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View Poll Results: Which salt mix do you use?
Instant Ocean 158 28.06%
Reef Crystals 171 30.37%
Marine Enterprises Crystal Sea Marinemix 4 0.71%
Marine Enterprises Crystal Sea Bioassay Laboratory Formula 7 1.24%
Oceanic 49 8.70%
Red Sea Coral Pro 67 11.90%
Instant Ocean/Oceanic 50/50 mix 8 1.42%
Tropic Marin Sea Salt 36 6.39%
Tropic Marin PRO-REEF 41 7.28%
SeaChem Marine Salt 4 0.71%
SeaChem Reef Salt 27 4.80%
Kent Sea Salt 20 3.55%
Marine Environment dual phase formula 7 1.24%
Coralife Scientific Grade Marine Salt 22 3.91%
OceanPure PRO 6 1.07%
Catalina NSW 9 1.60%
Another form of natural saltwater 8 1.42%
Other salt mix 15 2.66%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 563. You may not vote on this poll

 
 
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  #76  
Old 10/19/2007, 02:43 AM
EvilE EvilE is offline
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I just ordered a 160 gallon bucket of Reef Crystals from drsF&S--they have it on sale right now....good deal!
  #77  
Old 10/19/2007, 06:11 AM
Billybeau1 Billybeau1 is offline
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They often run sales on RC. It's what they use on their coral farm.

IMO, a very consistent balanced salt mix for the reefer with mild to average stocked tanks.
  #78  
Old 10/24/2007, 08:23 PM
EvilE EvilE is offline
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I got the Reef Crystals yesterday! I am gonna switch from IO/Oceanic to Reef Crystals (when my IO/oceanic is gone). The 160 gallon bucket of Reef Crystals also came with a free t-shirt! $31.99
  #79  
Old 10/24/2007, 11:47 PM
Billybeau1 Billybeau1 is offline
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Great price for a bucket of salt mix.

Can I have your T-Shirt
  #80  
Old 10/24/2007, 11:57 PM
HBtank HBtank is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by Billybeau1
They often run sales on RC. It's what they use on their coral farm.

IMO, a very consistent balanced salt mix for the reefer with mild to average stocked tanks.
Curious why you don't think it is for heavily stocked tanks?
  #81  
Old 10/25/2007, 02:07 AM
schigara schigara is offline
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Has anyone ever taken a real world set of tests of any salt mix, with all the basic tests for a reef and come away saying, "I don't have to buffer anything!!"? Alk, PH, Ca, Mg, etc. etc , all are in very good balance and not thinking in the slightest, that one or the other might need to be upped a bit?

Is this too much to be asked? I mean seriously, we are paying $30-80 per 5 gallon bucket for a mix of the cheapest things on the planet and none that I have heard of, have gotten it right!!

Ofcourse this is a specialized hobby and we all expect to get screwed when it comes to price but one would think the screwing in quality, would be on the lower price range and the ones who didn't want to pay extra for any buffers at all, could pay the higher price(70-80bucks) for a perfectly balanced salt. I am talking only about when the salt has just been mixed with ro/di and before entering any tank. We all know certain tanks will have different loads and consume more of one thing than the other but is it too much to expect to start out with everything needed????

Last edited by schigara; 10/25/2007 at 02:23 AM.
  #82  
Old 10/25/2007, 03:14 AM
Melody Melody is offline
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Join Date: May 2003
Location: Mississippi
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Used IO for a long time, switched to Reef Crystals approx 6 months ago.
  #83  
Old 10/26/2007, 11:20 PM
EvilE EvilE is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by schigara
Has anyone ever taken a real world set of tests of any salt mix, with all the basic tests for a reef and come away saying, "I don't have to buffer anything!!"? Alk, PH, Ca, Mg, etc. etc , all are in very good balance and not thinking in the slightest, that one or the other might need to be upped a bit?

Is this too much to be asked? I mean seriously, we are paying $30-80 per 5 gallon bucket for a mix of the cheapest things on the planet and none that I have heard of, have gotten it right!!

