Salt Wars: iQuatics Ocean Reef Pro vs Aquarium Systems Instant Ocean

[DCJ]

Hi wonderful forum!

I've been out of the hobby a little while, and when I ran tanks I used to use Kent Marine's salt. I now come to find that it's impossible to get, so I've had to find a new salt. I'm starting all tanks from new, so it's going to be the first fill and then water changes from there.
I looked for whatever salt I could get easily online - I shop online mostly because I'm disabled, but it wouldn't matter because there's no reef shops near me anyway - and then set about trying to choose from those.

I've been Excel-ing and trawling the net and calculating and graphing. I looked at Aquaforest, D-D's H2O, Fritz Pro and Tropic Marin, and while I might have gone with TM, I just can't afford it. Red Sea isn't offered a lot here, or at least, not enough that I'd want to choose it long term

I've managed to whittle down my salt choices to two: iQuatics Ocean Reef Pro or Aquarium Systems Instant Ocean

I think iQuatics is a UK brand? I haven't seen it mentioned a lot from the US reefers, that I've noticed. Its cheap, has nice buckets, is sold in refill bags so that you don't end up with a bucket forest, and from what I can see claims to have 'typical' reef values (7-11dkh, 1360 magnesium, 445 calc at 1.025)

What do I need to say about Instant Ocean that no one already knows? NB: I won't be using the Reef Crystals.

My largest tank will be mixed reef, and my smaller three will be mostly softies and LPS.
I like the idea of starting with a pretty level salt and then dosing as needed, if needed.

I'd love feedback, especially from people in the UK who have used the two as to which you liked best, but also if you have any propaganda for either salt, I'd like to hear that too. There's a lot out there about Instant Ocean, but not a lot about iQuatics, and of that, not much is from 2020 onwards, so I'd be interested in that too.

Thank you for your help forum, I appreciate it!

 

[blaxsun]

I've used neither, but looking at them I'd choose Tropic Marin.

 

[afrokobe]

Is aquaforest affordable? On sale it is pretty comparable to instant ocean here in the states. I much prefer af salt with the icp analysis. Mixing and residue is leagues better than io

 

[Pntbll687]

Is the Aquarium Systems Instant Ocean a UK rebrand of Instant Ocean in the US?

I would just pick a salt and go. Pick one you can afford and one that is available without issue.

There's been so much analysis of salt recently, I think it gives people "analysis paralysis". There's so much info available, people can't make a choice.

Using one salt over another won't make or break your tanks.

I used to use Instant Ocean, but switched since the alkalinity was all over the place with IO. 7.5dkh on one bag, and 13 on the next. I switched to Salinity by Aquavitro, alkalinity has been between 8.5-10 so much easier to adjust dosing if needed. The only downside has been Salinity mixes up cloudy and leaves WAY more residue on my mixing station.

 

[Jjmg]

I've used IO for over 20 years, I buy it when it's on sale. I've never had a problem with it so I've never felt the need to change.

 

[dowdalld]

I use iQuatics, but can't really say if its "good" or "bad". However my parameters stay consistent and so far I have no reason to change.
My main reason for choosing it was price and availability. I don't have access to a choice of LFS so Red Sea salt would be my only option and that involves going out of my way.
I get the iQuatics on standing order from Amazon, 10kg every 5 weeks so easy on the pocket and no effort involved.

 

[DCJ]

@blaxsun Thank you for commenting. Sadly, Tropic Marin is so far out out my budget it might as well be moon dust.


@afrokobe When I did the comparison, I looked at the prices that were available for all salts on Amazon, eBay and other online shops. I had to disregard most of the latter because P&P bumped up the prices.

Rough averages of prices, Aquaforest is something over £70 for roughly 22kg (the only size I could find reliably, and not the Probiotic version, which I could only find at 22kg or 25kg for £94.85)

For comparison, Instant Ocean at 20kg (for ease of comparison) is just over £50, Reef Crystals hit mid-£50's, iQuatics was high £40's and Tropic Marin was in the low £70's

I did look at all the smaller amounts, but I used 20kg for ease of comparison

I'm REALLY unsure about using any salt based on the sale prices, because if it's slightly lower than usual that's a bonus, but if I have to buy out of sale, that's going to skew my budget out of whack.

