# Salt mixes and additives



## AdobeOtoCat (Dec 10, 2011)

Hi everyone. I noticed there is an abundance of pro reefers on this forum. There is a similar thread found on canreef but I believe opinions here will be more accurate.

I am using instant ocean right now as a salt mix for a ~19gal nano. I occasionally need to add calcium and magnesium in addition to my weekly 10% wcs. Ive bumped up the wc to 50% and noticed my corals, namely the sps corals were much happier. However, it takes 24 hours for the mix to become clear and safe to add to the tank. I still have to add more magnesium as it drops to 1290 ppm.

I was wondering if salt is just salt. Are impurities even a factor in salt mixes or its just how much mg alk iodine etc is formulated in each brand. Is it worth to pay the premium for brands such as zeovits salt mixes?

All opinions are welcome. Thanks a bunch.

Ps. Can anyone spare some salt of each brand (i would also be willing to purchase some). I would love to experiment and document the effects of different salts on corals.


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## dino (Aug 29, 2011)

salt mixes do vary I know its important to really mix your bucket well also from what ive been told and as you said its good to mix prehand. what kind of stock do you have? mag drops from what number to 1290 may I ask?


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

Lots of experienced reefers use IO exclusively, and have for years. There are a ton of threads on the pros and cons. 
For a fish only or softies, or if you are willing to test and dose to save money, IO is the way to go. It's cheap and consistent. 

For a tank your size, I would get one of the premium salts and be done with it, no guessing and no fuss, just do regular water changes and you're golden.


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## gklaw (May 31, 2010)

I have been using a calcium reactor for over 10 years and never added anything. But IO do softies and LPS only. No SPS. Well soon moving to the even brighter side.
As DeepRed says. For a 19g why not give the better brand a shot and see if there is any difference.


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## SeaHorse_Fanatic (Apr 22, 2010)

Most very experienced and successful reefers I know use IO and simply top up with additives. That is also what I do. This is far more cost effective with our larger systems (i.e. over 100g reefs) since IO is by far the least expensive and most widely available salt brand and has stood the test of time. 

Although I love to experiment and test stuff for myself, your reef tank is both very sensitive to changes and very expensive to stock so I would recommend against testing different salt brands on your tank. If you really want to do it "scientifically", then run several small tanks with identical starting parameters and conditions & equipment using a frag of the same type of coral in each tank. It is much more work but far safer than risking your own reef tank. My other suggestion would be to wait until you upgrade to a bigger reef system (most reefers eventually upgrade) and then use your original one for such an experiment. The results can then be used to choose a final salt brand for your bigger reef (without risking everything). In a small system (like a 19g), you want to reduce shocks to the system and changing salt brands weekly to perform a test could shock your tank and place your corals at risk.

Just my $.02.

Anthony


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## AdobeOtoCat (Dec 10, 2011)

Magnesium will drop from 1310. It drops after water change. It might be the batch of io i got. I am not really sure. I have already used up my 1lb for mgso4. I dont dare to use epsom salts. 

I have one meteor shower coral. And another red sps one. (Will post picture soon). Aussia maze coral. Theyre not doing good. No polyp extensions. Some are slowly dying.

Soft corals are all thriving. Frogspawn. Elegance. Green leather torch etc.

I am a bit tired of additives and im unsure if the amount of corals in the tank will still require me to add calcium or magnesium if i were to use a better salt. 

I will also not conduct any salt experiments anymore. It does sound really risky. Thanks guys.

Im almost out of io. I will buy zeovit best reefers salt for my next salt to try. Im going to skip on the h2o.

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## aQ.LED (Nov 13, 2012)

I am using the premium seachem salt'salinity which you can give a try. They sell it in king Ed.


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## PurpleMonkey (Nov 28, 2011)

I have a heavily stocked (coral wise) nano with mainly sps and lps. I use IO. I do need to top off Ca, alk, and Mg occasionally but for the most part I don't bother. I use a saturated Kalk drip to maintain Ca and Alk... and add 10 mL of Mg a week (on avg). System seems happy.


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## deepRED (May 22, 2010)

AdobeOtoCat said:


> Magnesium will drop from 1310. It drops after water change. It might be the batch of io i got. I am not really sure. I have already used up my 1lb for mgso4. I dont dare to use epsom salts.
> 
> I have one meteor shower coral. And another red sps one. (Will post picture soon). Aussia maze coral. Theyre not doing good. No polyp extensions. Some are slowly dying.
> 
> ...


