Starting New Tank, Red Sea Coral Pro Salt

[Calpoly2103]

Hi All,

I'm getting a bit nervous reading a lot of things about Red Sea Coral Pro Salt being incredibly cloudy for folks starting their tanks. I plan to fill my Nuvo 40 this weekend using Red Sea Coral Pro Salt.

I plan to follow directions, mix salt in at 68 degrees in RO/DI water for about 1 hour till clear, then raise temperature to 78 and put into the new tank. At the time I plan to already have my rock and live sand in the tank and will put in the water right after to preserve any live bacteria on rocks. Then cycle starts

Anyone have any advice for a smooth start up with Red Sea Coral Pro Salt? I am quite concerned with insane precipitation or cloudy water when i first start it up. Any advice on this will be great. My goal is to have LPS mostly.

Thanks,
Stan

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Shake the bag or bucket and “remix” the salt.

I’ve never had a cloudy batch of RCSP ever nor any precipitation in the bucket.

Never used a heater to make the salt either.
Use the by weight instructions to mix the stuff. It’s on the box. Comes out to 026 every single time.

 

[Mastiffsrule]

I don’t use Red Sea but I just fill the bucket with water first, if you have a small pump/Powerhead drop it in and get water flowing and sprinkle in. Should be clear in a few minutes if not right away. Don’t add the water to the salt.

 

[Hemmdog]

Hi All,

I'm getting a bit nervous reading a lot of things about Red Sea Coral Pro Salt being incredibly cloudy for folks starting their tanks. I plan to fill my Nuvo 40 this weekend using Red Sea Coral Pro Salt.

I plan to follow directions, mix salt in at 68 degrees in RO/DI water for about 1 hour till clear, then raise temperature to 78 and put into the new tank. At the time I plan to already have my rock and live sand in the tank and will put in the water right after to preserve any live bacteria on rocks. Then cycle starts

Anyone have any advice for a smooth start up with Red Sea Coral Pro Salt? I am quite concerned with insane precipitation or cloudy water when i first start it up. Any advice on this will be great. My goal is to have LPS mostly.

Thanks,
Stan

I’ve started both my tanks with rscp, no cloudiness issues, have no fear.

 

[Calpoly2103]

Shake the bag or bucket and “remix” the salt.

I’ve never had a cloudy batch of RCSP ever nor any precipitation in the bucket.

Never used a heater to make the salt either.
Use the by weight instructions to mix the stuff. It’s on the box. Comes out to 026 every single time.

Excellent, thank you for the advice. Just curious though, does your ALK stay that high after you put the water in the tank? After it mixed i checked and it was 13.3 Dkh, I wonder if it eventually settles lower, and I should maintain an ALK lower than 13.3. Sorry if this is confusing.

 

[Calpoly2103]

I’ve started both my tanks with rscp, no cloudiness issues, have no fear.

Thank you,

What do you maintain your tank ALK at? Just curious because if its mixing at 13 dKH I'm not sure i want my tank ALK to be that high, or have to dose to maintain it that high...

 

[Mikedawg]

Hi All,

I'm getting a bit nervous reading a lot of things about Red Sea Coral Pro Salt being incredibly cloudy for folks starting their tanks. I plan to fill my Nuvo 40 this weekend using Red Sea Coral Pro Salt.

I plan to follow directions, mix salt in at 68 degrees in RO/DI water for about 1 hour till clear, then raise temperature to 78 and put into the new tank. At the time I plan to already have my rock and live sand in the tank and will put in the water right after to preserve any live bacteria on rocks. Then cycle starts

Anyone have any advice for a smooth start up with Red Sea Coral Pro Salt? I am quite concerned with insane precipitation or cloudy water when i first start it up. Any advice on this will be great. My goal is to have LPS mostly.

Thanks,
Stan

I mix it just like you describe and never have a problem.

 

[Hemmdog]

Thank you,

What do you maintain your tank ALK at? Just curious because if its mixing at 13 dKH I'm not sure i want my tank ALK to be that high, or have to dose to maintain it that high...

I keep mine at 8.6, I do water changes once a month or every 2 months.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Excellent, thank you for the advice. Just curious though, does your ALK stay that high after you put the water in the tank? After it mixed i checked and it was 13.3 Dkh, I wonder if it eventually settles lower, and I should maintain an ALK lower than 13.3. Sorry if this is confusing.

Yes it does. It’ll stay there.
Don’t sweat it IMO. If you naturally Blance the rest of the system to you’ll never notice a difference.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Thank you,

What do you maintain your tank ALK at? Just curious because if its mixing at 13 dKH I'm not sure i want my tank ALK to be that high, or have to dose to maintain it that high...

I used natural seawater for years (7.5) never dosed never tested skipped wc due to work and life , nothing bad happened. Stuff grew fine some grew like crazy.

I’m sure if I had tested it would have totally freaked other people out.

 

[ReefNerd]

Red sea coral pro (black bucket) isnt the best salt to start a tank with IMO

In a new tank, paramaters are really unstable, and precipitation is rampant. Being an elevated element salt, its prone to precipitation at the best of times.

IMO what you should do is

• Start your tank with red sea blue bucket
• Let the tank cycle - longer the better
• Once you have some stability, know what your consumption is with 2 part dosing or whatever dosing you setup, and your corals are doing well
• Gradually raise your alk and calcium levels to be near to the black bucket level through your dosing (do this slowly over a few months)
  
• Transition to black bucket through your regular water change schedule (i recommend 10-15% per week)

This will be a much more stable approach IMO.

 

[Calpoly2103]

I keep mine at 8.6, I do water changes once a month or every 2 months.

So your ALK level goes down from the original 12.5? How long does it take to get down to the 8.6 you maintain?

I just mixed a batch at 1.024 and it tested at 12.8 dkh, 1330 mag, 480 cal. This stuff is potent.

I wonder if mixing red sea coral pro and blue bucket is a better option than just the coral pro. Just watched the brs video on it.

 

[Hemmdog]

So your ALK level goes down from the original 12.5? How long does it take to get down to the 8.6 you maintain?

I just mixed a batch at 1.024 and it tested at 12.8 dkh, 1330 mag, 480 cal. This stuff is potent.

I wonder if mixing red sea coral pro and blue bucket is a better option than just the coral pro. Just watched the brs video on it.

A few days, yea a lot of people mix the two. I recently switched salts to get something that mixes out at 8.6, but I’ve had lots of success with rscp before now.

 

[jent]

I mix rscp with hw marine reefer 50/50. I like to keep my tank elevated (8.4 to 8.8), but not rscp elevated. Newly mixed water is still a bit higher tham I run my tank (hw is 9dkh), but I don't think overlly so like pure rscp can be. I personally was burning corals too easily over 10dkh.

That said I have started two tanks by just filling with ro, double verifying the plumbing for leaks, then slowly mixing the salt in. Once mixed turn the heater on, I see no reason to heat the water before adding to the tank for just rocks.

 

[Calpoly2103]

Well, the tank is up! Was a long day making 35 gallons of RODI and mixing in 2 brute containers and then mixing salt! Used some two little fishies epoxy to secure the rocks together and to the bottom of the tank.