I'm using AF SEA salt, should I switch to AF REEF Salt ?

[SomeHappyFish]

I now have a couple of frags 3 LPS 2 Softies.

The reef salt has a lower Alk, but higher cal, mag which is better for LPS, well I think...

I need help lol also why is the alk lower at 35ppt ?
SEA

REEF

 

[Macbalacano]

My advice would be to go with the salt that is closest to the water parameter values you would like to maintain. Having that said, there isn't much of a difference between these two salts in terms of Alk/Ca/Mg. If it were me, I'd go with REEF if there wasn't a big price difference.

Also, if you have lots of the SEA salt, I would definitely just finish that before making the switch.

 

[DenverSaltyFarm]

when picking a salt you first want your current tank parameters then choose the salt that is closest to those parameters without causing a swing. Typically you want to go off of Alkalinity.

My tank has an alkalinity of 8.0 so I would use REEF salt for my tank


If I kept my alk around 9 then I would use SEA. If my alk was higher say like 11 then I would not use any of these

 

[Patx]

I was at the same place.
I choose the sea because...
I am low in coral and dosing AFR( ca/mg/alk and trace all in one). (consomation de ~ 0.5 dkh/jrs)
So for now, i prefer the salt lower in Ca / Mg.

 

[SomeHappyFish]

My advice would be to go with the salt that is closest to the water parameter values you would like to maintain. Having that said, there isn't much of a difference between these two salts in terms of Alk/Ca/Mg. If it were me, I'd go with REEF if there wasn't a big price difference.

Also, if you have lots of the SEA salt, I would definitely just finish that before making the switch.

About a 35$ difference I think.

when picking a salt you first want your current tank parameters then choose the salt that is closest to those parameters without causing a swing. Typically you want to go off of Alkalinity.

My tank has an alkalinity of 8.0 so I would use REEF salt for my tank


If I kept my alk around 9 then I would use SEA. If my alk was higher say like 11 then I would not use any of these

But the alk is based of the first salt you are using no?

I was at the same place.
I choose the sea because...
I am low in coral and dosing AFR( ca/mg/alk and trace all in one). (consomation de ~ 0.5 dkh/jrs)
So for now, i prefer the salt lower in Ca / Mg.

Why dose AFR and not change salt for a higher ppm in cal,mg? Sorry I'm new to this.

 

[Denimchicken]

I now have a couple of frags 3 LPS 2 Softies.

The reef salt has a lower Alk, but higher cal, mag which is better for LPS, well I think...

I need help lol also why is the alk lower at 35ppt ?
SEA

REEF

I recently heard some advice about staying on the low end and dosing to get it where you want. The logic is you if you have really high parameters you can reduce it if the parameters on the salt are a little lower.

 

[Sidsreef]

I use reef salt by Aquaforest and I would just use that

It’s got elevated, calcium, magnesium. The reason why your alk is lower on the reef salt is because you have elevated calcium. When I add it to my tank, my alk will dip but it always comes back up quickly. If you’re doing a medium small water change, then you should have no problems with your alkalinity. It will be fine however, I would not use sea salt. I would use reef salt. when your tank is super mature and you have massive corals in your tank, then upgrade to reef salt plus. Reef salt plus is made for aquariums with giant corals that have large intake. And it has extremely elevated calcium magnesium levels.

 

[Sidsreef]

I will say another thing too all of these people that have responded are saying extremely correct things because depending on what your tank needs, then use the salt appropriate for it. If you’re just gonna have softies in a couple LPS you can get away with sea salt just fine. My tank has SPS corals and extremely expensive corals so I have to use reef salt to keep up with the calcium magnesium demand.. another thing to think about if you have a high demand tank or heavy bio load regarding corals you should be dosing on top of doing your water changes to maintain your levels so don’t rely completely on water changes unless you have a nano tank

 

[SomeHappyFish]

I use reef salt by Aquaforest and I would just use that

It’s got elevated, calcium, magnesium. The reason why your alk is lower on the reef salt is because you have elevated calcium. When I add it to my tank, my alk will dip but it always comes back up quickly. If you’re doing a medium small water change, then you should have no problems with your alkalinity. It will be fine however, I would not use sea salt. I would use reef salt. when your tank is super mature and you have massive corals in your tank, then upgrade to reef salt plus. Reef salt plus is made for aquariums with giant corals that have large intake. And it has extremely elevated calcium magnesium levels.

Okay I understand, I only do 10% weekly so I guess I'm good.

Do you recommend gradually changing salt. 25% New, 75% old then 50%/50% or can I just switch directly ?

I will say another thing too all of these people that have responded are saying extremely correct things because depending on what your tank needs, then use the salt appropriate for it. If you’re just gonna have softies in a couple LPS you can get away with sea salt just fine. My tank has SPS corals and extremely expensive corals so I have to use reef salt to keep up with the calcium magnesium demand.. another thing to think about if you have a high demand tank or heavy bio load regarding corals you should be dosing on top of doing your water changes to maintain your levels so don’t rely completely on water changes unless you have a nano tank

Well I'm planning to have a mixed reef at the end of the year, which will be making my tank 14 months old.
But my main focus is softies and LPS and stability and if everything is right near October one or two sps.

 

[Patx]

About a 35$ difference I think.


But the alk is based of the first salt you are using no?

Why dose AFR and not change salt for a higher ppm in cal,mg? Sorry I'm new to this.