Ofcourse this is a specialized hobby and we all expect to get screwed when it comes to price but one would think the screwing in quality, would be on the lower price range and the ones who didn't want to pay extra for any buffers at all, could pay the higher price(70-80bucks) for a perfectly balanced salt. I am talking only about when the salt has just been mixed with ro/di and before entering any tank. We all know certain tanks will have different loads and consume more of one thing than the other but is it too much to expect to start out with everything needed????
true dat!
  #84  
Old 10/27/2007, 10:09 AM
reefkoi reefkoi is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by melev
High enough for me. I posted my findings with two different buckets in the past 60 days. I remember in the latest batch, Calcium was 450 and Mg was 1380. pH was 8.2, alk was 9.7 or 10 dKH. I'd have to find my post to get those numbers for you.
I'm surprised to see Pro Reef alk that high? My batch tested at 5 dKH That is the only reason the TM rep told me to use the Pro. He said the only significant difference from that and regular TM is the low alk which combats the rising of alk when using a calcium reactor only as a source of calcium maintenance. The slightly elevated calc. and mag. are not going to raise those values in the aquarium.

It will be interesting to see what AWT comes up with for alk.
  #85  
Old 10/27/2007, 12:50 PM
EvilE EvilE is offline
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Reef Crystals is taking it to the house!
  #86  
Old 10/28/2007, 09:33 AM
DrBegalke DrBegalke is offline
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The people who are using "other", what are you using?
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  #87  
Old 10/28/2007, 10:34 AM
Hypo Hypo is offline
Moved On
 
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  #88  
Old 10/28/2007, 05:45 PM
hawkfish hawkfish is offline
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Reef Crystals or Instant Ocean...they seem to get the most consistent results.
  #89  
Old 10/28/2007, 06:21 PM
cloak cloak is offline
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IO.

Guessing the reef crystals are more potent, but if your adding additives to that, maybe not.

  #90  
Old 10/28/2007, 06:54 PM
EvilE EvilE is offline
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I used to use aquatic gardens marine salt, it seems very good, but I have found better deals elsewhere on other salts......
  #91  
Old 10/31/2007, 12:21 AM
Billybeau1 Billybeau1 is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by HBtank
Curious why you don't think it is for heavily stocked tanks?
Well, you can use it but will have to supplement calcium and occasionally magnesium.

Heavily stocked tanks use calcium rapidly and if you want to keep your Ca++ at 420ppm or so, you will have to supplement between water changes. Not a problem for most.
  #92  
Old 10/31/2007, 12:22 AM
Billybeau1 Billybeau1 is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by Hypo
  #93  
Old 10/31/2007, 12:25 AM
Billybeau1 Billybeau1 is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by EvilE
I used to use aquatic gardens marine salt, it seems very good, but I have found better deals elsewhere on other salts......
Aquatic Gardens ( sold at Petco's) actually comes in at pretty good numbers for the big three.

I just haven't used it long enough so see what the other effects are.

If you are using Aquatic Gardens and not having any microalgae problems or elevated PO4, I suspect it is pretty O.K.
  #94  
Old 11/03/2007, 08:32 AM
DrBegalke DrBegalke is offline
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I'm surprised more people say they us RC over IO.
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  #95  
Old 11/03/2007, 01:12 PM
EvilE EvilE is offline
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Quote:
Originally posted by DrBegalke
I'm surprised more people say they us RC over IO.
Well RC is basically IO with added elements and calcium right? Makes sense to me that people would rather go with RC. RC are only a couple bucks more for a bucket also--about the same price for a better salt!
  #96  
Old 11/03/2007, 07:28 PM
MikeyNYC MikeyNYC is offline
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Reef Crystals

The batch's that i've pickup have been pretty consistent so far. Reef Crystals also good for the price.
  #97  
Old 11/04/2007, 06:48 PM
DrBegalke DrBegalke is offline
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Its surprising to me b/c instant ocean is more readily available and generally the most popular salt.

I tried RC and I still had to had Ca++ to it to balance out the high alk.

Soon we should have more data on how all the different salt brands test:

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1216536
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  #98  
Old 11/04/2007, 09:13 PM
stan zemanek stan zemanek is offline
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when your tired of trying the rest... try the best!
http://www.gettankedaquariums.com/
I will never go back to TPM Pro, Or Reef Crystals
poke around on this guys site he makes his own salt for his aquaculture business its called saltwater correct
  #99  
Old 11/09/2007, 12:31 PM
DrBegalke DrBegalke is offline
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interesting.
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  #100  
Old 11/09/2007, 12:59 PM
Billybeau1 Billybeau1 is offline
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When are you expecting the results Doc ?

To answer your ealier question, the Reef Crystals explosion seems to have started within the last year or so. If you would have done this poll a year ago, IO would have ran away.

Better pricing and availability seems to have attracted many reefers to RC.
 

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