Tropic Marin Pro

[BrittStar]

I started my reef journey with instant ocean, switched to reef crystals and I now use Tropic Marin Pro. My question is, should I be dosing with Tropic Marin?

If yes, is there a different salt mix that I don't have to dose with and yields good results?

(photo for tax)

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

If you are asking if you should only use tropic marine products because you use tropic marine salt, then no. Feel free to use any brand of products you want. Tropic marine is a fine brand, I use many of their products, but I use other brand name products as well.

 

[BrittStar]

If you are asking if you should only use tropic marine products because you use tropic marine salt, then no. Feel free to use any brand of products you want. Tropic marine is a fine brand, I use many of their products, but I use other brand name products as well.

No, I want to avoid dosing and would prefer a more "all in one" approach with my salt.

 

[Ziggy17]

If you’re keeping LPS and SPS and your tank is above a nano, then probably yes, you will have to dose ALK Calcium and Magnesium. Nanos with weekly water changes can be enough to bring up your levels, but mid to large size tanks with the above mentioned corals require supplementation.
And what MoJo said.

I use TM pro salt and I dose TM AFR. Because AFR is a nice all in one product.

At some point with my new tank, I’ll likely be switching salt as TM pro is not stocked here, I have to order it and pay for shipping. So it’s $200 a bucket for me, as opposed to IO reef which is $100 and always in stock at petsmart.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

No, I want to avoid dosing and would prefer a more "all in one" approach with my salt.

Oh sorry, yes as mentioned above, tropic marine all for reef is an all in one. I use it for my tank.

Find some threads on how to use it if you decide to use it. Its a bit tricky to get it started but once you've got it dialed in its very easy to maintain.

 

[BrittStar]

If you’re keeping LPS and SPS and your tank is above a nano, then probably yes, you will have to dose ALK Calcium and Magnesium. Nanos with weekly water changes can be enough to bring up your levels, but mid to large size tanks with the above mentioned corals require supplementation.
And what MoJo said.

I use TM pro salt and I dose TM AFR. Because AFR is a nice all in one product.

At some point with my new tank, I’ll likely be switching salt as TM pro is not stocked here, I have to order it and pay for shipping. So it’s $200 a bucket for me, as opposed to IO reef which is $100 and always in stock at petsmart.

I have a 75 gallon mixed reef display and two nano tanks (4 gallon frag and 3 gallon macro algae). I would prefer not to dose and rely on the salt mix and water changes for the nutrients my tanks need. Any thoughts on salts that meet that criteria?

 

[Ziggy17]

I have a 75 gallon mixed reef display and two nano tanks (4 gallon frag and 3 gallon macro algae). I would prefer not to dose and rely on the salt mix and water changes for the nutrients my tanks need. Any thoughts on salts that meet that criteria?

My main DT system (currently) is 80g total volume, so similar to you. It’s based on consumption. So you would have to start tracking how much of the big 3 you’re consuming, and then decide if you can manage with just weekly water changes. If your keeping stonies, my thought would be you will need to dose something. It maybe as little as 15 mls of AFR daily, or you not be hardly consuming alk and calcium and weekly WCs is enough.

When I started my tank, I said I wouldn’t dose…..
I dose AFR, and ammonium daily.

 

[KStatefan]

I have a 75 gallon mixed reef display and two nano tanks (4 gallon frag and 3 gallon macro algae). I would prefer not to dose and rely on the salt mix and water changes for the nutrients my tanks need. Any thoughts on salts that meet that criteria?

It does not mater. If your tank has demand alk is going to drop between water changes.

 

[BryanM]

No, I want to avoid dosing and would prefer a more "all in one" approach with my salt.

There's lots of reasons people dose, but if you do regular water changes it is unlikely you'll have to dose anything unless you've got a very well stocked tank that uses lots of alk, etc.

No salt meets your stated desire. If your tank does not out consume water changes then you're good to go.

 

[Biokabe]

I have a 75 gallon mixed reef display and two nano tanks (4 gallon frag and 3 gallon macro algae). I would prefer not to dose and rely on the salt mix and water changes for the nutrients my tanks need. Any thoughts on salts that meet that criteria?

All of them, and none of them.

If your elemental demand is low (you're relatively lightly stocked on corals, especially stony corals), then just about any salt will do what you need. If you're above that level, then your corals will use up what is available in your tank before you do a water change and you will need to dose.

By way of analogy: Imagine that you need to take a road trip. Your car has a gas tank that can hold 10 gallons of gas, and it gets 30 miles to the gallon. You want to make that road trip without refilling your fuel, and you ask if there is any brand of gasoline you can use to make your trip without refilling. And the answer to that would be... sure. Any of them and none of them. It depends on how long your road trip is. Some brands might give you slightly different results than the others, but fundamentally it's not the brand of gas that determines whether you need to refill. It's how long you need to drive. If your road trip is under 300 miles, then any brand will work. If your road trip is over 300 miles, then probably none of them will satisfy your desire to not refill your tank.

So it is with salt. No matter what brand you use, your levels are ultimately limited by the fact that you can only mix so much salt (35 ppt) into your water. If your corals use up what is there faster than you do water changes, then you will either need to do water changes more often (sometimes impractically so) or dose.