AFR give me Ca/mg... and i have low consumption, so more stable for me. Its just my preference.

When the day come, (more need) i will change for the reef...

 

[Sidsreef]

Okay I understand, I only do 10% weekly so I guess I'm good.

Do you recommend gradually changing salt. 25% New, 75% old then 50%/50% or can I just switch directly ?

Well I'm planning to have a mixed reef at the end of the year, which will be making my tank 14 months old.
But my main focus is softies and LPS and stability and if everything is right near October one or two sps.

It depends if you have a high in high out technique meaning, high nutrients going in a lot of fish, food a lot of amino acids, a lot of coral food stuff like that then yes you’re gonna want to do a large export of water 25 to 50%. The high out aspect is reducing your nitrates and your phosphates, because those levels will spike up if you’re supplementing, amino acids, coral food and fish food and if you have a heavy load of fish in your tank

If you’re just feeding the fish in spot feeding here and there with coral food then just do a 10% every week. if you have a nano Then I would keep track of your nitrates and phosphates if you don’t want them too high.. I’d check more frequently because nano tanks tend to swing pretty hard, compared to bigger tanks



you only have a couple corals… right now I would just use up what you have and if you add more corals later, then switch over to the reef salts. Because it’s the same brand you won’t have to slowly switch over your salt just in the matter of one water change switch to new salt.


I would definitely do what you said and work on stability… what I think people don’t really pay super close attention to in terms of stability is the pH just make sure pH is the correct level. I don’t know if it’s scientifically, proven or not but in all of the reef tanks that I’ve had previously pH normally would start out fairly low and overtime. We’re talking years time my pH would gradually go up and sustain higher pH levels. But there’s ways to make your pH go up quickly and it’s with a CO2 scrubber. Don’t use supplements to boost your pH. The only supplement I would recommend to boost pH if you really needed to is kalkwasser in conjunction with dosing.

Make sure your nitrates and phosphates at the correct level and then when you’re getting close to switching to SPS just make sure that you have good water filtration equipment like a protein, skimmer or whatever and starting dosing to maintain CA, ALK, MAG.

The key about SpS is having clean water correct levels and making sure that your trace elements are also up to par so that’s doing ICP testing. If you could do all that you’re gonna glide right through having an amazing SPS tank. And then obviously choose the correct salt for your needs whether it’s reef salt or if you have big corals, then use the reef salt plus (mainly for SPS with high consumption)

 

[SomeHappyFish]

It depends if you have a high in high out technique meaning, high nutrients going in a lot of fish, food a lot of amino acids, a lot of coral food stuff like that then yes you’re gonna want to do a large export of water 25 to 50%. The high out aspect is reducing your nitrates and your phosphates, because those levels will spike up if you’re supplementing, amino acids, coral food and fish food and if you have a heavy load of fish in your tank

If you’re just feeding the fish in spot feeding here and there with coral food then just do a 10% every week. if you have a nano Then I would keep track of your nitrates and phosphates if you don’t want them too high.. I’d check more frequently because nano tanks tend to swing pretty hard, compared to bigger tanks



you only have a couple corals… right now I would just use up what you have and if you add more corals later, then switch over to the reef salts. Because it’s the same brand you won’t have to slowly switch over your salt just in the matter of one water change switch to new salt.


I would definitely do what you said and work on stability… what I think people don’t really pay super close attention to in terms of stability is the pH just make sure pH is the correct level. I don’t know if it’s scientifically, proven or not but in all of the reef tanks that I’ve had previously pH normally would start out fairly low and overtime. We’re talking years time my pH would gradually go up and sustain higher pH levels. But there’s ways to make your pH go up quickly and it’s with a CO2 scrubber. Don’t use supplements to boost your pH. The only supplement I would recommend to boost pH if you really needed to is kalkwasser in conjunction with dosing.

Make sure your nitrates and phosphates at the correct level and then when you’re getting close to switching to SPS just make sure that you have good water filtration equipment like a protein, skimmer or whatever and starting dosing to maintain CA, ALK, MAG.

The key about SpS is having clean water correct levels and making sure that your trace elements are also up to par so that’s doing ICP testing. If you could do all that you’re gonna glide right through having an amazing SPS tank. And then obviously choose the correct salt for your needs whether it’s reef salt or if you have big corals, then use the reef salt plus (mainly for SPS with high consumption)

Thanks ! Ph seems to be a solid 8 with the salifert test kit. Should a get a digital test kit?

 

[Sidsreef]

Thanks ! Ph seems to be a solid 8 with the salifert test kit. Should a get a digital test kit?

Yeah get one that does a constant. When you get SPS try to shoot for 8.20 at night and during the day you want 8.40.

So your PH is on the lower side right now

 

[Sidsreef]

PH naturally drops at night

 

[SomeHappyFish]

PH naturally drops at night

What meter should I get ? Is the Hanna ph a good one ?

 

[Sidsreef]

What meter should I get ? Is the Hanna ph a good one ?

You can use the pinpoint monitor.. works great

PINPOINT pH Monitor

Why does BRS recommend this? Pinpoint has been making quality monitoring equipment for years and is the only full-time pH monitor with the ability to give a .01 resolution. The Pinpoint pH monitor is extremely easy to use and can be counted on to deliver accurate, reliable results with minimal...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[Sidsreef]

What meter should I get ? Is the Hanna ph a good one ?

Hanna checker works good cept you gotta keep buying solution