Changing salt

[xcountryx]

I am changing salt brands this week from reef crystals to red sea pro. I am already out of the reef crystals and have a 34 gallon can full of water at 1.020 salinity. Should I go ahead and mix the red sea with it to get me to the 1.025 mark? Or should I just trash the 34 gallons and start with all new red sea salt water? Any and all help would be great thanks

 

[redfishbluefish]

Mix it! There is no reason to pitch the Reef Crystal salt. My only recommendation is to monitor your alk and calc in the switch and adjust your dosing accordingly.

 

[xcountryx]

As of right now the only thing I'm dosing is lugols solution once a week. I decided to try red sea salt cause my colors looked like they were faded out a bit and was hoping to bring some color back into them. Are there any benefits to the red sea coral pro salt compared to the reef crystals?

 

[redfishbluefish]

They are both "reef" salts that have Monster doses of alk, calc, mag and other unmentionalbles. I have tried both and didn't like the inconsistances in levels of alk and calc I was seeing. I dose my tank with what it needs and therefore am extremely happy with simple Instant Ocean....it's the ocean!

 

[xcountryx]

So the red sea had fluctuations in alk and calc? With the instant ocean my alk is 7-8 duh and calc is 520 I was hoping to just level those out without having to dose.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I've never seen a successful sps/lps reef tank that is able to maintain alk and calc simply through weekly water changes. I dose daily, three times a day, plus weekly water changes, to maintain alk and calc.

 

[xcountryx]

So far I only have 3 sps in a 100 gallon tank. I was dosing kalk. My alk stayed at 8 and calc over 520 540. I only dosed kalk cause I was told I had to. I striped dosing cause I didn't know if that was why I started losing color in my corals and I think I may have over dosed

 

[xcountryx]

I have lots of other corals tho. Just wanted to make it clear that it's not just 3