What does everyone use? I was using instant ocean and switched to reef cystals. I have been having problems keeping my cal. up around the 400 range, and thought that reef cystals would have better cal. levels. but I tested the new water yesterday and found that at 1.026sg that the cal. was 320. I did some research and a testing was done on RC thru a testing facility on many of the different salt mixes, the testing showed reef crystals at cal. 341. it seemed the best mix all around was the coalife marine mix. anybody use this? I was thinking about giving it a try.
I use reef crystals. I tested mine today and s.g. was at 1.024 and my calcium was at 340. I did my monthly 20% water change the second week in Feb. My calcium then was at 320. My calcium and alkalinity has been low lately and I have been dosing for calcium and alkalinity regularly. I just can't seem to get my levels up either. Gonna keep dosing though.
There was a study done by aquariumwatertesting that shows the average cal. for reef crystals was 341.5 were coralife was 453, big difference. here is the sight were the information on a lot of mixes were tested. http://reefsaltanalysis.googlepages.com/awt_salt_analysis_0208.pdf
I can relate to your pain on the low cal. I have a kalk reactor, plus dose a 2 part and now also use a kent turbo cal. to try to keep my levels up, and the more sps I get the harder it is. looks like I may have to go to a calcium reactor, my tank drinks cal. but starting with a low cal. mix doesn't help, so I'm hoping a better salt mix with higher cal. levels will at least give a good starting point to maintain.
? about dosing 2 part solution I'm using the Kent 2 part calcuim/alkalinity. Can I add more than the recommended amount to get my levels back to the norm without causing stress on corals?
You may can but have to be carefull. if your mag. and alk are were they need to be then you may want to just add someting like Kent turbo cal. to raise the cal. levels. it usually takes a lot of the two part to raise cal. very much. it is better for maintaining then raising IMO. I've been adding the Kent turbo cal. to my tank slowly to get the levels up.
Just an update, I just ordered some coralife saltmix, I'll see how it test when I mix and post some results. I've learn from what I have been dealing with it is much better to start off with a mix that has the right amount of calcium and then maintain instead of trying to raise the PPM once it's in the system, especially a system that has a high demand for calcium. With 100PPM difference in the calcium between reefcrystals and coralife and all the other numbers also came out better according to the test result, it's worth giving it a try. You can always boost your numbers up when you mix the salt but that too can get a bit tricking trying to get the right balance on all the numbers, much better to be there at the start. just for reference to raise the cal. levels on a 90 gal. system from 350 to 400 ppm would take 10.3 oz. of kents two part (and thats just the cal. part of the mix) or 1.60z. of kent turbo calcium. On my system which is around 180gal. it would take 26.6oz. of the b-ionic I use (just the cal. part)or 4.6 oz. of kent turbo calcium. So it would take a lot to bring the levels up, and in doing that you have to be careful to keep alk. in the right place also. I was using the kent turbo cal. all last week and noticed my alk. started dropping off some so I went back to the two part. all this is addition to the kalk reactor I use. I'm thinking a calcium reactor is going to be in my near future
i think this explains some differences i have been seeing.... i WAS using the coralife before for water changes and after lots of posts of the benefits of reef crystals i switched... after a recent 40% water change i noticed i wasnt getting the coralline growth i was before... this could DEFFINATELY explain it ... i havent tested my calc level since that water change but im willing to bet that its low. thanks for the info ... ill post my readings after i test it tomorrow . just a FYI the coralife was LESS expensive.
I know somw people claim to be getting over 400 PPM on reef crystals, but what I have tested and according to the servey it's much lower, I know they had some bad batches lately, and maybe the problem will get resolved, but until I'm sure it is I plan to stay clear of it. Will be interesting to see what yours tests at to compair.
I've always used Instant Ocean, but I've always struggled w/my cal level... you guys experimenting, please do post your new finds on here... I for one, am really interested- you hear everything "out there" and all the different companies claim their's is the best in the testing, of course. Thanks all!
This is a very interesting study published by Aquarium Water Testing about different salts. http://reefsaltanalysis.googlepages.com/AWT_Salt_Analysis_0208.pdf
Yes that's the same one I refered to at the beginning of this post, That's why I'm trying the coralife salt mix, it seemed to do best in the testing overall, I should get the coralife mix next week, so I'll test some of the things such as cal. alk & mag. to see how close it matches to the testing, so far reef crystals and IO tested pretty close to what they had in the test.
Well I recieved my bucket of coralife this week and made up my first batch for a water change. It comes in the 5 gal. resealable bucket but also is seperate into three resealable bags for 50 gal. of water each. which is a great idea since you need to stirr the salt up before mixing, it makes it real easy to do, just shake the bag up. They also thru in a really cool t-shirt X large, still don't know how they new my size. anyway as far as the mix it desolved very good, I think even better the the reef crystals, and so far I have only tested the calcium and it came in at 450ppm. which is right were the test survey was, and thats around 100ppm better then the test I did on reef crystals. And I think IO was around 380ppm. so far I am impressed with the results, we'll see when I add it to the tank. I'll try and test mag. and alk before I add it to the tank and post results. You can get the 5 gal. bucket from dr fosters for around $48 including shipping. So it's not bad price wise.
