Ohio Reef
Reef Discussion => Water Chemistry => Topic started by: Warhawk937 on October 28, 2018, 09:31:28
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So I use red sea salt and Im happy to say that I have reached the bottom of the bucket. I typically run 9dkh 450cal 1450mag. ph is a challenge My house house is sealed up real well and with a wife 3 kids and a dog Im happy to see 8.2. Problem with using red sea on water changes is that it will drop the bottom on my alk and ph. I wake up the morning after my Saturday water change to test and ph is 7.6 and alc is down to 8.0. Im looking for a new salt to purchase this week that will keep the sps looking healthy and keep the alk and ph up.
What salts do you guys use or had trouble with??
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i use fritz, but some of the salts need mixed up in the packages some materials stratify out in different concentrations in the bag/box/bucket.
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That’s a pretty dramatic Alk drop from a partial water change. Did your aquarium’s salinity change? Did you make sure when you mixed up the salt that you tested the new water’s salinity at the temperature your refractometer is calibrated to? (assuming ~78 degrees)
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Yep salinity and temp were spot on I’m assuming there was a fair bit of stratification
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I always test the alk of the new SW before I do the WC. I want to know what to expect. Regular Red Sea has a lower alk than the Pro. However, when I used to use RSCP, sometimes the new SW would test at 13 DKH! So I quit using it and now use Live Aquaria salt. It mixes close to 9 with high Calc and Mg. I’m much happier with it cuz I don’t have to fiddle with the dosing for the next 3 days after the WC.
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Now that’s what I’m looking for. I will be purchasing that then. I dose by hand and it seems like I get the numbers right about 3 days before a wc
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I agree with Reeferntraining, Red Sea Coral Pro salt would be good for you. It's supposed to mix at 11dKh. I like the Red Sea Coral Pro salt. I may at some point try the Tropic Marin salt, but I do not think that would help you raise the dKh, as it's a lower dKh. BRS tested several salts and said the Tropic Marin was the cleanest.
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I just started using Tropic Marin Pro Reef. I’ve only ever used Reef Crystals and Instant Ocean but got tired of the cloudiness and orange residue. The Tropic Marin mixed up to 8.3 Alk, 490 Ca and 1350 Mg for me. It was mixed by hand and ready to use within minutes.
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I do not recommend RedSea Coral Pro. The alk is too high. I switched from RSCP because of that and now use Live Aquaria salt. It mixes close to 9 and there’s no gunk in the mixing container.
I agree with Reeferntraining, Red Sea Coral Pro salt would be good for you. It's supposed to mix at 11dKh. I like the Red Sea Coral Pro salt. I may at some point try the Tropic Marin salt, but I do not think that would help you raise the dKh, as it's a lower dKh. BRS tested several salts and said the Tropic Marin was the cleanest.
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I do not recommend RedSea Coral Pro. The alk is too high. I switched from RSCP because of that and now use Live Aquaria salt. It mixes close to 9 and there’s no gunk in the mixing container.
Ah my bad, I misunderstood your statement. I thought you were recommending RSCP to him because of the high alk. I stand corrected.
I personally do not think 11dKh is too high. If you were getting 13, then yeah, that's a bit high. The RSCP allows you to lookup the exact test data on the bucket, so if you were getting different parameters than tested, you should report it to Red Sea.
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Ah my bad, I misunderstood your statement. I thought you were recommending RSCP to him because of the high alk. I stand corrected.
I personally do not think 11dKh is too high. If you were getting 13, then yeah, that's a bit high. The RSCP allows you to lookup the exact test data on the bucket, so if you were getting different parameters than tested, you should report it to Red Sea.
No worries....
I personally take what is on the bucket with a grain of salt (pun intended lol). I would get the smaller bucket of RSCP for 55 gallons and the parameters would be way off what the label said. Hell, it wasn’t even consistent from the top of the bucket to the bottom. Hence the reason I test my newly mixed water, regardless of brand, prior to my WC.
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No worries....
I personally take what is on the bucket with a grain of salt (pun intended lol). I would get the smaller bucket of RSCP for 55 gallons and the parameters would be way off what the label said. Hell, it wasn’t even consistent from the top of the bucket to the bottom. Hence the reason I test my newly mixed water, regardless of brand, prior to my WC.
Wow, that stinks. I have seen the Red Sea guys say that the salt should be stirred together before use. I wonder if components are settling into separate layers during the shipping process. I have also noticed that some buckets have over 12dKh on the bucket.
The science is pretty good on running high alk for faster coral growth, but only in high nutrient environments. If you run low nutrients, then stick with lower alk, because the nutrients aren’t available for fast coral skin growth. I’m no expert in this area, but I am playing with higher alk and higher nitrate and phosphate to see if it works.
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Wow, that stinks. I have seen the Red Sea guys say that the salt should be stirred together before use. I wonder if components are settling into separate layers during the shipping process. I have also noticed that some buckets have over 12dKh on the bucket.
The science is pretty good on running high alk for faster coral growth, but only in high nutrient environments. If you run low nutrients, then stick with lower alk, because the nutrients aren’t available for fast coral skin growth. I’m no expert in this area, but I am playing with higher alk and higher nitrate and phosphate to see if it works.
I don’t know exactly what I’m doing in this reef world but this is how my system is setup. I am almost sure my tank is high in nutrients and I run my alk steady around 9.5. Seem to have pretty good growth.
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Very nice looking! Did you start with purple rock or is that actually coralline algae you have grown? That’s a nice collection of bounce mushrooms.
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Very nice looking! Did you start with purple rock or is that actually coralline algae you have grown? That’s a nice collection of bounce mushrooms.
Thank you for the kind words. It’s actually coralline algae that won’t stop growing even on my glass. It’s getting to be pesky lol.