Seachem reef salt

[loans_n_fishes]

Well, I decided to switch salts to seachem reef salt. It is supposed to be IO with the seachem additives in it. I was using IO and adding the seachem supplements, so it should be everything in one step...I hope. Anyway, the only place I found in Austin that had it on the shelf was Aquadome. So if you are looking for it...there it is! It's $25 per 50 gal bag. I'll let you know what (if any) difference I notice.

Anyone else using this stuff?

[LoneStar]

I thought about it today. I was at Alamo Aquatics and saw the buckets there. I decided to pass for now since I got a few unopened buckets of IO here at home. Once of these days!!

[thedude]

I've been using it for about 3 months. Only difference I've seen is that after a water change with instant ocean, everything closed up and acted ****ed. Now, they show really great PE. I'll not be being another bucket of it though and switching to Tropic Marin Pro.

[loans_n_fishes]

So they showed great PE after they got used to the seachem, or after you started to switch to Tropic Marin? Why the switch?

[thedude]

They showed great PE with the seachem salt after a water change. I really don't have any problems with the seachem except the magnesium seems to be a little low and I've heard that PH tends to be rock solid after switching to the Tropic Marin Pro. I always have a tendency to try as many variables as possible to get an idea of what's out there.

[hammondegge]

john, does anyone carry the Tropic Marin Pro in Austin?- sorry for the jack angela.

[thedude]

AA and RCA carry it, you just have to ask, usually takes about a week to come in. Remember to show your MAAST card at AA and get a charter discount.

[Enigma13]

I wanted to check back and see who was using Seachem now and what their experience has been. I have been using it for about 4-5 months. While I liked it at first, my last several batches just have not been good (from two different buckets). I have been having a lot of precipitate on the wall of my reservoir and the alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium levels are junk. (Calcium in the 350-375 range, alkalinity in the 2.5 meq/L range, and magnesium below 1000).

Have others had this experience with the salt as well, or do I just have a bad batch of the stuff? Is it possible that it needs more aeration than I am providing (I am currently using a Maxi-Jet 900 to circulate 15-20 gallons for 24 hours)? I think next week I will drop a MJ1200 in there and see if it makes a difference.

I have seen some posts on Reef Central regarding this same problem, but the threads seem to suggest that these problems were an isolated incident in a batch that has been out of circulation for a while. My tank does not seem to be suffering at the moment and I am compensating for low values by adding additional supplements for calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium so that they do not drop too low. Just wanted to hear others experiences first before I decide whether to contact SeaChem or just move on to a different salt.

[caferacermike]

I use the Seachem Reef and love it. I refused to do water changes for about 9 months as it seemed to me that whenever I did them the tank looked worse. I decided to give another try and switched over to the Seachem. I must say that eveything in my tank looks great. Nothing even seems to notice when I do water changes. I'm now a 10g a week kind of guy.

Who carries the stuff?

I know that Aquadome carries an extensive line of Seachem and would assume somewhere they have the salt mixes around.

RCA carries, in stock, both seachem and Tropic Marin.

Don't know and don't care about AA.