My two cents worth on the salts I have tried

[bavass]

My two cents worth on the salts I have tried. I started using Instant Ocean it was ok but I was changing over to a reef tank from FOWLR so I tried Coralife since I can get it cheap at Petsmart. Got bad Calcium deposites and had to clean my air hose on my skimmer every night because of calcium clogging it. SeaChem really had no problem other the low Alkalinity. Changed to Reef Crystals since a lot of people use it and like it. It was ok fought cyano the whole time I used it. Then I was doing some reading on other salts. Decided to try Red Sea Coral Pro because its "supposed" to be made to use with RO/DI water. All I can say is WOW all my corals are bigger and more colorful than ever before. Some of the corals started looking bleached while using Reef Crystals all color and then some is back with Red Sea Coral Pro. I have found my SALT!

 

[pat8you]

good info. I will have to try switching to that salt. Anyone else had similar experiences or have a different favorite brand of salt?

 

[melosu58]

I have great results with oceanic. This is one of those things that if you were to ask 10 people you would get 11 answers.

 

[ccCapt]

I've been using Red Sea salt for about 15 yrs. I tried about 10 175g buckets of the Red Sea Coral Pro but I didn't like the high calcium (490) and low alk (7 dKH). The regular Red Sea salt gives me 400 calcium and 8 dKH alk which is alot closer to the parameters I keep.

 

[catmel]

Stupid question, but I've never really thought much about it... if you switch salt, do you have to do it slowly? Or just Continue on with your usual PWC?

My LFS got in a new brand I'm interested in, but was worried about changing salts. Any good suggestions, or does it not matter too much?

 

[ryshark]

Stupid question, but I've never really thought much about it... if you switch salt, do you have to do it slowly? Or just Continue on with your usual PWC?

My LFS got in a new brand I'm interested in, but was worried about changing salts. Any good suggestions, or does it not matter too much?

If you switch salt... just do it with your next scheduled PWC.
I have bounced around a little bit myself in this order:
Natural Seawater
Tropic Marin Pro Reef
DD H2Ocean
Coralife
ESV Seawater
Right now I am loving the ESV Seawater, it mixes up in 10-minutes and is ready for use. It is extremely clean... I'd go as far as saying that it is as clean as RODI water. No residue or particles floating around. It also has very ideal parameters at 34ppt which are:
Alk-9
Cal-450
Mg-1400

 

[Bige]

I have tried almost all the salts. I have landed on oceanic. I really like it. Seems like each person likes each salt for one reason or another. Seems like the best salt is the one that works for you.

 

[cmor1701d]

I too settled on Coral Pro after trying several others.

 

[catmel]

Has anyone tried brightwell aquatics new salt?

 

[Jimbo7]

I asked that same question a week or so ago, the parameters on it seem perfect, I might start off with it on my new tank.