Poll: What is Your Preferred Salt Brand?

What is Your Preferred Salt Brand?

  • Aquaforest

    Votes: 63 6.5%
  • Red Sea

    Votes: 253 26.1%
  • Instant Ocean

    Votes: 313 32.3%
  • ESV

    Votes: 12 1.2%
  • Brightwell

    Votes: 11 1.1%
  • HW Marinemix

    Votes: 47 4.9%
  • Tropic Marin

    Votes: 67 6.9%
  • Fritz

    Votes: 109 11.3%
  • I use natural sea/ocean water

    Votes: 17 1.8%
  • Other

    Votes: 76 7.9%

  • Total voters
    968

dbl

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An often debated topic, but let's see which salt mix people prefer. Feel free to discuss reasons or particulars in the thread below. I personally use Red Sea Blue Bucket. Switched over to blue bucket from the Coral Pro quite a while ago for the lower dKH.
 

Denisk

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I have switched around between Reef crystals, regular instant oceans, and or blue bucket Red Sea. I still use all three depending on what kind of water change I do. They all have their pros and cons. Whether it be one that has really good parameters to what I keep my tank and or the other just being cost effective. I use instant ocean when I preform my regular 5 to 10 gallon water changes as it won’t cause any kind of swing with the size of the tank. If something were to happen where I needed to do a very large water change, I would use blue bucket Red Sea as that’s the closest to my parameters. I do this only from a cost perspective. I truly haven’t seen one salt be any better than another. I say pick a salt where you like the parameters and try to keep that stable.
 
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dbl

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You didn't allow for distinction between Reef Crystals and normal Instant Ocean, or the two types of Red Sea salt mixes.

Also, there might be a distinction between preferred and used -- cost, availability, etc. considerations.

Very good points @Randy Holmes-Farley and @DeepBlueSomething, which is why I did this poll as preferred "BRAND". Depending on results, we can do a followup poll on products within the brand and drill down on specifics.
 

jsker

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I have used many brands and the current reef salt that I use, I am very happy with and the price is also right.
 

S-t-r-e-t-c-h

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The idealist in me wants to say Hawaiian Marine or Tropic Marin, but I don't think I've ever actually used anything other than IO/RC in my own tanks...
 

Brew12

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I've settled on the Red Sea blue bucket because of the lower dkh also. Started with the IO products since I could easily get them locally.
 

Amps Reef Life

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My preferred salt is Instant Ocean Reef Crystals been using it for almost 3 years now. I have switched and tried a few other salts only because I was curious or a friend you gotta try this salt.... but always came back to Reef Crystals. It's always done right by me and been a stable salt. I have had 5 reef tanks so far.
 

Murica

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Reef crystals have always been good to me, and on Amazon there's usually 200 gallons worth for 55 bucks. Comes in usps. My mailman hates me for it but that's the only way I get it now
 

falconut

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I used Oceanic for about 12 years and had nothing but great results with it for my reef tank. My LFS was always the cheapest place to get it, and they just stopped carrying it this year. I shifted my tank to a FOWLR and switched over to regular Instant Ocean, it seems to work just fine, so that's what I voted is for.
 

DracoKat

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I use Reef Crystals for my main 75g tank. It's cheaper and works well for my tank.

I got Live Aquaria salt that I am using for my new 9 gal tank to test it out. I don't want to mix it in the 75 tank since it's still new on the market.
 

YellowFinsReef

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I stick with instant ocean for my quarantine tank due to affordability, while I use only tropic marin bioactif and synbiotic for my reef and fowlr. The alkalinity is a bit on the lower end, but the mix has been consistent.
 

stylaster

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I use kent and aquavitro salinity
 

Creating a strong bulwark: Did you consider floor support for your reef tank?

  • I put a major focus on floor support.

    Votes: 54 40.3%
  • I put minimal focus on floor support.

    Votes: 28 20.9%
  • I put no focus on floor support.

    Votes: 48 35.8%
  • Other.

    Votes: 4 3.0%
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