I have always used Reef Crystals in my tanks. I am not dissatisfied with it, but I would like to try something new. It us time to order some new salt, so I wanted to see what y'al recommend. Corey told me at Reef Splash that he had been using Neomarine Salt. I have been researching that brand. Any other recommendations?
I used Reef Crystals for a couple of years. The problem for me with it was the high alkalinity. Every time I did a water change I would get a small but definite alkalinity spike. Lots of incredible tanks run on Reef Crystals. It also depends on what kind of tank you have and what your target parameters are. Nano/pico tank with SPS would require a salt that's very close to the tank paramters. A large softie tank would be at the other extreme and almost any salt would be ok. My recs #1 Brightwell Neomarine.....advantages..alkalinity of about 8.0 is very close to where I keep mine. Mixes very clear, very fast. No residue. Cost is middle of the road. #2 Instant Ocean purple bucket (plain IO)......advantages....cheaper, mixes easily but not as fast. Some occasional brown residue in the mixing container. No organics. #3 Fritz RPM......advantages..mixes fast and clear, no residue (IF...see rest), alkalinity near where most people run. Disadvantages...calcium was near 500 for me and Mg was almost always >1500. Not a big deal but not where I run. The other disadvantage is that if I tried to warm it or let it sit for more than a few hours it would precipitate and get cloudy. Alkalinity would drop drastically when this happened. This was the kicker for me as I like to mix water up and keep it on hand for emergencies and for convenience. These issues may have changed since I quit using it. There are lots of other good mixes and any of them will be adequate.... but best is what I was trying to accomplish.
My 93 gallon is a mixed reef. My goal with that tank is to grow some large showpiece leather corals, a corner with large euphyilla corals, some cool lps on the sandbed, and just a couple of hardy sps colonies. (I'v got a pink acro from Corey that is coloring up really nice). My 30 gallon is mainly going to be a bubble tip anemone tank for my pair of clownfish. I have some palys in there and a large duncan and pagoda cup coral. I am going to give neomarine a try and see what it does for me.
