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nafuzy

Aquarium Advice Activist
Joined
Oct 15, 2011
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Hey guys, no ones been answering/helping me with my questions lately! :(.

I want to know everyone's opinions and especially "why," but what do you guys think is the best product line and why out of brightwell aquatics, seachems aqua vitro line, and kent??

I know it's stupid but I'm partially OCD about having my products from all the same supplier. I know some suppliers have better particular items but if it wont affect my reefs health i want to get all my supplements from one supplier. I've been really really about aqua vitro forever, especially alpha, balance, 8.4, calcium and fuel, and their salt because it's so concentrated, but brightwell has EVERYTHING I want, but not as concentrated. Plus I'm very interested in their microvore, zoo and phyto plankton products, reef snow and their salt.

Please let me know guys I really need/want some responses and opinions.

I may get ocean nutrition and San Fran bay for a few food items.

What's up y'all?!?!
 
I don't dose with any of those product lines, the only thing I use on occasion is soda ash from bulk reef supply to help with my alkalinity.

Most of those products contain the exact same thing that sea salt mix does so I find it silly to waste the money on an arsenal of additives.
 
I do not dose anything either. I have some things to dose in case of an emergency...but have only used twice when I didn't understand pH fully and that it would be lower in the morning than at night.

If you dose, which you shouldn't really need to, only dose things you test for.
 
I use FUEL"only have dose though, less seems to work better and keep algea from accelerating. Also feed DT's premium reef blend.

image-2850122103.jpg

my lfs sells many brands and hails these the best for my reef tank. colors in corals stay bright and everyone has been doing well.
 
I never use element supplements I should have cleared that but sometimes extra calcium is necessary and dechlorinator.

But brightwell has a lot of foods like the reef snow and zoo plankton gold stuff. Comments on that???
 
And microvore!!!!!! Nobody cares for that??? Especially for anthias!!
 
nafuzy said:
I never use element supplements I should have cleared that but sometimes extra calcium is necessary and dechlorinator.

But brightwell has a lot of foods like the reef snow and zoo plankton gold stuff. Comments on that???

Dechlorinator shouldn't be used in a saltwater tank either make your own rodi or buy from the lfs
 
**** I 100% forgot about that... Thank you so much your right!

What about the micro foods brightwell has??
And I know reef crystals is everyone's (including mine) salt-o-choice and they all pretty much are the same,

But if it was life or death...
Between aquavitros and brightwell salt.....


Come on guys which would you prefer?????
 
And I know reef crystals is everyone's (including mine) salt-o-choice and they all pretty much are the same,
That is far from my choice. I use either Instant Ocean or regular Red Sea salt.

This is a great quote from Randy Holmes-Farley. (Google him if you don't know who he is)
"I do not think there is a "best" salt mix. Nearly all of them will work fine as long as you know their pros and cons.

I don't want excessive borate, which leaves out Seachem.

I don't want vitamins or anything else organic in my mix (because I doubt their utility, they degrade with time to who knows what, bacteria may thrive on them as I store new salt water for a substantial period, they are totally undescribed with respect to amounts or identity, they are often not naturally present in natural seawater at appreciable levels, and because I've occasionally had them mess with my skimmer), so that tosses out some like Reef Crystals, hW Marinemix Plus BioElements, Kent, Coralife, and Nutri-SeaWater.

I don't want excessive calcium (long term use of limewater as I use drives up calcium, so I do not want it starting high), so that tosses out a bunch, such as Kent, Seachem, Coralife and Oceanic.

There are certain companies that I will not support due to their misleading claims and/or product lines. That tosses out a few which I won't detail here since it is my personal thought as opposed to a specific issue with their salt mix.

I won't use certain lines of natural seawater due to excessive metals in it.

That only leaves a few to choose from, such as Instant Ocean and Tropic Marin Pro. The remaining ones might all be fine for me, but IO is lower in cost, especially if you get it when it goes on sale (which it frequently does). It also has a very long track record of success in many aquaria with relatively few concerning issues of bad batches."
 
Cc capt, doesn't that mean you occassiinally have to add trace elements or calcium supplements if you have a reef tank due to what corals like Lps absorb..???
 
You need a large amount of corals to remove all of the calcium from the water. That is why they make salt just for reef aquariums...and you need a large amount of corals to remove them.
 
Cc capt, doesn't that mean you occassiinally have to add trace elements or calcium supplements if you have a reef tank due to what corals like Lps absorb..???
Instant Ocean typically mixes to around 400 calcium, 11 dKH alk and 1350 mag. These parameters are all very acceptable for any and all reef tanks. Depending on the types of corals you keep, especially SPS, you may have to dose calcium, alk and mag, but that would be the case with any salt you decided to use. If the corals deplete them, they would deplete them regardless of the salt brand. All the trace elements needed are contained in the salt and are replenished with regular water changes.
 
But don't "some" elements deplete "more than others," let's say in a 90% lps tank? In that case, would an occasional calcium dosing (small) be necessary "along with" the water change???
 
With LPS corals, most likely no dosing would be required. Calcium, alk and mag is used by corals when they grow their hard skeletons. The skeleton of LPS corals grow pretty slow, so regular water changes should keep the parameters in line. An occasional dose of each may be needed, which is why it's good to get into a routine of testing your water parameters.
When a coral forms its hard calcium carbonate skeleton, it uses a fixed rate of calcium, alk and mag. The ratio is 18ppm calcium - 1meq/l (2.8dKH) alk - 2ppm mag. In other words, if your corals are depleting 18ppm of calcium from your water, they willl also deplete 2.8dKH of alk and 2 ppm of mag.
 
Ok that's how I'm trying to do it. Worked decent last time but thru experience etc I'more prepared this time.

I'm thinking of getting ALL my foods from sfb frozens. I've always liked them and they have everything I need for corals anthias etc. whatcha all think of that??


And thank you capt that was extremely helpful knowledge.
 
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