The Puffer Forum

can you use reef salt for brackish tanks?? ill be keeping the sg at 1.010 because if seen some marine salt that says it can be used in reef tanks.i thought id ask first.better to be safe than sorry.
thanks

I use marine salt that claims to be for reefs

Optimal ratios & levels of elements for accelerated coral growth

Reef foundation elements
Ca 450ppm
Mg 1340ppm
Alk - KH 4.3meq/l - 12.2 dKH

@ Salinity of 33.0 ppt

Works just fine for me . The values probably mean something to people that keep reefs

The new F8 is not complaining anyway . Heck until recently it was the only thing I could here anyway.

which of these would you say are the better brand of salt??

instant ocean
tetra marine
kent marine
tropic marin

im using instant occean atm but i found this on ebay.what do you think?? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180904977862? ... 292wt_1037

BETTYBOO wrote:which of these would you say are the better brand of salt??

instant ocean
tetra marine
kent marine
tropic marin

im using instant occean atm but i found this on ebay.what do you think?? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/180904977862? ... 292wt_1037

Over here they recently started offering more brands. Most are more expensive than what I use, which is Red Sea.

Brands I can get here are:

Instant Ocean
Tropic Marin
Fauna Marin
Reef Crystals (also Instant Ocean)
Red Sea

Instant Ocean is mentioned alot on marine aquarium communities. It's the only other brand that I knew of other than Red Sea. I doubt any of the other ones you mentioned are bad though . I am sure it all gets the job done.

ok thanks tim.

Instant ocean is the brand I have heard about the most. But as tin said all are probably fine. See which you can get the best deal on and go from there.

Go with the cheapest.

Reef Salt is probably going to be more expensive than normal salt, but because you're not building a reef tank there's really no need for it. I've always used Red Sea salt, but I'd have to say +1 to PP and go with the cheapest you can find.

I have been curious about one thing. Will reef salt do anything to raise KH? My water is extremely soft and I've always wondered if this would be an easier way to increase KH.

Low KH in any tank (FW, BW, SW, or reef) is most effectively corrected by sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) or by potassium bicarbonate. But there are risks if either is added directly to the tank. Either is best added to make-up water as part of a water change and confirmed to be correct after dissolving in the make-up water. Adding sodium bicarbonate directly to the tank does offer the chance of osmotically shocking the fish if added directly to the tank - it can easily kill your fish is you do not measured accurately.

If you go this route, be very, very careful. Check your calculations and test the make-up water before adding it to the tank.

HTH

RTR wrote:Low KH in any tank (FW, BW, SW, or reef) is most effectively corrected by sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) or by potassium bicarbonate. But there are risks if either is added directly to the tank. Either is best added to make-up water as part of a water change and confirmed to be correct after dissolving in the make-up water. Adding sodium bicarbonate directly to the tank does offer the chance of osmotically shocking the fish if added directly to the tank - it can easily kill your fish is you do not measured accurately.

If you go this route, be very, very careful. Check your calculations and test the make-up water before adding it to the tank.

HTH

Yeah, we discussed this a year or two ago and I slowly raised my KH using sodium bicarbonate. I premix in a vessel and have things down pretty well for my low end BW (1.004-5). I guess my thoughts on the reef salt were the other trace elements it contains. Is there any advantage to this or is that only beneficial to corals and such? I was also curious if the reef salt would be an all around more stable way of increasing KH over baking soda. My tapwater KH id 3-4 degrees and I am increasing it with the baking soda to 12-14 degrees...I wondered if the reef salt would produce the same results.


Thanks

In low end BW, traces are not a critical issue. Reef salts are not matches for reef conditions in the wild. The list of dry materials has higher-than-nature levels of things which tend to be used up in high invert density tanks. Those extra materials are not required or needed for FO or FOWLR. "Reef" salt is boosted for inverts, not for vertebrates (fish). It frankly is a waste of money for FO or even FOWLR or FOWLR + macroalgae.

Sodium bicarbonate is not a trace element at all. It is a macro element absolutely required to support bacterial nitrification and high pH, both of which are requirements fore all FW bacterial nitrificationand especially for BW and even FO.

HTH