The best way to change salt mix?

[Boxelder]

I was recently given some reef crystals as a gift, which is very nice, but I'd been using Red Sea salt. I have about half a dose of Red Sea left and a whole bag of Reef Crystals. I've read that changing salts can be very stressful to a tank, but no one really explains how it should be done. I was thinking of doing two 10% water changes throughout the week instead of the 20% change I usually do weekly. Right now my only fish is a Yellow Watchman Goby and his Pistol Shrimp, but I'd be really bummed if anything happened to them. Most of my coral is pretty easy, frogspawn maybe being most sensitive. Any tips would be much appreciated. My tank is a little over two months old.

 

Would it be OK to mix the old salt with the new salt or should I just toss the old? It seems like they are going to mix anyway, in my tank.

[JMAdams]

When I changed salts, I did the same % water changes but I did 1/3 new and 2/3 old first week. 2/3 new and 1/3 old second week and finally all new salt third week. Never saw any negative side effects.

[Boxelder]

When I changed salts, I did the same % water changes but I did 1/3 new and 2/3 old first week. 2/3 new and 1/3 old second week and finally all new salt third week. Never saw any negative side effects.

 

Sounds like a good plan. I'll try this, thanks.

[dsn112]

I don't see how anything would be harmed. I have gone from IO to tropic marin before with no issues. If your changing out 10% of your water volume on a standard water change, that is not much at all. Nothing should really happen, the differences in the salt mix is minimal anyway, and at that rate its such a small change on a whole that it wouldn't do anything.

 

I don't get why some things that are so simple people make so hard

[ReefEscape]

I was using Red Sea until it was discontinued at the only lfs in the area that carried it. I switched to Reef Crystals cold turkey with no choice and had no side effects to my fish or corals (except cleaner, clearer water, more stable calcium and alk, perfect ph without dosing and no left over salt crystals in the bottom of the mixing bucket).

[Boxelder]

(except cleaner, clearer water, more stable calcium and alk, perfect ph without dosing and no left over salt crystals in the bottom of the mixing bucket).

 

Cool, thanks. Sounds like the same situation.

[Mr. Green]

I've switched from IO to reef crystals with no mixing period and no problems. I had problems maintaining stable calcium with the reef crystals and switched seachem reef salt (which I love) with no mixing and no problems aswell. After switching to seachem i basically dont dose anything anymore... except for sugar and bacteria.

[DaJMasta]

Probably easier than dealing with water mixing - just mix the salts. When you start running low on the old one mix in 20-50% of the new one. Then when it gets low again do it again - same idea as mixing with water changes, just it's blended as soon as it dissolves. Also doesn't need any extra containers or anything.

 

It can be as gradual as you would like, but 50% then 50% (giving you a 1:1 old to new ratio then a 1:3 old to new ratio) then just running out of that and swapping to the new salt would be probably plenty of acclamation for most critters. Remember as much as there will be differences between batches and formulas, any synthetic sea salt will be fairly similar to its competitors.

[ldballoon4]

i switched 2 years ago from Oceanic to Instant Ocean. I did it gradually over the course of 2-3 months by ratio method.

[justinT]

There is no reason why you can't mixed salts- they are all very similar, otherwise the animals we have couldn't inhabit them. The minor differences all balance out when mixed up in the whole tank.

 

OBVIOUSLY since you're doing a small water change it is fine, I would never recommend someone changing 100% of their water to a new salt...thats just stupid. Even if it was with the same salt it would be stupid, IMO.

[nano427]

I asked this same question on a different forum and the general consensus was weekly 10% water changes. Just make sure you dont change the specific gravity by more than .002