Which salt to use.

So I know asking what is the best salt out there I will get a bunch of different answers that I don’t really want,  my question and my main goal of this is find out what would be best for me. I have been using Salinity salt and have liked it, my only concerns with it are that it’s expensive and I have (herd) that it raises your alkalinity. So wondering what people think of this salt and what experiences they have had with others. A little info on my tank, it’s a 120g mixed reef mostly LPS, I do weekly water changes and I don’t dose anything and hope not to. Any info would be great thanks.

I realize that, just wondering which ones other people have had good luck with so i can try some diffrent kinds. What salt do you use Dionysus?

Edited by SNOWRIDER - April 06 2013 at 9:19pm

if you plan on not dosing then you will need to use a balanced salt. Personally stick with what your using. "If its not broke not broke don't fix it".
Oceanic is the best cheaper salt. But you will dose mag. Also it will make 200 gallons but it will be at 1.021.

I use instant ocean* reef crystals. It has higher all, mag, and cal than the normal oceanic and is only a few dollars more. I still ass a little cal and all since my sps likes to eat it up.

FYI: if you only change your water, your parameters will drop over time since your corals will eat it up. The only way around it is to do 100% water changes or add additives to help increase levels. There's no way around it.

Edited by phys - April 11 2013 at 3:39pm

I mix oceanic with instant ocean, 50/50, as oceanic alk is too low for my liking and instant ocean has too low calcium....I,ve had good success with this, plus they are 2 of the cheapest salts.

phys wrote: I use oceanic reef crystals. It has higher all, mag, and cal than the normal oceanic and is only a few dollars more. I still ass a little cal and all since my sps likes to eat it up. FYI: if you only change your water, your parameters will drop over time since your corals will eat it up. The only way around it is to do 100% water changes or add additives to help increase levels. There's no way around it.

Oceanic makes a Reef formula now?

Lets say you have initially 60g with a cal level of 400. If you wait a week and you levels get to 380 and you do a water change of 10 gal with a salt mix at 400, you've changed about 17% of the water. Your cal also dropped by 5% before the change. So that raises your cal back by only about 4ppm. So you're sitting at a calcium level of 384 now. If you wait another week and it drops by another 20ppm, you change 16% again, you cal will be at 364 and will only go up to 368 about. So eventually it will drop to levels that are too low for your corals to grow well. I did this same thing in my tanks and ended up with less than 300ppm of cal in my tanks. After several days of adding stuff I brought all my levels back up and now I see much better growth.

That makes sense, thanks for your help Phys, and everyone else i will just test more regularly and see if i should be dosing.

Do you use ro water?

How many times did you test and what test kit? Do you mix the salt in the bucket before adding it to the water?

I HIGHLY doubt your alk is 14.1dkh. Salinity doesn't have that high of alk and your corals should be using it up. If they aren't, something else is wrong.

How do check your water, hydrometer or refractometer? Has the instrument been calibrated properly?

I will echo what others have said and tell you that long term, weekly water changes won't work. I change my water weekly right now using ESV B-Ionic salt. It has an alk reading of 9dkh every time. I keep my tank at 7.5-8dkh and I have to dose AT LEAST every other day to keep alk around there. If I go more than 5 days without dosing my alk will bottom out around 6dkh and my corals show signs of my laziness.

Sorry for all the questions but an alk reading of 14.1 is VERY unlikely.