Guest burk504 July 11, 2004 Share July 11, 2004 I'm new here, but this looks like a great board (and a great assoc.) What is the best quality salt for the money? Finally bought a RO/DI unit and am starting to mix my own, instead of purchasing from the Marine Scene. Any help appreciated. Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BigStun July 11, 2004 Share July 11, 2004 Many people swear by Instant Ocean...I myself use Kent Marine salt and have nothing but good things to say about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sph2sail July 11, 2004 Share July 11, 2004 Lots of discussion on this one. Points of consideration: Speed of mixing and clearing. How long does it take to dissolve and clarify? Alkalinity, Ca and pH levels. How high? How close to sea water and what we want in our tanks? Trace elements. What does it have? Consistent w/sea water? Bad things. Does it have lead, mercury, or other heavy metals that are detrimental and accumulate over time? Price. How much for a 200Gal mix of seawater? Most of us locally use Instant Ocean. Easiest to get these days, but price is starting to go way up. It has not done as well in consistency. Some say it has higher levels of heavy metals. I'm not a chemist, so I can't say. Dissolves and clears in a couple hours. Lot of discussion around the new Oceanic Salt. Seems to have Alk, CA and pH on the money with nice high levels where you want them to be. Also dissolves and clears nicely. I'm thinking of switching to this if I can find some. Previous newcomer was BioEssay Marine Mix. Shimek rated it well for captive breeding some fish he was working with. Not as clear that it is a great basic salt for reef keeping. Lots of folks switched to it and had major die offs. Seems that the mix is sufficiently different that you must acclimate your reef to it. Those that did very minor water changes over longer periods had better luck. For nano's, some use that Ocean in a Box product. Natural sea water. Apparently awesome stuff, but the price for larger systems would be rather high. Again, I've used IO for about 2 years now and am considering a switch to Oceanic. Drivers on the decision are price and Alk/Ca/pH levels after mix is ready. I've always heated/aerated my water for about 24 hours and will continue this practice if I switch. I do believe it takes a bit of time for the ionization process to finish. Hope this helped. I'm sure other opinions will surface shortly. s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kimo July 11, 2004 Share July 11, 2004 Has anyone seen Oceanic Salt locally? I am looking for some to try with my next water change. J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest cjm033 July 12, 2004 Share July 12, 2004 order biosea salt, best salt ive ever used. ive tested about 6 salts worst would have to be red sea and this new stuff comming out (dunno when) omega sea. io sucks too. but if you dont wanna order offline then oceanic is the 2nd choice( i use oceanic because i cant order much offline). you can get biosea form www.aquacraft.net i think the site is. -Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest reverai July 12, 2004 Share July 12, 2004 When I first started with my Nano Cube and bought some Instant Ocean but I couldn't stablize my PH and SG. The CA was low too. After a few weeks I dumped out the water and used Reef Cystalls which had high CA and the stabilized my PH. I used ocean water from the Catalina Water company in Calif which does even better. It costs $10 at Petcom for five gallons and as far as I can tell, both my fish and zoos love it. I realize if one has a tank larger than 20 gallons or so, going with ocean water at $2 a gallon probably isn't going to work for anything but water changes. But you know, it sure does solve a lot of problems that come with mixes! Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traveller7 July 12, 2004 Share July 12, 2004 Been through almost 1,000gal of Oceanic salt and I am done with the others. Just mixed the 300g and poured the salt directly in the tank for mixing, no residue. IO would have left a precipitate all over the sides :( I can't provide any real information on SPS but my anemones, clowns, and misc, look great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Kimo July 12, 2004 Share July 12, 2004 Traveller - Where did you get the Oceanic salt? Thanks - Jamie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest burk504 July 15, 2004 Share July 15, 2004 Found a good buyers guide for Salt. From this and your comments above, looks like a toss up between Kent Sea Salt and Instant Ocean. http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk....e_id=57 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacetypes July 15, 2004 Share July 15, 2004 IO is the best imo, but then i havent tried oceanic yet Robert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gudgreef July 16, 2004 Share July 16, 2004 My vote is with Oceanic (quick dissolution,no residue,happy tank etc) . Also don't think ORA would use/endorse them if they had any problems with consistency etc. tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tygger July 16, 2004 Share July 16, 2004 Locally to me... Oceanic salt can be found at Super Pets in Annandale. If I remember correctly, either Petsmart or Petco also carry Oceanic salt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mikesroth July 16, 2004 Share July 16, 2004 I know that House of Tropicals (Glen Burnie), and I believe the Aquarium Center (Randallstown) also carry it. If you are travelling a bit further, ThatPetPlace in Lancaster, PA also has it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Houshan July 16, 2004 Share July 16, 2004 If you're near Rockville, Congressional Aquarium sells them for $30 for the 200 gallon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mikesroth July 16, 2004 Share July 16, 2004 That would definitley be the best price I have seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacetypes July 17, 2004 Share July 17, 2004 Thats cheap as H-E-double-hockey-sticks, i may switch over when i get my new tank!! Robert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peacetypes July 17, 2004 Share July 17, 2004 http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=399733 here is a good link for ocaenic salt sph: made link clickable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
traveller7 July 26, 2004 Share July 26, 2004 Traveller - Where did you get the Oceanic salt? Thanks - Jamie Wow sorry about the delay :( Quite a bit has come from PetSmart and the rest from other folks runs to Lancaster. I am down to about 80gals worth so I am on the hunt for 5 more buckets, we shall see this time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tygger November 9, 2004 Share November 9, 2004 Any new opinions? I've been using Oceanic on my nano and all seems to be great. My only gripe is finding it locally... Superpetz carries it, but its expensive there. Might switch back to IO just because of availibilty and price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pedalpower November 9, 2004 Share November 9, 2004 Here's another vote for Oceanic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PupChow November 9, 2004 Share November 9, 2004 Great thread! My salt just ran out and I was about to buy another bag of IO... :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MDboyz November 9, 2004 Share November 9, 2004 PupChow... get Oceanic :p I used IO before. However, I switched to Oceanic and don't want to go back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craby November 9, 2004 Share November 9, 2004 Maybe we should do a group order of Oceanic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grav November 9, 2004 Share November 9, 2004 I'd go for 2 200g buckets if we did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tri Bui November 9, 2004 Share November 9, 2004 I need one 200g bucket Oceanic if we group order. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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