If your sps isn't doing well it could be a number of issues that might not have anything to do with your salt mix. Lighting, placement, flow, nutrient levels.. the list goes on. 
Your soft corals and lps are going to be much more forgiving than the sps in your tank, and if things are slowly dying, it's usually not a matter of low levels in your salt mix.

I too use IO, and have been for the past decade. In my softies tank, I don't dose anything, just water changes every 2-3 months and the coral grows like weeds.

On my old 260 gallon I topped up with additives and dosed kalk as well.

If you want to try a different salt, go with smaller, more frequent water changes in order to make the transition a smoother one.


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## msjboy (May 2, 2011)

If you factor in the cost of additives to a low costing salt like IO ( eg $29-39), it might make sense to just buy a $79 bucket of salt that has more of the additives you would otherwise buy. I seem to recall a website(s) that did an analysis of the most popular salts; I believe Seachem has a higher Ca then others; ....Feature Article: A Chemical Analysis of Select Trace Elements in Synthetic Sea Salts and Natural Seawater - Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog or Feature Article: Inland Reef Aquaria Salt Study Part II - Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog ; to grow SPS, especially in a nano, you have to have the best water, with stable parameters; successful sps nano's use auto dosers, wavemotion, light, etc. - feed it stuff like zeovit, etc. Just check out the people at nano-reef.com for their setups... have a look at "nanotopia" & iminsky who won previous TOTM's there - they are local people.


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## AdobeOtoCat (Dec 10, 2011)

I think I am going to have regularly dose and spot feed. I also changed the placement of the rocks to allow for more flow and lighting. I think I'll pay the premium for the zeovit, but thank you for the seachem suggestion. I am moving toward more expensive corals (sps), and would think this as a long term investment.

10mL mg, how much ppm does that raise your tank by? Is it DIY?
From this

To this



These are the corals that are not doing well.




I am using additives such as zeovit. I am beginning to think that my sand bed is storing some nutrients so I'm going to try and vacuum it every time I do a water change. I personally regret using that much sand. I took some sand out and now they're 1" deep. AS for lighting I use leds. I have a lid on it, and it always fogs up and screws up the lighting. Should I take the lid off?

Thanks for the links. I remember someone telling me that they went barebottom with only weekly wcs with sps.


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## PurpleMonkey (Nov 28, 2011)

I can't remember exactly how much it brings it up... I did the math a while ago. I basically tested the mg every week at the same time and noted how much it decreased by. I then followed the instructions on the kent tech m bottle. 

I would have done DIY but with a nano tank, it's not that much of a cost to use the store bought stuff... Especially if you grab it when it's on sale


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## AdobeOtoCat (Dec 10, 2011)

Youre right. But ive been doing diy mixes for a while and a lb of mgso4 is only $4 (im a bit frugal). I saw mgcl on bulkreefsupply. Whats the advantages of sulfate vs chlorides?

Mmmm on second thought. Paying the premium doesnt sound so good. I would like if i had more control of whats going in. All of your comments appears to lean more towards basic salt.

I would prefer a salt mix that doesnt cloud my water after mixing it in my display tank. Does the seachem at king eds cloud after mixing?

I also really want to try fluval sea...i dont know where to get it though.

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## aQ.LED (Nov 13, 2012)

U micing salt inside the tank? I always let it mix in a separated tank and keep power head up , never had cloudy issue


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## Dietmar (Dec 15, 2011)

Sulfate vs cloride?

Read this excellent article on Ca, alk and Mg

An Improved Do-it-Yourself Two-Part Calcium and Alkalinity Supplement System by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com


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## AdobeOtoCat (Dec 10, 2011)

Magnesium chloride and magnesium sulfate. I see people use either or. Thanks for the link. Cleared a lot of things up.

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## AdobeOtoCat (Dec 10, 2011)

I mix it in seperate tank as well. Cloudy still. Not clear. Causes the tank to cloud for a short while. 

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## Dietmar (Dec 15, 2011)

AdobeOtoCat said:


> Magnesium chloride and magnesium sulfate. I see people use either or. Thanks for the link. Cleared a lot of things up.
> 
> Sent from my SGH-I727R using Tapatalk 2


You should not use one or the other, In the article, there is a proportion of one to the other. You should use that ratio.
If I remember right, its 3 cups epsom salts to 5 cups magnesium chloride hexahydrade. But read the article.


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