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I have always gotten good results from Instant Ocean salts.I used to use I.O. and switched to Red Sea. First Blue bucket, then tried Black bucket.
I switched back to Blue bucket and have been using that for the past 3 years or so.
I JUST switched back to I.O. because Red Sea was getting pretty expensive. I know I.O. is not the cleanest salt on the market but in the past, it has cleared up after a while of mixing and only left a light dusting of residue behind in the container.
I got 2x 200gal boxes from BRS.
I cracked the box open and mixed up a 32 gallon batch of water.
I had the salt mixing for over 48 hours and it would not clear. It was unusable.
I tossed the water and cleaned the thick sludge off the pump and out of the brute container. I figured I got a bad batch so I cracked open the 2nd box.
Ugggggh!
It was even worse!
This salt is unusable!
No way I'm putting this in my reef!
I contacted BRS, sent them these pics and they gave me a refund.
Any other inexpensive salts out there? Preferably salt that does NOT sludge up?
Instant Ocean (Basic or Reef Crystals) is also priced very reasonably.I used to use I.O. and switched to Red Sea. First Blue bucket, then tried Black bucket.
I switched back to Blue bucket and have been using that for the past 3 years or so.
I JUST switched back to I.O. because Red Sea was getting pretty expensive. I know I.O. is not the cleanest salt on the market but in the past, it has cleared up after a while of mixing and only left a light dusting of residue behind in the container.
I got 2x 200gal boxes from BRS.
I cracked the box open and mixed up a 32 gallon batch of water.
I had the salt mixing for over 48 hours and it would not clear. It was unusable.
I tossed the water and cleaned the thick sludge off the pump and out of the brute container. I figured I got a bad batch so I cracked open the 2nd box.
Ugggggh!
It was even worse!
This salt is unusable!
No way I'm putting this in my reef!
I contacted BRS, sent them these pics and they gave me a refund.
Any other inexpensive salts out there? Preferably salt that does NOT sludge up?
Agreed. I’ve been using IO since the beginning, and at that time there weren’t many options. But 23 years later, and I see no reason to change. I will say this. If you are looking to solve a problem by changing salt mixes, there’s a very good chance that the salt is not your problem.Regular old IO, and have been since the beginning of my reefing career some 20 years ago. It's so dang consistent I don't even test it anymore.
Threads like this pop up all the time, and you'll see the newbies posting about the "salt of the month", yet regular old IO stands the test of time(been in use since 1964).
I've used both Tropic Marin salt and Aqua Vitro salt, both of which were good but I ended up using the Aqua Vitro as the TM precipitated very fast and took forever to mix. I don't do water changes often though so I don't really care that much.