But yeah, I did have a look at Aquaforest. If money was no object I really would go Tropic Marin, but alas, it is, and a large and unwieldy one

Thank you for taking the time to comment


@Pntbll687 You know, I had assumed it was, but looking into it, it seemed as though Aquarium Systems and the US company, Spectrum Brands, were two different things.

But then I found out that Marineland, Aquarium Systems parent company, became part of Spectrum Brands in 2005, so it looks like it's same thing, different name.

That's really good advice, and one I've seen around. I think you're right about the salt analysis thing. I took that into account when I did the comparisons, but ultimately my main driver was which salt was better value for money and which I could afford.

I REALLY like the Tropic Marin stuff, but man, that price is painful.

I'm going to settle on whichever of the two I end up choosing ultimately, but I'm being neurotic over which one. All that work to pare it down, and now I'm stuck at the last post.

Thank you for your first hand experience with IO, it really helps, and thank you for taking the time to comment.


@Jjmg Thank you kindly for your opinion, I appreciate it


@dowdalld I'm in the same boat re: accessibility. I've been in the position where I needed something for one of my reptiles urgently, but couldn't get it without paying out the nose. I want the water to be as stable as possible, and that means a salt I think will be the most available and affordable, and all online too.

Can I ask what the total volume of water you're using is a month? That's another thing I looked at, to see how much salt I might need to use per batch - it was really difficult because most salts say they mix up to 33ppt, which is way lower than I want to run my tanks (35ppt) so I was comparing apples and oranges a little. Not very scientific.

It looks like IO needs a little more than iQuatics to get a litre at 35, but not by enough that I can use it to decide!

Consistent parameters are one of the more important things in the decision, so it's good to know you've had success with that, especially with the talk about IO fluctuating.

You've been really helpful, thank you for taking the time to comment

 

[blaxsun]

Well, I don't do water changes - so I'm only 1 bucket and change of Tropic Marin in over 2.5 years...

 

[DCJ]

Well, I don't do water changes - so I'm only 1 bucket and change of Tropic Marin in over 2.5 years...

Ohhh, are you on Triton?
That would make sense, I'd go TM if I only needed it for the initial fill up.

 

[blaxsun]

Ohhh, are you on Triton?
That would make sense, I'd go TM if I only needed it for the initial fill up.

No, running my own thing.

 

[starbuck88]

I'm UK and I have been using iQuatics for 3 or so years now, purely down to being tight with money.

I am however looking to change to maybe RPM or Red Sea.

iQuatics have had a few batches now that have had high levels of ammonia when mixed. When contacting directly and showing the amount of ammonia they have replaced FOC for me with a different batch. If you see the reviews on Amazon there are a few that mention this and also one had a water sample sent off for ICP.

I'm having some wierd issues with stuff bouncing around. I've been mixing the new bags and mixing well with 0TDS RODI etc

So I just want to try one of the more tried and tested brands. Someone had said they were struggling with iquatics and switched to RPM and their issues slowly stopped!

 

[dowdalld]

@dowdalld I'm in the same boat re: accessibility. I've been in the position where I needed something for one of my reptiles urgently, but couldn't get it without paying out the nose. I want the water to be as stable as possible, and that means a salt I think will be the most available and affordable, and all online too.

Can I ask what the total volume of water you're using is a month? That's another thing I looked at, to see how much salt I might need to use per batch - it was really difficult because most salts say they mix up to 33ppt, which is way lower than I want to run my tanks (35ppt) so I was comparing apples and oranges a little. Not very scientific.

It looks like IO needs a little more than iQuatics to get a litre at 35, but not by enough that I can use it to decide!

Consistent parameters are one of the more important things in the decision, so it's good to know you've had success with that, especially with the talk about IO fluctuating.

You've been really helpful, thank you for taking the time to comment

LOL, I'm afraid I'm not overly precise myself..... I do a weekly 10% ish water change of around 60L made up with about 2000g of salt . Later that day I check salinity and will add salt through the week if I need to raise it. I have never needed to lower it and keep it between 34.5 and 35ppt. 100g salt roughly seems to equate to 0.1ppt in my system.

