

[StephenA]

Just use up the IO then switch to Oceanic. I wouldn't mix it up together.

[Tim Marvin]

I use IO in the main tanks and oceanic in the grow out tanks. Both work fine, but Oceanic is cheaper so I'll be useing it when the IO runs out.

[Nano_Steve]

well i dont know if it has anything to do with oceanic but ever since i switched ive noticed a bunch of my more colorful colonies of zoos just melt away randomly???

i lost a beautiful red colony tim gave me awhile back and im starting to lose my beloved blues?!?!

other than that change, oceanic has worked well for me, and again i have no idea if there is a corilation between the two.

-steve

[Gator]

i like kent salt, i havce not had any problems with it

[Dozer]

Another vote for Oceanic. Only two I've ever used are IO and now Oceanic. I've liked Oceanic better.

Btw, I know they're not most folks' favorite store (likely for good reasons) but Pet Connection in Cedar Park has a great price on the buckets of Oceanic. Plus if you buy the little membership thing which is pretty cheap, you get 10% more off. Even if you buy nothing else there it's a good deal (at least it still was last time I bought a bucket about a month ago).

It's: Pet Connection (512) 331-6742 600 S Bell Blvd # 100 Cedar Park

[::pete::]

... and another for Oceanic. With regular water changes I dose nothing now except B-Ionic and test less saving $$$. :D

[matt]

You might check out an article in reefkeeping magazine called "A bad beginning...the relative toxicity of some salt mixes" by Ron Shimek. This article sparked one of the longest and most contentious discussions in reefcentral history.

Oceanic salt was not included in Shimek's tests, because it was not yet on the market. I've been using Crystal Sea Marine Mix bio-assay formula and Bio-Sea Marine Mix (different salt and company despite the similarity in the name)

[Sunhutch]

I was using the Bio-Sea Marine Mix in the past but switched to Oceanic. After reading this post I was reminded of Matts inquiry whether or not the pH is high on a freshly mixed batch of the Bio-Sea. Unfortunately I ran out of test kits so I never tested the pH on my last water changes. Sorry for not following up on that post.

I can tell you this, my tank is looking much better. Although I cant say positivly related to my change in salt brands.

[matt]

My inquiry was about the bio-assay salt, not bio sea marine mix. It's confusing because the names are so similar. Different stuff altogether.

I should probably remind everyone that the best test of a salt is not "how your tank looks" but what happens to the overall biology of your system over time; meaning years. Unfortunately, it's impossible to know this about a particular salt until you've run it in your system for a very long time, at which point if you've made a bad choice, oh well... that's why I use salts that did well in Shimek's tests; so far it's the only "scientific" evaluation of aquarium salts I've found.

[scuba_steveo]

so matt, what do you use?

[BA]

Oceanic salt was not included in Shimek's tests, because it was not yet on the market. I've been using Crystal Sea Marine Mix bio-assay formula and Bio-Sea Marine Mix (different salt and company despite the similarity in the name)

[RobertG]

My inquiry was about the bio-assay salt, not bio sea marine mix. It's confusing because the names are so similar. Different stuff altogether.

I should probably remind everyone that the best test of a salt is not "how your tank looks" but what happens to the overall biology of your system over time; meaning years. Unfortunately, it's impossible to know this about a particular salt until you've run it in your system for a very long time, at which point if you've made a bad choice, oh well... that's why I use salts that did well in Shimek's tests; so far it's the only "scientific" evaluation of aquarium salts I've found.

I have been using Marine Enviorment, Matt would'nt a large (Large) water change fix this bad choice? I would think you could solve that with a large change.
I really like the progress I get from what I use.

[Sunhutch]

I didnt mean to imply my change in salt brands was the reason for my improvement in my reef. Athough, (and correct me if I'm wrong) I believe that some information was posted relating to copper being released when changing brands of salt, specificaly going from IO to Bio-Assay. (Hopefully Im not confused on this one too as far as Bio-assay and Bio-Sea).

At the same time I switched salt brands I did a few other things to my reef during that process so to say that my switching brands of salt was the reason for my reefs improvement would probably be misleading. Sorry for the confusion.

[matt]

Robert; I checked, my new salt is the marine environment salt. It's basically the same stuff as the Bio-Sea marine mix. This was one of the two salts in the Shimek tests that did well in urchin larvae survival. So, I don't think you've made a bad choice; if so, me too!

I tried this salt for 2 reasons; I go tired of bio-assay taking days to clear up in the mixing tub, and the high ph it mixed to. Now, with typical water changes, neither of these things are an issue, because the ph and clarity stabilizes really quickly in the tank. But, I was doing a series of 50% changes to deal with my nasty flatworm epidemic. So, I needed salt I could mix quickly and match ph quickly.

Now, about the problems people had when switching from IO to bio-assay, go ahead and read that huge thread on reefcentral. There are hundreds of posts and several related threads. Reading all that discussion is a major undertaking! It's WAY too complicated to just say copper was released when switching salts. This was a last ditch wild guess by Randy Holmes-Farley in the absence of any measurable data to explain the bleaching problems many people had whe switching from IO to bio-assay.