Switching Salts? Red Sea Salt vs Brightwell Neomarine

[shawnriv]

Hello Everyone!

I've been using Red Sea Salt (light blue bucket) for the past year and half and was thinking of trying something new. My tank is mainly SPS dominant with frags to small colonies of Acropora. I was talking to the staff at World Wide Corals and they swear by Brightwell Neomarine salt; which I trust their opinion since I personally have never seen Acropora farms with such success.

I'm wondering if anyone has experienced changing from Red Sea to Brightwell salt.

Thanks!

 

[Scorpius]

Switch to ESV salt. I've been on it since 2013. Lots of Acro's. Stuff mixes clear in under 15mins with zero residue. Alkalinity around 8-9 dkh with calcium around 450.

 

[jda]

What are you looking to get out of it? It is most likely that nothing changes.

Don't switch just because of alk - you can lower than quite easily with Muratic Acid.

 

[shawnriv]

Switch to ESV salt. I've been on it since 2013. Lots of Acro's. Stuff mixes clear in under 15mins with zero residue. Alkalinity around 8-9 dkh with calcium around 450.

My alkalinity hovers around 7.7 dKH. ESV is a great brand - I use their two part. Although I just did a quick Google search and their salt is more expensive than Red Sea's. I'd like to pay around the same if not less.

What are you looking to get out of it? It is most likely that nothing changes.

Don't switch just because of alk - you can lower than quite easily with Muratic Acid.

I'm looking for better coloration and faster growth. Every time I see WWC's I'm stunned. I know salts are from and made differently, but just didn't know how much different Red Sea would be to Brightwell.

 

[Literallyhydro]

Funny, WWC actually recommends I run Instant Ocean and dosing the CA and ALK up to a certain point. They do recommend I use brightwell for almost everything else though. While I'm sure the Instant Ocean would work for me, I'd rather not deal with the hassle of having to dose up my numbers all the time. I switched from Reef Crystals to Red Sea Coral Pro because the CA was too high on Reef Crystals.

There are so many very successful people running Coral Pro, that if your corals have good color and growth, I wouldn't worry about switching over.

 

[mta_morrow]

FWIW I started with Brightwell. It has been very consistent for years and mixes very quickly and leaves minimal if any residue.

 

[jda]

I do not think much. Most of the best hobbyist tanks just use Instant Ocean - most of these tanks are better than WWC. I doubt that the salt will help you much.

 

[Scorpius]

My alkalinity hovers around 7.7 dKH. ESV is a great brand - I use their two part. Although I just did a quick Google search and their salt is more expensive than Red Sea's. I'd like to pay around the same if not less.

It is pricey, but cheap in comparison in what I spend on Acropora. lol. For me my coral are happy so I won't change unless the price sky rockets.

 

[Literallyhydro]

FWIW I started with Brightwell. It has been very consistent for years and mixes very quickly and leaves minimal if any residue.

Do you have any past experience with Red Sea? I haven't seen many people discuss Brightwell salt. It's also readily available and roughly the same price for me. I don't have any immediate plans to switch, but it's interesting.

 

[mta_morrow]

Do you have any past experience with Red Sea? I haven't seen many people discuss Brightwell salt. It's also readily available and roughly the same price for me. I don't have any immediate plans to switch, but it's interesting.

No I don’t. Only Brightwell for my 3 years of reefing. I can only comment on consistency and ease of mixing. Sorry.

 

[Scottsquatch]

FWIW I started with Brightwell. It has been very consistent for years and mixes very quickly and leaves minimal if any residue.

What parameters does your brightwell mix to?

 

[ajtomase]

No I don’t. Only Brightwell for my 3 years of reefing. I can only comment on consistency and ease of mixing. Sorry.

Do you still use Brightwell? Does it take 24 hours to fully mix? how many cups/gallon do you use to get up to 1.026?

 

[nano reef]

What are you looking to get out of it? It is most likely that nothing changes.

Don't switch just because of alk - you can lower than quite easily with Muratic Acid.

does muratic acid lower the Ph? I prefer to use Fritz but lately getting high alk of 12! I was going to buy a lower alk salt to bring it down then retry a new batch of fritz bit rather save the xtra cash. Plus I dont want to lower calcium or mag and all the lower alk ones also have lower calcium and magnesium!

Do you know if you can use baking soda. I read somewhere you could?

Also I leftthe bag open and it got moist and also water got a little warmer and had to wait for it to cool to add to tank. Do you know if those factors can raise the alk. I just recalibrated my hanna and it was fine to begine with!

 

[jda]

The acid does lower the pH. A day of aeration and the pH is back to normal for me.

Baking soda is bicarbonate and can raise alk.

 

[nano reef]

I am so perplexed! I am running low on salt anyway. I was either going to switch brands totally or add another brand. hate to spend the xtra money though! LOL. I just spent 1000 is corals and have some coming. I have dinos in one tank now and alkalinty issues in another! LOL. Just my luck!

Maybe I just got a bad batch. I think I'll reorder frittz and if it happens again I wll pickup an airstone ( actually might have one) and use muratic acid and ask Fritz for a refund or send me a good batch! They said they guarantee and I love how fast it mixes and my corals were doing a lot better after I switched from IO reef crystals! PLus I like the ratio of calcium and mag!

 

[TangerineSpeedo]

I have used Neo Marine for probably the past three years. I was pretty happy with the consistency of it. I would mix it up the day beforehand. I have recently switched to TM Bio-Actif salt which mixes up with a slightly higher alk and has their seaweed based carbon dosing incorporated. The salt is their pro reef salt with "Reef Actif" added.
What can I say when @Lou Ekus puts his hand on your shoulder and says "Here you should try this I think it will work well for what your doing." How can anyone resist that.