The Puffer Forum

my lfs got me turned onto oceanpure salt by via aqua. it dissolves really fast and just seems to be incredibly clear in the tank. spot has never been more active but relaxed. he is eating like a horse since i made the change. i did a bit of poking around and apparantly reef keepers really like it; it raises the alkalinity and pH more than other brands of salt. and its pretty cost effective. i paid $14.99 for a bag that makes 50 gallons.

Sounds interesting, I always love to try new things so I'll see if I can get a hold of some.

I use Instant Ocean, mainly just because that's what we use at work so it's convenient. I've tried Coralife before, but it is not as concentrated or whatever as Instant Ocean because you have to use quite a bit more of it to get the same specific gravity. We have Instant Ocean's Reef Crystals at work...I've thought about seeing if my fish like it, but I have no full marine tanks and it's more expensive than regular salt, so I haven't yet.

I mostly use instant ocean but I have tried Red Sea once. It really didn't make any difference.

Instant ocean is all my LFSs carry. My tank is high end brackish.

i was using the petco brand salt (i dont have a ton of money to burn) and compared to the new salt, it wasnt as good. i had more diatoms, the water didnt seem as clear (i havent changed lights or anything) and i dunno, my gsp sulked a lot more. this new salt seems to really agree with him. it takes a little less to maintain sg and spot is brighter with a fantastic appetite and the diatoms dont seem to be as bad

i use sea chem marine salt which i order online at marine depot for $36 per bucket +$15 shipping

for how much salt?

I was reading around other message boards and the Ocean Pure got good reviews. Most of the problems seen were with Alk being 11-12 and the pH being a little lower than most, not so much as to be concerned about it though, around 0.6 lower than the Oceanic Reef Crystals. Most of the people I said that they would continue to use it on FOWLR tanks without hesitation.

a bucket of seachem salt makes 150 gallons of sw at 1.020 and pH of 8.2

so thats pretty reasonable. good things to know. i was just looking for cost effective salt, when my lfs owner suggested the ocean pure to me. he said it was what he used in his sw tanks. i shrugged and gave it a go. so far so good