Natural Sea Water or Artificial Seawater Formula

[nim75sg]

Hi

I am a newbie and need expertise here as whether to use Natural Sea Water or Artificial Seawater Formula from Coralife, Red Sea, Instant Ocean, Kent Marine, etc. for my new setup

If using articical seawater, any recommendations from which vendor?

Any comments are welcome.

[darb2]

I have considered using natural sea water, but have always been concerened about pollutants. Therefore I use synthetic. I have used instant ocean in my 30 gal fowlr tank for 13 yrs without any problems. When setting up my reef tank, I asked the same question, and it seemed that Tropic Marin was a popular choice. I think the reason is it is chemically more similar to the real thing.

[jackdp]

Unless you want to take the time to cure natural seawater, or you are getting from an aquarium of LFS. I would go with the salt mix. You would have to let the NSW cure to allow for plankton die off etc and depending on where you collect it, it could contain any number of pollutants. I've been having good results with Kent Sea salt, Tropic Marin is another good one, Insant Ocean etc...it somewhat depends if your tank is FO or reef, some salts are better at maintaining water chem for reefs IMO HTH

[nim75sg]

Based on the understanding from both of you, the preferred route is to walk down the artificial sea water route rather than using natural sea water.

Thanks for the comments to Darb2 n Jackdp and will take this route together with the rest of the world.

Just for discussioin, has eveyone in this forum using natural sea water purchased from the LFS for their tanks?