Best salt for mixed reef

[gbroadbridge]

I just bought reef crystals ..The calcium at 1.026 is only 400.. Very disappointing

Did you mix the dry salt by rolling the bucket around a while before using?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I just bought reef crystals ..The calcium at 1.026 is only 400.. Very disappointing

with the likely errors in hobbyist measurements of both, the calcium might be exactly as expected, or even higher than expected (or lower).

 

[vareefer1979]

IMO, there is no best salt mix for all scenarios. I preferred normal IO for my mixed reef.

my alk is running 10.5 -10.7 with 50/50 mix of IO and Reef Crystals, should I be concerned with my current alk level. My tank is about 2.5 yrs old and added first corals about 4-5 months ago, Zoas, Acan, Lepto, Candy Cane, GSP, Hollywood stunner chalice all doing fine, but my hammer corals seem to be unhappy, they are open but not fully , I don’t think it’s a lighting or flow issue, they have gentle indirect flow and place low in tank. Some say that the elevated alk may be issues. Nitrates 15-20
Phos .1- .25 normal mag/cal/salinity stable at 1.026 with tropic marine hydrometer. There has been no parameter swings everything stable. Any suggestions?

Thanks

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The alk is at the high end but still in my recommended range.

 

[vareefer1979]

The alk is at the high end but still in my recommended range.

Thanks, I don’t have a lot of corals but hopefully with natural consumption over time it will lower.

 

[JonasRoman]

My biggest factors would be correct parameters for me corals and how clean it mixes.
I'm currently using red sea coral pro, I feel like it mixes pretty dirty. When i do water changes, there's always a cloud for a bit. Especially in my QT tank.
cost is also important but I don't think other salts would be SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive.

Thanks!

I love red sea, both the black and blue ones. I have used it for 20 years with not single issue. I have done ICP tests from now and then, also on other brands, and for red sea there has never been any deviation. Yes, its some "dust" as its colleted from true sea water. This is absolutely not a problem, its totally negligible compated to all "dust" you have in the tank.
If you will minimise Precipitation be careful not heat up to more than 23 degrees, maybe not even that, and use it after max one hour of mix or even earlier. The blue bottle is less prone to prec as its lower in alk and Ca.
Some salt that I have experienced more variation in quality and also somtimes sever reports is TM/FM (the bad plastic bucket that released toxins), Brightwell (the icp values differed a lot from the promised).

ATI stands out aswell to be very very good, especially the premixed ones with water(absolut ocean). So good so you can use it as reference solution if you mix perfectly as they say.
So if you ask me: Red sea and ATI absolut ocean.

 

[Angelos]

My biggest factors would be correct parameters for me corals and how clean it mixes.
I'm currently using red sea coral pro, I feel like it mixes pretty dirty. When i do water changes, there's always a cloud for a bit. Especially in my QT tank.
cost is also important but I don't think other salts would be SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive.

Thanks!

I have a reef tank and I find the all in pro bucket to high for my corals, using the blue bucket, I never see any residue left in the bin, but I also leave it mixing overnight. IMO the best salt out there, if only it had mag a little higher