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Oceanic salt = junk ?


lapoolboy

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I have an Elos Mini that's been running for a year next month. All the contents of a Biocube 8 I had running for a year previous to that were transferred over. The corals have been doing O.K. but no real growth to speak of. One head on my frogspawn has split and that's about it. My toadstool is the exact same size, my mushrooms are exactly the same size, my zoas are not multiplying, etc. Everything is just sort of hanging in there - not dying, but not looking fabulous either. I am running the Elos marine E-lite.

 

I don't dose anything and don't want to start if at all possible. I have used Oceanic salt from the beginning and I find it to be low in most all parameters but calcium. I change 2 gallons a week (approx. 10%).

 

I want to give Reef Crystals a try and see if that gets all the parameters up where they should be without the need to dose anything. I'm thinking my corals would do better.

 

Can I just stop the Oceanic cold-turkey on my next water change and start using the Reef Crystals?

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I used to mix oceanic and IO when I first started. I use ESV now and I get great growth.

When I switched I just did new water change water with the new salt and everything was fine.

 

I have an Elos Mini that's been running for a year next month. All the contents of a Biocube 8 I had running for a year previous to that were transferred over. The corals have been doing O.K. but no real growth to speak of. One head on my frogspawn has split and that's about it. My toadstool is the exact same size, my mushrooms are exactly the same size, my zoas are not multiplying, etc. Everything is just sort of hanging in there - not dying, but not looking fabulous either. I am running the Elos marine E-lite.

 

I don't dose anything and don't want to start if at all possible. I have used Oceanic salt from the beginning and I find it to be low in most all parameters but calcium. I change 2 gallons a week (approx. 10%).

 

I want to give Reef Crystals a try and see if that gets all the parameters up where they should be without the need to dose anything. I'm thinking my corals would do better.

 

Can I just stop the Oceanic cold-turkey on my next water change and start using the Reef Crystals?

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I was actually just researching Oceanic. I'm thinking about switching from IO. I don't like how much I have to dose. I don't know if I got a bad batch or what but this is the second stinky bucket I've gotten and I can't get my Ca levels high enough. I'm interested to see what people say about Oceanic. They are so far the front runner for a reasonable price in my list.

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Why are you not interested in dosing? Too expensive/annoying? If your looking into a new salt though, I can +1 to Reef Crystal, because I don't dose and I have Calcium at 430-ish (and that was before I started using kalkwasser), and Magnesium is at 1310. And this with only 15-20% WC every saturday. Good luck with the tank, and I do recommend Reef Crystals.

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I just don't want the added hassle of dosing if I can avoid it, that's all. I was hoping a different salt would eliminate the need to dose.

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I've been getting 340 Ca @ 35ppt in my make up water out of a new bag of IO Reef that says "Now with more calcium!". It was also one of the bags that says "10% more salt!", so maybe you just get more salt and not anything else.

 

I just bought a new box of IO Reef (it's all any LFS sells here) because everyone told me I was crazy and their Ca tested fine. So maybe I'm crazy, or my test kit is bad. I'll mix up some from the new box today, test it, and report back.

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I used to use it for my biocube and had issues.. but that was early on in my reefkeeping days so maybe it was just me not paying attention to swings in parameters. I switched to reef crystals and had better luck in that tank. Recently switched from IO back to oceanic as the bucket was cheap and now seeing marked improvement in my corals, but I can probably attest that to the calcium levels. Mix water was 460ca and 10 dkh.

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+1 to Reef Crystals! Very successful using this with minimal dosing...

 

 

yeah and if you want a little extra po4 you don't need to add :)

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I've been using oceanic since I started in this hobby and have always had good results.

 

I switched from IO to Oceanic and I have had zero issues. Corals are splitting and growing nicely. PH has been right where it should be. Only issue is that it doesn't dissolve too fast for me so I mix overnight.

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My pH always runs around 7.8, alkalinity at 8.5-9, magnesium off the charts high, calcium off the charts high.

 

I want to run alkalinity at 10, pH at 8.2, magnesium at 1300-1400, and calcium around 400-450.

 

Oceanic salt is not giving me this, so I'm going to switch salts and see what happens before I start dosing.

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Have been using Oceanic for almost a year, calcium ranges 440-480 in the tank with 20% water changes/week. Don't measure magnesium (I know, I will start soon) and ph pretty much at 8.0, dKh 7.

I have no complaints about my corals though, all the LPS, zoas and mushrooms have blossomed in my tank, coralline like crazy so why change what isn't broken?

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+1 to Reef Crystals! Very successful using this with minimal dosing...

+1 to reef crystals. I'm on a budget, and this stuff is cheap. I just got a 200gal box for $48.99 from drs foster and smith. Add any item to get to the $49 and free shipping.

I've used it since starting and it's done well.

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Oceanic salt is crap in my experience. Mix some up and test it for nitrate and phosphate...

 

Have had ZERO nitrates and phosphates for months. Have tested freshly made water as well, same results, zero.

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