 

[DCJ]

@starbuck88 Ohhh, I saw that too!

Do we know how long the ammonia hangs around in the tank for after it's been added? Like, is it enough that it overwhelms the system and causes damage to the inhabitant, or does it just get processed like a small spike might? Not ideal though.

RPM is Fritz, right? I really like their bacteria in a bottle stuff, but I wasn't able to find enough sources to reassure me about availability, and they're a little on the expensive side, like mid-range?

Thank you for your input, it's honestly so helpful, especially re: the ammonia situation. Wonder what's going on there?

Thank you for taking the time to comment!


@dowdalld I like science, but only if someone else does the work, lol. 2000g salt to 60l for between 34.5 and 35ppt? Sounds about right for their guesstimate, maybe a little over?

Have you had any issues re: ammonia?

Thank you for coming back to me! I appreciate you're taking the time to help me.

 

[jda]

I don't know about iQuatics since I might be 3000 miles from where it is sold. IO is quality and reliable. It is rare that a product this good is also some of the cheapest.

Full disclosure, all that I want in salt is to be consistent, and IO is. I don't care about the alk or calcium since I always modify those anyway with a bit of acid and calcium chloride (driveway melt). To me, settling for a salt to match your parameters is the backwards - I want the most consistent salt and then I can deal with the parameters myself.

Most folks probably are fine with any salt's parameters, though. If you get to where you have an awesome tank and start to care about dead-on-balls accurate parameters, then you won't mind adding a few MLs of acid, calcium and mag on your own anyway.

 

[DCJ]

@jda !!That's something that's been confusing me. I'm setting up new tanks from scratch, I don't really know what I might want my parameters to be because I don't know what the corals I add are going to need.

Consistent parameters that I can then doctor towards the health of the corals makes a lot of sense.

That's really helpful information, thank you for taking the time to comment, I appreciate it

 

[jda]

I do not know if there are equivalents to Chewy, PetCo or whatever in the UK, but here in the US, there are usually salt sales once or twice a year and we can get boxes for like $30. I usually buy 10-12 to last a long time. IO is always on this list.

It only takes one time to figure out your "mix." Muriatic acid will lower alk, baking soda will raise it - both need an extra day of aeration to get co2 out of the water, but so what? Calcium Chloride will raise calcium - there really is no way to lower it that I know of. Magnesium chloride for magnesium. You just get out your pencil, pad, test kits and chemicals and figure it out. There are calculators adding baking soda and calcium chloride that will get you close. You can calculate gallons * dKh drop * .123 for the MLs of Muriatic Acid to use to lower alk. Once you get this done, you are good for the next times and it takes just a few seconds moving forward.

FWIW - my IO routine is such: 44 gallons of COLD RODI into 44g brute. Add whole 50g bag of IO. Turn on pump and heater. After a bit, add 2 tbsp of dowflake. Let mix. When warm and mixed, add 20mls of Muriatic Acid. Let mix for another day. This takes 2 days, but takes me like 90 seconds of work. This is 1.026 water with 7.0 alk and 425 calcium. Perfect for me.

For now, just mix whatever salt you buy and use it. You can learn to doctor it later if you even need to.

 

[dowdalld]

@starbuck88 Ohhh, I saw that too!

Do we know how long the ammonia hangs around in the tank for after it's been added? Like, is it enough that it overwhelms the system and causes damage to the inhabitant, or does it just get processed like a small spike might? Not ideal though.

RPM is Fritz, right? I really like their bacteria in a bottle stuff, but I wasn't able to find enough sources to reassure me about availability, and they're a little on the expensive side, like mid-range?

Thank you for your input, it's honestly so helpful, especially re: the ammonia situation. Wonder what's going on there?

Thank you for taking the time to comment!


@dowdalld I like science, but only if someone else does the work, lol. 2000g salt to 60l for between 34.5 and 35ppt? Sounds about right for their guesstimate, maybe a little over?

Have you had any issues re: ammonia?

Thank you for coming back to me! I appreciate you're taking the time to help me.

Not that I know of! ...

 

[starbuck88]

@starbuck88 Ohhh, I saw that too!

