Salt mix showdown!!!! Best and worst!!

[75bownut]

UPDATED 11/21/06
Ok just to keep everyone up to date , so far These are the results so far.
In the Best group we have,
1. Tropic Marin has 9 thumbs up

No negatives so far!
2. Oceanic comes in #2 but has more in the minus group than in the plus the jury is still out on this salt. It got 3 thumbs up

3 Red sea gets number 3 It has 2 thumbs up

4. It's a 5way tie for all these with 1 thumbs up each. Crystal Sea Marine Mix, Instant Ocean, Seachem, Coral Life, and Kent.

Now comes The Worst Group.
1.Oceanic Love it or hate it It comes In number one in the worst spot with 4 peeps saying it's a thumbs down!

2. Instant ocean comes in with 2 votes for the dont bother group

3. We also have A vote for each Seachem, Via Aqua ocean Pure and the first no vote on Red Sea ,in the You gotta be kidding me list.

Thats what we have so far folks stay tuned and keep this Unscientific Sorta poll going!!!!!

 

[murph145]

the best Tropic marin
consistantly checks at 420 Calcium, 1300 mg, and 9-10dkh
mixed at 1.025 and 79 degrees
the worst in my experience
Via Aqua Ocean Pure Reg and Pro versions
made in china uses high levels of borate to artificially inflate the Alk readings
my sps were doing horrible with this salt and couldnt figure it out until i stumbled upon Sea Chem and its issues made by the same mine in china....
i was keeping my alk at around 7-8 dkh which is NSW levels and all my sps tips were frying and dying...
anyways checked borate and it was 3x's the level of other salts meaning that my alk was off by as much as 2 dkh! so in reality my alk was between 5-6dkh causing poor growth poor colors and death!!!!
needless to say i lost many an acropora trying to figure this out.... luckily someone pointed me in the direction of the borate issue... since switchin to TM all corals have receovered that were in the tank .... and i have no killed a coral ssince aquacultured or wild sps.... colors stay and growth is very nice!
beware of sea chem and ocean pure!!!!

 

[shogun323]

Yeah!! - :cheer: :happyfish - Tropic Marin
Boo -

:scared: - Red Sea

 

[lion_crazz]

Wow, thanks for the tip on SeaChem, Murph!

 

[murph145]

yeah it was some bad stuff .... i guess u could buffer the alk to raise it but just know that it usually test really low

 

[sign guy]

Instant ocean But wonder if sea chem has more trace elements in it.
btw the georgia aquiarum uses IO as well

 

[75bownut]

The results have been updated today A couple posts Above

.

 

[rusting]

Originally Posted by Bonebrake
Good to know, thanks Rusting!
What does it normally cost for a bucket and how many gallons can a bucket make?
:notsure:
It's about $42. in Chicago burbs.

 

[bonebrake]

Originally Posted by rusting
It's about $42. in Chicago burbs.
Wow, not bad. I just bought another 200 gal. bucket of traditional Red Sea today for $39.99 plus tax.
:joy:

 

[rusting]

Originally Posted by Bonebrake
Wow, not bad. I just bought another 200 gal. bucket of traditional Red Sea today for $39.99 plus tax.
:joy:
I think my bucket makes 175 gal. It 's formulated for RO/DI water .

 

[bonebrake]

Originally Posted by rusting
I think my bucket makes 165 gal. It 's formulated for RO/DI water
Cool thanks. I have been to many fish stores in Pennsylvania, but I have never seen it in person except in bucket that only made 50 gal.
How does yours test after you mix it and aerate for 24 hrs.?
Salinity: ?
pH: ?
Calcium: ?
Alkalinity: ?

 

[chrisarc]

Murph145, I switched from TM pro reef to seachem reef salt and I couldnt be happier. I can tell from the looks of your tank you definately know what your doing. Do you think you might have gotten a bad batch? I know Seachem had a problem for awhile but Im pretty sure they've corrected it.

 

[75bownut]

Originally Posted by murph145
the best Tropic marin
consistantly checks at 420 Calcium, 1300 mg, and 9-10dkh
mixed at 1.025 and 79 degrees
the worst in my experience
Via Aqua Ocean Pure Reg and Pro versions
made in china uses high levels of borate to artificially inflate the Alk readings
my sps were doing horrible with this salt and couldnt figure it out until i stumbled upon Sea Chem and its issues made by the same mine in china....
i was keeping my alk at around 7-8 dkh which is NSW levels and all my sps tips were frying and dying...
anyways checked borate and it was 3x's the level of other salts meaning that my alk was off by as much as 2 dkh! so in reality my alk was between 5-6dkh causing poor growth poor colors and death!!!!
needless to say i lost many an acropora trying to figure this out.... luckily someone pointed me in the direction of the borate issue... since switchin to TM all corals have receovered that were in the tank .... and i have no killed a coral ssince aquacultured or wild sps.... colors stay and growth is very nice!
beware of sea chem and ocean pure!!!!

Are you using TM or TM PRO????

 

[46bfinga]

Ive used Kent salt for three years now.no problems!

 

[murph145]

Originally Posted by 75bownut
Are you using TM or TM PRO????
im using the regurlar version it works out great....
yeah TM is a lil more pricey but worth the stability

 

[75bownut]

Originally Posted by murph145
im using the regurlar version it works out great....
yeah TM is a lil more pricey but worth the stability

I fully agree!!! Since I switched to TM PRO things are much more stable and my coral have never looked better!!!

 

[imurnamine]

I use Oceanic.
$15.00 for a bucket that makes 50 gallons.

 

[75bownut]

Originally Posted by ImUrNamine
I use Oceanic.
$15.00 for a bucket that makes 50 gallons.

That is the salt I was using before I switched to TM Pro. It has made a huge difference in my Tank.

 

[murph145]

Originally Posted by chrisarc
Murph145, I switched from TM pro reef to seachem reef salt and I couldnt be happier. I can tell from the looks of your tank you definately know what your doing. Do you think you might have gotten a bad batch? I know Seachem had a problem for awhile but Im pretty sure they've corrected it.
hey i didnt catch this the first time around when i replied....
ive never used sea Chem but have read many a whore stories about it
my experience is with Via Aqua Ocean Pure brand salts..... this stuff is horrible!!! heres an example of what it would do to 90% of my acros over the period of a year.... the tips would burn and slowly receede away until the sps coral died.... all my softies clams and lps were fine just barely grew thats all....
but my sps man almost all died i lost many a piece trying to figure it out... switching light systems adding more flow adding this taking away that and such.... until i was finally pointed into the direction of Sea Chems issue of high Borate in there salt mix.... needless to say tested mine and it came back 3x's higher than normal which inflates the alk reading by almost 2dkh and since i kept my alk at between 7-8 dkh in actuallity it was near 5-6 which is way too low for sps and will cause them to die....
anyways after switchin to TM i saw all sps that were in the middle of dying stop immediately and all have reversed and healed over in a short time and now all my sps grow like weeds and none die!
so in my conclusion in a year of using Ocean Pure Salts i seen my acros go from good to death and now using TM they are insane!
heres a shot of what the acros did when i used OP salt

check out the tips see what happened....
ill post current pics a minute to show u the growth and turnaround in 3 months

 

[murph145]

heres a up to date shot of my slimer all healed up its really takin off now

heres a shot of my blue stag look how its grown out

so as u can see via aqua salt sucks!
dont use it!