Right Salt to use?

[rickybutler]

I have been using the instant ocean salt mix from my local ***** and LFS for the past 3-4 months since I started my reef tank. This cost me 16 dollars for 25 gallons. Many people on the forum talk about these cheap salts and how they have lost many fish over the years to cheap bad salt batches. Is this considered the bad cheap salt. Many of the posters that have said stay away from this have talked about a more expensive kind of salt called marinemix. I found what I think is marinmix, 150 gallon mix for only 57 bucks.
is this the right stuff?

 

[olemiss]

IMO instant ocean is one of the more consistent mixes. Levels seem to always be the same whereas when I used red sea I would get different result from bucket to bucket. If you want a higher end salt try Tropic Marin. I just switched to tropic marin based on LFS advice, mixes well, good levels but not sure if the price tag is worth it. I go through a couple hundred gallons a month so should know soon. If you buy the large(150-200gal) buckets it is much cheaper in the long run. may want to remove the link to the docs site- against forum rules. Never heard of marinemix.

 

[jstdv8]

yep, buy the stuff in buckets instead of bags. way cheaper in the long run and you will definatley use it

 

[nyceltic]

While salt is being discussed here - I have a question. I was reading some other blogs on another " hobby site" and I came across an article or post that basically stated salts shouldn't be mixed. Well, let me explain, the post said that there are SYNTHETIC salts, such as Instant Ocean, and then there are NATURAL, from the ocean, processed salts such as RED SEA (Natural, evaporated sea salt).
And, speaking of RED SEA, maybe it varies because it is natural sea salt which would explain why the consistency would vary unlike synthetic which I imagine is 100% controllable while being processed.
Soback to my main question: is there any truth to the Use either synthetic or natural, but not both at the same time or in the tank together ??

 

[meowzer]

I have been using Instant Ocean for over a year....I have had no problems
I buy the 200G box for around $45 (give or take a buck..LOL)

 

[troy989]

i also would recomend instant ocean

 

[pezenfuego]

I found instant ocean to be rather inconsistent (but who knows maybe it was just bad luck or a bad month). I use coralife...it's meh. No salt mix is perfect; all of them have their ups and downs.

 

[pezenfuego]

I found instant ocean to be rather inconsistent (but who knows maybe it was just bad luck or a bad month). I use coralife...it's meh. No salt mix is perfect; all of them have their ups and downs.

 

[pezenfuego]

I found instant ocean to be rather inconsistent (but who knows maybe it was just bad luck or a bad month). I use coralife...it's meh. No single salt mix is perfect; all of them have their ups and downs.

 

[btldreef]

I've tried Coralife, Instant Ocean and Tropic Marin and notice very little difference (especially between IO and TM). TM just is not worth double the money of the other two. I personally prefer Coralife just a little more, I think more corals are a little nicer, but IO is available just about anywhere and to me, it's a very consistent salt mix. I think if you're just starting, IO is the absolute best because it is so consistent.