"Which salt should I use?"

"What is the best salt to use?"

Perhaps the question that may be more appropriate would be: "What is the right salt for my tank?" Many people have posted or made threads pertaining to what the best salt is to use in marine aquariums. The problem with that of course, is that not all marine tanks are the same, and thus a certain kind of salt may not be the best for each one. For example, if you were planning a FOWLR setup, you might not be as concerned with your calcium levels as you would if perhaps you owned a reef tank. This is just one of the aspects that makes the question difficult to answer.

What it really boils down to, is choosing what salt is best for you and your tank. This is the priority of needs. Like the FOWLR vs reef tank example above, a variety of factors come into play when deciding on which salt to use. A few things that may help your decision include:

• needs of the inhabitants

For example, do you keep corals, or other organisms that rely on large levels of compounds like calcium to thrive?

• desired gained effects from the salt

What are you looking to get from the salt? Are you planning on getting essential nutrients to your system by dosing, or do you want the salt mixture to achieve the majority of this?

• attractive/non attractive features

Does the salt contain items that would help/harm your tank?


But how do you know what’s in these salts, anyways? Luckily, though you may encounter contradicting results, many tests and chemical analysis have been made, and their results have been published frequently in the hobby.

Below is what I have found to be a fairly useful link in the matter:

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/sept2004/feature.htm

It is fairly long, and may take some powers of concentration to read fully, so it’s best to set aside a small chunk of time to do so. Since some of the issues the author talks about are a little complicated and often interlinked with each other, it is important to read the text and figures fully, and not just skim over the publication.

Ok, so I know what the salts contain, but what does that mean to me?
Again, depending on your individual situation/circumstances, certain chemicals may help/harm your tank. Some of these chemicals are talked about in the above article, but the majority of them can be found here:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102605

Again, there are a lot of links, so be sure to read it completely to find what you are looking for.

So, what really matters when you’re choosing a salt is what’s best for you.
Kudos, hope you enjoyed!
Tom.

Thanks SigPiPup, glad you enjoyed it!

Subliminal, yes, that's another one out there, and unfortunately there appears to be quite a lot of disagreement on that particular article. (see first link) I would like to think that Mr. Shimek is a competent scientist, I have heard him speak on occassion in the past, so that argument rubs me a bit raw..But none-the-less, it's important to read all sides and draw your own educated conclusions.

Thanks for catching that dorkfish! Could you whip me up an editing special with your mod powers? oh, also, it's an article now?

i just as soon figured it was not flush enough to be a proper article, so i posted it in hope of being a guideline to those who were curious, but if you want to make it one, then go right ahead.

Thank you all again,
Tom