 

[BrittStar]

I have a 75 gallon mixed reef display and two nano tanks (4 gallon frag and 3 gallon macro algae). I would prefer not to dose and rely on the salt mix and water changes for the nutrients my tanks need. Any thoughts on salts that meet that criteria?

All of them, and none of them.

If your elemental demand is low (you're relatively lightly stocked on corals, especially stony corals), then just about any salt will do what you need. If you're above that level, then your corals will use up what is available in your tank before you do a water change and you will need to dose.

By way of analogy: Imagine that you need to take a road trip. Your car has a gas tank that can hold 10 gallons of gas, and it gets 30 miles to the gallon. You want to make that road trip without refilling your fuel, and you ask if there is any brand of gasoline you can use to make your trip without refilling. And the answer to that would be... sure. Any of them and none of them. It depends on how long your road trip is. Some brands might give you slightly different results than the others, but fundamentally it's not the brand of gas that determines whether you need to refill. It's how long you need to drive. If your road trip is under 300 miles, then any brand will work. If your road trip is over 300 miles, then probably none of them will satisfy your desire to not refill your tank.

So it is with salt. No matter what brand you use, your levels are ultimately limited by the fact that you can only mix so much salt (35 ppt) into your water. If your corals use up what is there faster than you do water changes, then you will either need to do water changes more often (sometimes impractically so) or dose.

Love the analogy, thank you! It's not heavily stocked. A couple zoas, four small gonis, a small stylo, small monti, yuma, and bubble. TMP is more difficult to get around me and is on the expensive side. I'm looking for something a little more available and possibly less expensive. I do a 20% water change weekly.

 

[areefer01]

It does not mater. If your tank has demand alk is going to drop between water changes.

This is the correct answer.

Agreed. Regardless of salt when there is a demand one has to act.

 

[Biokabe]

Honestly - with your stocking, I'd just go with whatever is easiest to find near you and is affordable. A 20% weekly water change is pretty aggressive and will cover you for quite some time. Either Instant Ocean or Reef Crystals would be just fine, or if you can get it locally, Red Sea blue bucket. The best advice I've seen as far as that goes is: Choose the mix whose alkalinity best matches what you keep your tank at, and within that subset, choose whatever is cheapest and easiest to find local to you.

I've used Reef Crystals, Instant Ocean, Tropic Marin, Red Sea, Fritz, and at least one or two others, and after 16 years in the hobby, I currently use... Instant Ocean. I'm not currently dosing, do about a 10% water change weekly, and that's enough to keep all of my corals happy and healthy, and my reef is in the best shape it's ever been. I likely will start dosing in the not too distant future, but for now it's not necessary.

 

[skey44]

I think you can have a successful tank (especially soft corals) with water changes only. You are just not likely to get ideal growth and health from all stony corals. Some stony corals are more resilient than others to this dKH change though. I’ve seen tanks that get weekly water changes and go from 7-8 dKH right after the change and then drop to 6dkh the next week or whatever with everything fine. I personally did this for years as a young aquarist in the early 2000’s with decent success. Many corals can tolerate this drop but are likely only going to grow while the dkh is in an optimal range for calcification. I would see this with stony coral growth only coming right after a water change. I quickly discovered kalkwasser, two part, and calcium reactors when my desire for continuous coral growth increased.

Best case scenario for me is small weekly to biweekly water change (10pct) with a simple all in one product like Tropic Marin All For Reef. I run it in a dosing pump but it can be dosed once a day as a bolus too. I also supplement with kalkwasser in my auto top off. I shoot for alkalinity pegged at 8. I dose because I want my corals to be optimized not surviving.

If you want a salt that will give you a higher boost with each water change go for something high in alkalinity and other elements. Reef crystals and Red Sea coral pro are the first two to come to mind for higher alkalinity mixes.

 

[painter1982]

I started my reef journey with instant ocean, switched to reef crystals and I now use Tropic Marin Pro. My question is, should I be dosing with Tropic Marin?

If yes, is there a different salt mix that I don't have to dose with and yields good results?

(photo for tax)

If you don’t want to dose then you’ll likely need to do water changes more often in order to maintain proper levels. To keep stability you’ll want to dose. In my 60g I use TM pro reef salt and dose 42ml per day of All for Reef to maintain alkalinity. I do a 30 or 60 liter water change every Saturday. There is no way I could maintain alkalinity without dosing unless I did constant water changes. Which seems like that would be just dosing too.

 

[Ziggy17]

At 20% weekly water changes, dosing AFR will be exponentially less expensive than the salt, and way easier to order online to replenish. $80 on AFR May last more than a year. And you can stretch out your water changes to 10% every other week, or even 20% monthly. Whatever you decide works best for you. I do 15% every 3rd week and ICP was spot on aside from a couple low trace.
So the question is, why don’t you want to dose? It’s fundamentally less work, gives better stability, and is very much less expensive in your specific case.

 

[KStatefan]

This is the correct answer.

Agreed. Regardless of salt when there is a demand one has to act.

To put that into a graph over a 13 week period.
Starting Alk 8.0 dkh
New Saltwater Alk 11.0 dkh
Waterchange 20% weekly
Alk Demand 1.4 dkh per week.