Salt discussion at MACNA

[ellisz]

Did anyone see the discussion at MACNA from Eric Borneman? We had a presentation today from Steve Pro and Eric and one of the things he discussed was a salt study he conducted.

Basically compared about 10 salts over a 10-11 month period.

Results were pretty startling.

Anyone hear/see this?

 

[Hara]

Yep....
http://www.fantasyreef.com/macna/macna10.php

 

[melosu58]

Yes I saw it and was pleasantly surprised. I read that link that Lisa just gave you. Great Link

 

[ellisz]

That was the presentation I saw. Anyone change their salt brand becasue of it?

I use Oceanic and it did well but definitely had some issues.

 

[melosu58]

I use Oceanic and it did well but definitely had some issues.

Like what? I use it also but what type issues did you have?

 

[roka64]

ACK!! I want results! LOL! Nice link Hara.

 

[Devilishturtles]

I am switching from Instant Ocean because of it. I have had mixed issues with it, on and off, but decided to try either Reef Crystals or Oceanic. It was a very nicely done study.

 

[ellisz]

I meant it had a few issues in the study. In the discussion, I felt it was definatley not the salt of choice. They thought it was too high in its Ca and had low alk. This I have known but my tank always tests out fine for what I want. I think I will buy new test kits to verify all of that though. I like Oceanic for the most part. Just wonder if it would be beneficial to switch.

Only real issues I have is hair algae. I always assumed this was normal. Nothing a cleaning every few weeks does not fix.

BTW, what do you think of the algae issues that were represented in the test when no PO4 was detectable? When food, lighting. etc. are all equal some salts had more issues than others.

 

[lando]

That is a great link. Can anyone tell me what control tank letter used Coralife salt? I could not figure that out. Any other comments specifically about Coralife. I have been using it happily for the last 3 1/2 years but wouuld not be oppossed to changing.

 

[Hara]

http://www.fantasyreef.com/macna/bornemanlowe/bornemanlowe57.jpg

That image shows which salt was which. Coralife was "A"

 

[lando]

thanks Hara...not sure how I missed that.

 

[ellisz]

Well, I ran out of salt on Friday and I think I am going to stick with Oceanic. Price is good and has not let me down yet.

 

[Fluff]

I switched to Seachem's Marine salt. I haven't really been using it long enough to say if it's better or not. Maybe I'll do some tests tonight and see what I get. I've been a long time user of Instant Ocean and have always been very happy with it til the last two buckets I've gotten. I ended up getting a seriously bad case of cyano that seems to get worse with every water change instead of better. Not sure what happened with it but since switching, I am finally making progress on the cyano issues.

 

[roka64]

I agree, Fluff, I am having the exact problems with IO. Cyano is killing me, I've tried everything. I will be ordering reef crystals today.

 

[Dr.Nate]

After looking at this prelim study, it would seem that tank G (which is Kent--what I use) had some cyano issues? Is this correct? And is it also correct that Reef Crystals had no such problem?

If that is the case--prelim study or not--I'm switching!

 

[ellisz]

Red Sea was the supposed best but I think all had an issue of some sort.

 

[choupic]

I'll be getting reef crystals next too.

 

[melosu58]

Like I said ya`ll that are doing reef crystals keep me involved in your results as I am interested in knowing.

 

[ddm_aet]

I would just like to say, you guys are all switching salts for one test done on it. To test salts like that you would need say 8 tanks for each type of salt. Each tank would have to have salt come from a different bucket of the same salt.

Just like everything else, products do go bad, depended on packaging and storing. The salt you bought could just have been bad.

I'm not here to sell IO salt but;
I've been in the hobby now for 6 years, the most tanks i've had running at once was 6. All with IO salt.

Only once did i have a big cynao bacteria outbreak. I figured it out to be a plugged filter causing a nitrate spike and to little flow in the tank, plus i had CC in the tank. As soon as i fixed the problems it went away. I still use IO salt to this day.

IMO I bet all the salts out there are relatively the same. I would have to see a chemical makeup of each to change my mind.

Does anybody know the chemical makeup of each brand of salt?

 

[Hara]

It was my understanding that a different "batch" of each type, was used each month. The batches were purchased from different parts of the country so that more then one geographic area was covered.