its your tank dude so do what you want and most ppl recommend an ro/di unit however i do not use it. i use just bottled water from the dispenser at the grocery store. and reef salt
Very new guy with new tank!
- Thread starter WoodRight
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I find it kinda funny also that when I started my reef tank back in 2002 the rule was only use RO water, do NOT use DI because it "removes to much of the minerals". That was the line at the time anyway.. but now, complete opposite.
My best guess is that the salt back then for mixing was so bad and didn't contain a lot of the minerals needed that the RO (without DI) supplimented the salt. Now I think the salt is a lot better (If you go with PREMIUM salt.. Reef Crystals is FAR from premium). At my last Reef club meeting I made the mistake of mentioning the word Reef Crystals and got hammered for about 15 mins on why Reef Crystals is so bad compared to other salts.. and it wasn't always that way. The company, Instant Ocean, got bought out a couple years ago by an investment firm.. which only looks at the bottom dollar.. so they slowly started to skimp on their Instant Ocean salt.. to the point it was worthless for Reefs.. then they came out with Reef Crystals.. which is the same thing the normal Instant Ocean salt was 5 years ago. Unfortunately for them, other companies like OceanPure Pro salt (make sure it is the Pro version) have come out with much better salt for mixing.
My best guess is that the salt back then for mixing was so bad and didn't contain a lot of the minerals needed that the RO (without DI) supplimented the salt. Now I think the salt is a lot better (If you go with PREMIUM salt.. Reef Crystals is FAR from premium). At my last Reef club meeting I made the mistake of mentioning the word Reef Crystals and got hammered for about 15 mins on why Reef Crystals is so bad compared to other salts.. and it wasn't always that way. The company, Instant Ocean, got bought out a couple years ago by an investment firm.. which only looks at the bottom dollar.. so they slowly started to skimp on their Instant Ocean salt.. to the point it was worthless for Reefs.. then they came out with Reef Crystals.. which is the same thing the normal Instant Ocean salt was 5 years ago. Unfortunately for them, other companies like OceanPure Pro salt (make sure it is the Pro version) have come out with much better salt for mixing.
While I have heard the same stories I've also heard about how they have since corrected that and the batches on the IO products tend to be more consistent than other brands. Even still, I use Oceanic. If I wanted to go for broke, I'd probably switch to Tropic Marin. I'd not hesitate to recommend the IO though. In fact, tell your reef club that one of the guys in mine was a RC Tank of the Month and uses IO..not their RC. He uses reactors to dose and feels the IO is the best base for him for consistency sake.
That may be so, I personally don't know if they are better. I think when they went bad and a lot of people lost a lot of stuff in tanks because they counted on the salt being consistant they lost a lot of customers. Once a company does that to its customer I don't think many wanna risk trying it again. Think of feeding poisoned food to a cat/dog, would you ever use that brand afterwards?
Wow that is allot more ten I thought I would get over this question. I didn't know about this salt thing and really didn't think to much about it but I'm glad you have brought it up. So waht kind of salt mix should we get?
Well, I am really not a salt expert. My opinion, I would stay away from Instant Ocean. That's just me. It is entirely possible it is good and I have no reason to not recommed it other that what was already said. Before I discovered my free sw source I was using the brand I posted above because my LFS recommended it and all the test I did indicated it was really good. I am sure both the brands Grins recommended are top shelf as well.
Yes, it is very nice. All the free, really good saltwater you can haul.
http://www.lifesci.ucsb.edu/eemb/facilities/marine/seawater/seawater.php
http://www.lifesci.ucsb.edu/eemb/facilities/marine/seawater/seawater.php
Yup. University that takes it from the ocean, filters the crap out of it, and uses in their tanks and has a hose for the public to use to fill up all they want.