Do we know how long the ammonia hangs around in the tank for after it's been added? Like, is it enough that it overwhelms the system and causes damage to the inhabitant, or does it just get processed like a small spike might? Not ideal though.

RPM is Fritz, right? I really like their bacteria in a bottle stuff, but I wasn't able to find enough sources to reassure me about availability, and they're a little on the expensive side, like mid-range?

Thank you for your input, it's honestly so helpful, especially re: the ammonia situation. Wonder what's going on there?

Thank you for taking the time to comment!


@dowdalld I like science, but only if someone else does the work, lol. 2000g salt to 60l for between 34.5 and 35ppt? Sounds about right for their guesstimate, maybe a little over?

Have you had any issues re: ammonia?

Thank you for coming back to me! I appreciate you're taking the time to help me.

I wanted to reply again to this thread because your question came right at the point that I was researching what salt to switch to. I had it in my mind that I was definitely going to go with Fritz and that Swell and Charterhouse would be where I buy it from and hope that when I need it, one of them would have it in stock....

However...

I spent ALL day yesterday scouring forums, thinking about how many times I've seen the Fritz RPM stuff sold out on the biggest online fishtailers here in the UK and so I changed my mind, in the end I settled and ordered and will be arriving today...

Instant Ocean

The thing that really bothers me about iquatics is that the second time I had high levels of ammonia in a salt mix, I contacted them and they dismissed me, I think they thought I was out to get another free bag of salt, as the first time it happened, they sent a new bag and just said discard the ammonia one. Obviously this opens up to abuse just trying to get free bags with no proof etc.

So the second time, I went through Amazons return process which Amazon handled well as always, told me to package up the old salt and they'd do a delivery and collection label.

The replacement salt....no ammonia. Just to note here that, you CAN have a very small amount of ammonia in your salt mix, very low levels as it's used to strip or separate certain things inside the mix in manufacturing however the levels in the iQuatics salt were high. If they can't keep their manufacturing to such a standard that it swings so much with this ammonia.....what other minerals, elements and purity are we expected to believe/trust them with?

We had amazing growth in our corals, we had small frags of Branching Hammer, Acans, Mushrooms, Favia and they were doing so so so so well for about 12 - 24 months, the hammer had grown over 5 new 'heads' it had turned from a £20 frag to something they sell for over £150 in the shops,.... Then things started to go a little sideways and we were testing the tank, I have every salifert test you can buy, and just could not work out what was going on... I changed all the RODI Filters even though I still had 0 TDS but then....I tested the salt mix and this is where the ammonia in the iquatics journey started.

So, I started testing the batches of salt when I got them, rightly or wrongly, I only tested for ammonia which is a mistake as I should have tested for Alk etc too...you see this is where you think well...aslong as it's not got ammonia in it...it's all good right? No.

I bought replacement corals....all died apart from a Blasto that we still have that is just sustaining itself, no mega growth or anything seems to just be the same.

Bearing in mind I've changed absolutely nothing, regular water changes, testing parameters and checking everything. (I want to add I'm not a tweaker which can upset tanks too), it's just so bizarre.

The last straw was the last batch started getting ridiculous algae, tested a fresh mix for everything, ammonia, alk, calc, mag, silicates, etc etc and....... high phosphates were detected. (and tested the pure RODI water which showed nothing).

They obviously don't seem to batch test or have very good quality control, at some point it seems in my journey, their QA just dropped off a cliff somewhere.

As you can see, I've not had a good time with the iQuatics stuff and from the very little amount of what's out there, those that have reefed for some time, not keen either. It absolutely sucks because for about 2 years....it seemed to be perfect.

This took me a little while to type out as I'm working but I've actually just had the delivery turn up!

Went with the standard IO instead of Reef Crystals as it looks like many regular long time reefers prefer it to reef crystals and I didn't want the added chelates etc that are in RC.

Also, my tank that I have now, will only ever be softies and LPS and if it ever gets to the point of needing to dose, I'd rather dose than rely on a salt mix that might vary batch to batch, as this IO is 'supposed' to be very consistent.

This is all just my own experience and I might be a total idiot so take it all with a pinch of the finest hobby grade salt

 

[DCJ]

@jda we have some 'big box' pet stores here, but I usually shop online - I can't get out alot because I'm disabled, online's pretty much the only way I can shop regularly.

