A Salt Question

[Redfish]

I have seen this when I am in Gerwins shop, Instant Ocean Salt, two different colored boxes. Never really thought about it, I always buy what he gives me and never think twice about it. Instant Ocean Reef Crystals and Instant Ocean Sea Salt, what's the difference between the two?

[bluwtr]

Reef Crystals have a higher Ca+ content (maybe Alk and Mg as well but not sure). I assume they formulated it with higher levels to help maintain calcium levels if you have a high SPS and LPS system. Personally, I would save the extra money and apply it to a quality supplement, but some reefers swear by it. if you notice, almost every manufacturer sells a "pro" salt. I believe it is along the same line.

[Scott Allen]

If you want more information about the actual differences of different salt mixes I found this in depth study a while back that I found very interesting.

http://sites.google.com/site/reefsaltan ... edirects=0


The common advertised differences are in the levels of the following:
Salinity
PH
Calcium
Alk
Mag
Strontium
Trace Elements

Unadvertised differences can also include: (almost all salt mixes do include trace amounts of all these up to the amounts listed)
Phosphate (up to .13mg/l)
Nitrite (up to .009mg/l)
Nitrate (up to .5 mg/l)
etc....


When looking specifically at the Instant ocean in the blue and the instant ocean reef crystals in the red. There are enough differences in the phosphate levels alone to influence me to go reef crystals (actually I use Salinity salt but I'm OCD)...

[Gz28]

I started with the regular instant ocean salt and switched to reef crystals after a couple of water changes i seemed to notice it was a little easier keeping my ph high enough. may just be my experience though. *shrug as far as coral growth or health...i cant really say i see a differance, doesnt mean there is not one i just havent noticed one. I still use reef crystals if anything i dont have to suppliment ph additives as much.

[Gerwin]

great feed back from everyone on this,
Not so long ago when asked this question I would say IO is fine if you adding the additives but that was when there was a substantial difference in price, for the last year or so I tend to agree with just going with reef Crystals, why start with a handicap and have to add more of everything to get it where you want for accepted reef levels and the price is not a big deal on difference.
The Salinity seems to be making everyone happy as well for Reef Tanks and they also give you 3rd party info on batch levels

[Redfish]

If you want more information about the actual differences of different salt mixes I found this in depth study a while back that I found very interesting.

http://sites.google.com/site/reefsaltan ... edirects=0


The common advertised differences are in the levels of the following:
Salinity
PH
Calcium
Alk
Mag
Strontium
Trace Elements

Unadvertised differences can also include: (almost all salt mixes do include trace amounts of all these up to the amounts listed)
Phosphate (up to .13mg/l)
Nitrite (up to .009mg/l)
Nitrate (up to .5 mg/l)
etc....


When looking specifically at the Instant ocean in the blue and the instant ocean reef crystals in the red. There are enough differences in the phosphate levels alone to influence me to go reef crystals (actually I use Salinity salt but I'm OCD)...

Ok, tell us about Salinity Salt, whats differant about this salt?

[bluwtr]

Scott, I use IO salt and have tested baseline on every thing and here are my results:
pH 8.0-8.1
Ca+ 420-440
Alk >14.0 dKH
Mg+ >1400ppm
PO4 0ppm
NO2 0ppm
NO3 0ppm

Granted, I'm not an analytical chem lab, but those were my results using RO/DI water from Gerwin and mixing the salt to 1.025 SG.

One thing to remember about most reports out there--one company usually pays for the report and as such has better results than it's competitors.

Something else, I've read a lot of users of IO-RC have very good coraline algae growth and they claim their SPS grow better.

[Gerwin]

Salinty is Aquavitro / SeaChem Salt their "Pro" line, I spoke with the CEO of the company for probably about 15 minutes last year about their products and my like/ dislikes. As was mentioned everyone has their High End line, so besides doing what ever they can to create a good product they then send every batch to a independent lab for analysis of exact levels of Ca/ALK/Mg and something else....tehn the container is labeled with the contents of that batch. So it tells you what NSW is, what they guarantee they will be between and then what that batch is .
And yes, you pay for this service (one reason the salt is a bit more), but unlike lets say a Motor Trend magazine, picking truck of the year (who also gets advertising dollars from the manufacturer), I doubt the numbers are skewed, no reason to really, they are gonna be in the ball park just as Reef Crystals etc, its just now you dont have to wander how close it is you know exactly what it is. Also a interesting factoid is by IO own documentation IO salt is suppose to hydrate out to 380 ppm Ca and reef crystals the 420/450.
All that being said I sell WAY more Instant Ocean and Reef Crystals, then the others and everyone is happy....and at the end of the day , thats all the really matters.