Most affordable yet best salt mix suggestions for 135 FOWLR

[killstank]

Starting my first big tank, can’t carry home this much premixed from the store ha.

I’m finding Instant Ocean 160g for $37.99 on Amazon seems like a good deal.

Any problems with this ? Is there another way to save money on salt mix that I don’t know about bc of lack of experience ?

it says “for reef”, so wondering if there’s a cheaper yet not terrible option for fowlr ?

 

[Potatohead]

“Reef” based salts generally have higher levels of calcium, alkalinity and magnesium. This is both good and bad depending on where your tank runs at and your water change regime.

You will get many, many opinions on salts. They are kind of like brands of gasoline, as long as you use something reputable, they all do the same job and you will get the same end result.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Instant Ocean is one of the best known brands in the industry (and certainly one of if not the absolute cheapest). It’s a fine brand that shouldn’t cause you any issues. The have the Reef Crystals line and the Sea Salt (regular) line - both work fine, and both are substantially cheaper than their competitors (you can find the regular stuff for the exact same price as that bucket of RC right now). It’s been awhile since I’ve looked at their parameters, but if I recall correctly, Reef Crystals has higher calcium and alkalinity than regular IO does.

Personally, out of the two, I’d go with the Sea Salt line, as I really don’t see the benefit of RC at this point, but that’s just me (I believe the regular is usually cheaper than the Reef Crystals too, but I haven’t been comparing the two recently, so that may have changed).

 

[mdb_talon]

Honestly you can go with whatever you find the cheapest. They all are going to work. In a fowlr you have to be even less concerned with parameter differences between brands(don't really think it's generally an issue anyway but some think it is with coral)

 

[AydenLincoln]

Instant Ocean/Reef Crystals are great and BRS has a sale right now on Coral Pro Salt making it cheaper than IO right now. I’m looking forward to trying it I’ve heard great things.

 

[killstank]

Instant Ocean/Reef Crystals are great and BRS has a sale right now on Coral Pro Salt making it cheaper than IO right now. I’m looking forward to trying it I’ve heard great things.

Thanks for the heads up about sale!

 

[killstank]

Instant Ocean is one of the best known brands in the industry (and certainly one of if not the absolute cheapest). It’s a fine brand that shouldn’t cause you any issues. The have the Reef Crystals line and the Sea Salt (regular) line - both work fine, and both are substantially cheaper than their competitors (you can find the regular stuff for the exact same price as that bucket of RC right now). It’s been awhile since I’ve looked at their parameters, but if I recall correctly, Reef Crystals has higher calcium and alkalinity than regular IO does.

Personally, out of the two, I’d go with the Sea Salt line, as I really don’t see the benefit of RC at this point, but that’s just me (I believe the regular is usually cheaper than the Reef Crystals too, but I haven’t been comparing the two recently, so that may have changed).

Heck yea thanks I’m going to get sea salt then

 

[vetteguy53081]

Starting my first big tank, can’t carry home this much premixed from the store ha.

I’m finding Instant Ocean 160g for $37.99 on Amazon seems like a good deal.

Any problems with this ? Is there another way to save money on salt mix that I don’t know about bc of lack of experience ?

it says “for reef”, so wondering if there’s a cheaper yet not terrible option for fowlr ?

Its a steal of a deal

 

[vetteguy53081]

Starting my first big tank, can’t carry home this much premixed from the store ha.

I’m finding Instant Ocean 160g for $37.99 on Amazon seems like a good deal.

Any problems with this ? Is there another way to save money on salt mix that I don’t know about bc of lack of experience ?

it says “for reef”, so wondering if there’s a cheaper yet not terrible option for fowlr ?

Many public aquariums use Instant Ocean product exclusively. I used it over 20 years but now use Tropic Marin for the last three years. Ive experienced the best fish and coral growth since using this salt

 

[radiata]

The best salt is the one produced by the manufacturer that convinces you that they have the best salt.

 

[killstank]

The best salt is the one produced by the manufacturer that convinces you that they have the best salt.

Hahahaha

 

[mrbiggs1986]

I recently switched to tropic Marin reef pro salt from instant ocean. The main reason I switched was local availability. I usually order salt from brs in advance but ran out recently and none was to be found locally. The topic Marin mixes much quicker, and leaves less residue in my barrel and on my equipment. It also matches the parameters I’m trying to keep except for alkalinity but it’s easy for me to bring the alkalinity up to 9.

 

[homer1475]

FOWLR, it doesn't get much cheaper then regular old purple box/bucket instant ocean. Very consistent from box to box, many of us even use for reefs.

 

[G Santana]

Instant Ocean can't be beat!!!

 

[Ashish Patel]

I prefer Fritz but also buy Reefcrystals since its inexpensive.
If I am doing small water change or just adding back salt to bring up salinity i go with Reefcrystals.

I target my Alk 7-8DkH and Reefcrystal is very high ALK so wont work for me when I am doing 20% waterchanges.
Fritz is great bc its mixes at a lower DKH and i dont see any rise in Alk. Over the course of time I realize that making these adjustments with a higher ALk salt actually can be a benefit but not keeping the Alk too stable and corals become adaptive to these changes, so get whatever you can afford, but if i had to choose Frtiz is the best salt mix i have used.

 

[nuxx]

Tried a lot of different salts and IO Reef Crystals just mixed the cleanest for me.

I had a 50 gallon drum full of automatic water change water full at all times, so it was easy to see sludge if a mix wasn't clean. Reef Crystals was just the cleanest.

This was back in the day and I found ordering 200 gallon boxes was the cheapest option.

I knew guys with monster tanks that ordered pallets, so there is that method as well.