goalcreas Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I have been buying water from the LFS for now, but plan to start mixing my own. What I have been buying is filtered Sea water, and the other water the LFS sells is their mix with Oceanic. They recommend however to mix 50/50 Oceanic and Instant ocean to get the prefect mix. So before I go investing I was hoping to see what everybody else uses, and why. My gut tells me to go with Reef Crystals, but the LFS said that they were a little high in Ca and low in something else that I forget what it is exactly, and to get the best balance to mix the two that I mentioned above. Link to comment
Tennis_spade Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Reef Crystals are the best. Dont let anybody at your LFS tell you differently! Link to comment
goalcreas Posted October 23, 2007 Author Share Posted October 23, 2007 +1 to my gut anybody else? Link to comment
Machinas Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Tropic Marin hands down, worth the money. Link to comment
EL CHUPACABRA Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I am happy with oceanic. I have also used reef crystals and tropic marin and they are good as well. I have been dissappointed with mortons table salt, and kosher salt. Link to comment
goalcreas Posted October 23, 2007 Author Share Posted October 23, 2007 mortons table salt, and kosher salt. Ou oh, better go change my current set up, I thought that would work best, it taste best Link to comment
dshnarw Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I have been buying water from the LFS for now, but plan to start mixing my own.What I have been buying is filtered Sea water, and the other water the LFS sells is their mix with Oceanic. They recommend however to mix 50/50 Oceanic and Instant ocean to get the prefect mix. So before I go investing I was hoping to see what everybody else uses, and why. My gut tells me to go with Reef Crystals, but the LFS said that they were a little high in Ca and low in something else that I forget what it is exactly, and to get the best balance to mix the two that I mentioned above. This is one of those Pandora's box questions. Everyone will give you a different response. I use IO - not because its necessarily the best, although it is cheap and reliable. Besides those qualities, it happens to be the salt mix that most of the LFS's around here use, as well as many of the online vendors I frequently buy from. By using the most common mix for the stores I buy from, I decrease the stress on the corals when they get placed in my system. There are problems with ALL salt mixes, don't let personal bias get in the way of this FACT. IMO, the better approach than trying to find the supreme synthetic salt mix (which doesn't exist), would be to choose one that is compatible with the systems you buy coral from, learn the downfalls of that salt mix, and do preventive maintenence (i.e., if Ca is too low, add some as needed). Link to comment
masterbuilder Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Tropic Marin Regular (not the Pro)...is my choice. Lots of post here on Tropic Marin and I have yet to see ANY complaints. I picked it because it seemed to be judged to be the best overall. However...if your set on RC, I would choose that over the 50/50 mix. Link to comment
diggman08 Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 TRopic Marine regular is the best IMO.. ive seen a signifacant difference in that and the Oceanic salt my lfs uses.. the OCeanic salt will give your tank Low PH levels.. thats why i switched over.. Link to comment
Hoobahans Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I've always used reef crystals with great results. Link to comment
Burks Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I use Instant Ocean but will be switching to Reef Crystals. Why? I got a good deal on it. Link to comment
GAR1964 Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I'm completely new at this, but I'm using the Red Sea Coral Salt Pro which came with my RSM starter kit. When I had the water tested after start up (at LFS) everything was fine and Ca was at the top of the range. Of course I don't have any actual corals (yet). LFS only sells reef crystals... I'm wondering if there's a significant difference between these two. Link to comment
eklikewhoa Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I use pre-mixed from a reliable LFS.....they use Oceanic. Link to comment
HecticDialectics Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 reef crystals... it's basically instant ocean with better calcium and alk levels. It's all of like a dollar more expensive at drsfostersmith. A large majority of tanks of the month either use IO (because they also use calcium reactors, they don't care about the salt's calcium levels or Reef Crystals). IMO, it's completely unnecessary to pay 5-10+ extra bucks for tropic marin. Link to comment
mfp1016 Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Agreed, although Tropic Marin does make a good/great product, in NO way does it warrant the extra cost. Its the same as the other salts and in testing the salt mixes, I've found Tropic Marin Reg/Pro to mix to about the same levels as IO and Reef Crystals. Personally, I think Tropic Marin is more expensive just because its a german company. Currently, I use Marine Enterprises BIOassay Reef Salt mix available at Marinedepot.com Why? I got it for free when I agreed to be a part of a pilot program. I had my friend from an analytical chem lab test water mixed with ME Bio salt and with Reef Crystals, and they had about the same results with ME edging out RC on calcium levels. Any of the major brands, Oceanic, TM, IO, RC, Coralife will give you good enough water, but I don't think Tropic Marin is worth the extra money. Link to comment
Scott Riemer Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 Been happy with Oceanic, my corlz r happy too. Link to comment
vg30et Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I'm currently using Reef Crystals but may give Oceanic a try. Both Red Sea & Salifert kits put my freshly mixed RC at 360ppm@1.025sg while I've read that Oceanic is in the mid to upper 400's... Link to comment
allenspidey Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 I've used IO since I started but just bought some Oceanic based on this thread. It better be good or i'll... Link to comment
psam Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 The Oceanic is high in Ca, but lacking in kH and Sr. I value kH over Ca, I wouldn't use it. My tank tends to consume more kH. Link to comment
goalcreas Posted October 23, 2007 Author Share Posted October 23, 2007 The Oceanic is high in Ca, but lacking in kH and Sr. I value kH over Ca, I wouldn't use it. My tank tends to consume more kH. So what do you use? Link to comment
dtfleming Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 The Oceanic is high in Ca, but lacking in kH and Sr. I value kH over Ca, I wouldn't use it. My tank tends to consume more kH. +1 I use Oceanic and am switching to Red Sea Pro salt. Oceanic does give you high cal., but the buffering capacity sucks. Link to comment
psam Posted October 23, 2007 Share Posted October 23, 2007 So what do you use? Reef Crystals Link to comment
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