I'll look out to see if we have something like that going on though, but regardless, with IO the standard price(s that I've seen) isn't TOO bad.

I love the 'DIY dosing' threads I've seen, I'm definitely going to explore those once I know if I need to start dosing.

50g for 44 gal? Nice.

I'm looking forward to it!

Thank you so much for your help, and your protocol, maybe I'll be using it in the future!

@dowalld I'm concerned about these bad customer care experiences I'm hearing about.


@starbuck88 ooh, creepy! lol.

It REALLY sucks about Fritz, I really like them, but yeah, they're just too unavailable.

I think I'm going to go IO too.

If the salt had a couple of bad batches and customer service was good, that's one thing. But bad batches and a surly customer service? No.

I was listening to a podcast with a guy from Tropic Marin and he was talking about how they handled the 'bad batch' of salt from Turkey, how he said they'd just replace any sold between a certain time period even though they were still investigating the problem.

It really sucks, like they threw all their energy into getting a good rep and then just couldn't be bothered to keep it going.

Hate that, and I hate that Kent Marine stopped selling too. At least IO has been around for a long, long time, and they're not solely US based, so availability shouldn't be too interrupted by whatever's going on in the world.

Ha, that's awesome!

Yeah, I found RC is more expensive and had weird parameters. I think I'd prefer a flat salt and dose if I need to rather than get a salt with the dosages built in and not need them.

No way, everything you've said has been sensible, I love that you have first-hand experience and you've just been so helpful.

I think that's the decision made on my salt! Instant Ocean wins (yay!)

Now I'm moving on to researching QUARANTINE!

I haven't even got the rock in the tank yet, but I guess it pays to be prepared? lol

Thank you again, I hope to see you around the forum!

 

[starbuck88]

@jda we have some 'big box' pet stores here, but I usually shop online - I can't get out alot because I'm disabled, online's pretty much the only way I can shop regularly.

I'll look out to see if we have something like that going on though, but regardless, with IO the standard price(s that I've seen) isn't TOO bad.

I love the 'DIY dosing' threads I've seen, I'm definitely going to explore those once I know if I need to start dosing.

50g for 44 gal? Nice.

I'm looking forward to it!

Thank you so much for your help, and your protocol, maybe I'll be using it in the future!

@dowalld I'm concerned about these bad customer care experiences I'm hearing about.


@starbuck88 ooh, creepy! lol.

It REALLY sucks about Fritz, I really like them, but yeah, they're just too unavailable.

I think I'm going to go IO too.

If the salt had a couple of bad batches and customer service was good, that's one thing. But bad batches and a surly customer service? No.

I was listening to a podcast with a guy from Tropic Marin and he was talking about how they handled the 'bad batch' of salt from Turkey, how he said they'd just replace any sold between a certain time period even though they were still investigating the problem.

It really sucks, like they threw all their energy into getting a good rep and then just couldn't be bothered to keep it going.

Hate that, and I hate that Kent Marine stopped selling too. At least IO has been around for a long, long time, and they're not solely US based, so availability shouldn't be too interrupted by whatever's going on in the world.

Ha, that's awesome!

Yeah, I found RC is more expensive and had weird parameters. I think I'd prefer a flat salt and dose if I need to rather than get a salt with the dosages built in and not need them.

No way, everything you've said has been sensible, I love that you have first-hand experience and you've just been so helpful.

I think that's the decision made on my salt! Instant Ocean wins (yay!)

Now I'm moving on to researching QUARANTINE!

I haven't even got the rock in the tank yet, but I guess it pays to be prepared? lol

Thank you again, I hope to see you around the forum!

Thanks, please feel free to ask anything you like via DM etc and hope you get a build thread up. I haven't kept my build thread going though woops, need to update it but with this salt issue unfortunately all progress was basically lost.

I did first waterchange with the IO this morning.

It takes longer to mix and a bit longer for the water to clear vs the iquatics but everything mixed in. With the iquatics the bottom of the bucket would have flakes of stuff not dissolving, some black. I had NOTHING in this IO stuff.

Just 'feels' better using IO so far. Will try to remember to report back in a few weeks for sure.