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Cultivated Reef

Switching Salt Mixes


oysterk

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Hi everybody,

This is my first ever post on nano-reef! So recently I was told by someone that Instant Ocean salt mix, which i've been using for 5 years, is not enough to sustain my 29 gallon mixed LPS SPS tank. I've been able to keep easy montis, but acros always die on me. My LPS are thriving however. So I'm thinking of switching to IO Reef Crystals or maybe Red Sea Coral Pro. Do you think this is necessary? Also, how should I change the salt in a way that will slowly acclimate my corals/fish? mix in a little with my IO salt, and do 5 gallon water changes?

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Before switching salts, you need to test your water. What is your Ca, Alk, and Mg for your freshly mixed water? What is your Ca, Alk, and Mg for your tank? Frankly, you shouldn't be keeping LPS/SPS corals without having those test kits. You may not use them as often later on but at the beginning, you definitely need to know where your tank is at. If you don't have those test kits, I would recommend getting the Red Sea Foundations kit. It's easy to use and cheaper than buying the individual Salifert kits.

 

I use regular IO and keep SPS (monti caps, acros, digis, birdsnest, and a larger pavona) and LPS just fine but I do dose the new water on top of the regular salt mix. When I mix my new batch of salt for water changes, I do 5.5 cups worth of IO mix in 10 gallons of water. That gets me to the right salinity for me. The issue is then the Ca and Mg. My alk mixes in at 9.7 and I'm fine with that so I don't dose anything for that. The Ca mixes in at 370 and the Mg mixes in at 1260. Both of those are too low IMO. I add BRS calcium chloride and epsom salts in order to raise my Ca and Mg respectively. After dosing the new water change water, I'm getting 440 Ca and 1380 Mg which is where I like my parameters to be.

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Yep, I got Salifert Ca, Alk, but no Mag. I'll test and post results. I do fine with caps and pavonas, haven't tried birdsnest or digis, but my acros die. It started when I started using RODI water, which I am 100% sure is much better than tap water, my acro colonies all died out, I'm pretty sure they got used to some nutrient in the water, and RODI took it all out and they died. Oh well, using tap water would have eventually made some big problems anyway. What do you mean by you dose the new saltwater?

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Yep, I got Salifert Ca, Alk, but no Mag. I'll test and post results. I do fine with caps and pavonas, haven't tried birdsnest or digis, but my acros die. It started when I started using RODI water, which I am 100% sure is much better than tap water, my acro colonies all died out, I'm pretty sure they got used to some nutrient in the water, and RODI took it all out and they died. Oh well, using tap water would have eventually made some big problems anyway. What do you mean by you dose the new saltwater?

IO isn't made for reefs and is deficient in Mg (1260) and Ca (370). So whenever I do a water change, I mix in the regular salt mix and then on top of that I add calcium chloride to raise my Ca and then epsom salts in order to raise my Mg. This helps maintain my tank maintain those same parameters.

 

Red Sea Coral Pro has a really high Alk (over 11 I believe) and I've heard people having tough battles with hair algae and coral loss when switching to RSCP. Obviously, there are a lot of people who do have success using this salt so there are always multiple opinions and experiences. In regards to reef crystals, the only thing I've heard which was really strange was that it leaves a residue in the mixing container. I have no idea what it is but I've seen a few threads in the past about people having a tan/brown residue on their mixing containers while using this salt. Again, this isn't everyone and the bad experiences are often the most publicized while others may not have any issues.

 

So far regular IO has worked really well for me and it's very cheap. Every time I get a new bucket/batch I do test for salinity, Ca, Alk, and Mg because there can be some variation from batch to batch. This can often happen due to vibration during transport causing a separation of grains and also just plain variation from batch to batch. Both of these situations can happen with any salt brand so it's always important to test your new buckets/batches.

 

Acros can often be sensitive to quick changes so dropping your nutrient levels quickly could have caused that. I think my tap water TDS is somewhere around 200 so going from that to 0 would be a pretty big shock.

 

Caps and pavonas are pretty hardy SPS corals once they are properly acclimated. Birdsnest is probably one of the easiest SPS corals that you can get. It grows incredibly fast and IMO, has one of the best shapes of all the SPS corals. It doesn't come in many colors so that's the main drawback. Digis are pretty easy to keep as well and I like the wide variety of polyp colors that they have. They too grow pretty fast which is always nice. On a side note, I've only had my Pavona for a few weeks and so far it's done pretty well. I was wondering what kind of growth you were getting out of yours? The seller said that they are pretty slow growers and mine looks healthy but hasn't shown any real growth.

 

The reason Mg is important is that it helps prevent the Ca and bicarbonate from precipitating out while they are still in the water column. Often times people can't get their Ca or Alk to rise and it's because their Mg is too low. When it's too low, the added Ca and Alk simply precipitate out of the water column where it's useless for your corals.

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My green pavona has encrusted the plug and is growing on the rocks in about a years time, so I would say a pretty slow grower, and my orange pavona I just got at MACNA, is starting to encrust, which is much faster than the green, so I guess it depends on specifics of the coral. I love digis too, and I'll be sure to try out some birdsnest. I'll also get a Mag kit as soon as possible.

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  • 1 month later...

post your numbers first off so we can see whats going on.

 

Kent. its cheap, mixes consistent batch to batch, and the numbers are all good.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Glweek,

salinity: 1.025, calcium 430, alkalinity 7.7 dKH, magnesium, 1350 ppm. I dose for alkalinity everyday to keep it stable, but not calcium, as it seems to stay the same.

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So if I was too switch salt mixes, would I do it slowly, like a 1-5% water change? Or would I do something big? I feel like a small change would reduce whatever shock using a new salt mix would create.

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I started out using RC in my 22g, but had major alk swings the day after, so I was constantly changing my alk dosing. I switched to AquaVitro Salinity and haven't looked back. I use kalkwasser as my top off and everything is super stable. The problem that I found with RC is the alk would fluctuate too much batch to batch, it was never consistent. I would get 9-10dkh one time, then 12-13dkh the next. Also, calcium would always be over 500, closer to 540ish.

Just my two pennies.

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