Salt Mix - Instant Ocean Reef Crystals

[AndyMan]

What is the general opinion on Instant Ocean Reef Crystals, good product or not? Experience with Algae growth?

 

[newinotisville]

i have used Instant Ocean in our tank and have no problems with it. We have a bio-cube 29 that we set up 2 months ago and have went through the cycle and now have fish and corals that are doing good

 

[DaveK]

Personally, I'm not a fan of IO salts, however plenty of people use them and get good results.

Salt is almost a religion with many reef keepers. I'm not about to start a "salt war" over what the best salt it or how one salt compares with another. IMHO, it is impossible to prove that one salt is better than any other salt.

I will say that you should always use a quality salt, and that you get what you pay for.

 

[Phyxius]

Personally, I'm not a fan of IO salts, however plenty of people use them and get good results.

Salt is almost a religion with many reef keepers. I'm not about to start a "salt war" over what the best salt it or how one salt compares with another. IMHO, it is impossible to prove that one salt is better than any other salt.

I will say that you should always use a quality salt, and that you get what you pay for.

Pretty much agree with this. I will say I started with Tropic Marin Pro and used it for yrs and got 3 each of IO and RC on sale recently so decided to try it out and see how well it worked. I really wasn't impressed and they left a brown residue in my mixing container. As soon as I finish the RC I`m switching back to TMP. I didnt have any bad issues with my tank with the RC and IO though........

 

[newinotisville]

i agree what ever you use they say you stay with it i have never had a brown residue on mine though not sure what that is from

 

[coralmadness]

I have used, oceanic, seachem, reef crystals, and instant ocean. My tank has done the best with instant ocean.

 

[yvr]

+1 DaveK.

Loyalty to salt brands is always a contentious issue. But since we are on the topic, I have recently switched over to Tropic Marin's new Bio Actif Salt in my smaller 60 gallon mixed SPS LPS reef and have kept using their standard Tropic Marin Salt in my main 90 gallon reef to compare what benefits the new salt has. I have always been happy with Tropic Marin's products and I am beginning to see positve results from their new salt. From what I have heard from other reefers, the Bio Actif Salt sounds like it should produce some great results. I'll keep you posted.

 

[BigAl07]

DaveK hit the nail on the head. I've used IO, IO-Reef Crystals and had good results. I moved up to a different salt because I felt like my tank needed something that RC (went more SPS) wasn't really giving me.

With all that being said it's interesting to see what the largest aquarium in the world uses... just Instant Ocean (not Reef Crystals).

 

[coralmadness]

That would be interesting to see what all the different big aquariums use. I know Shed Aquarium in Chicago uses IO.

 

[BobBursek]

I wonder if the large aquariums use IO because of the lack of vitamins, and just a bit lower main 3 numbers, and then supplement what they think they need for there particular system to have better control of there water chemistry. One of the salesmen for IO/RC is on the site, but likes to stay low key about his position, but maybe he will chime in on that.

 

[DaveK]

...
With all that being said it's interesting to see what the largest aquarium in the world uses... just Instant Ocean (not Reef Crystals).

Keep in mind that a public aquarium has goals that are somewhat different from a home aquarium.

First, the tanks are much larger so they are going to need more of everything.

Second, they must run on a budget, and this is usually set up by accountants. They are looking to "save" money. So if they can save a little by using one brand of salt over another, they will.

Third, most of the public aquariums have only a few reef aquariums, at best. Most of the SW systems are FO.

 

[lzrlvr]

hi i have been using instant ocean reef crystals in my 12 gal nano so far i have had good results.the tank has been running for almost 3 months i try to keep my salinity about 1.024 at 77-78%.

 

[rgfast]

I started with Coral Pro an changed to IO/RC reson coral pro always had low dk around 7 cal 475 mag 1050 the rc 9dk cal 440 mag 1250 these numbers are by my test kits on third 160gl bucket just bought two 200gl boxs like the idea of seprate bags with the box

 

[Jewells]

I use intant ocean sea salt (not crystals) and it seems to do fine, I have to add a small amount of ph buffer though and I use distilled bottled water in my 12g. So far so good.