Aquarium salt testing

[+Hydro]

I'm sure that this has been posted here in the past but I hadn't seen it until yesterday. A company tested each brand of salt for 14 different elements, here are the results.

http://www.aquariumwatertesting.com/AWT_Salt_Analysis_0208.pdf

According to the testing there isn't a salt that is superior hands down. I think that different salts work better for different tanks. Since I have a Ca reactor my only supplement that I have to really dose heavy is Mg...so I'm switching from Instant Ocean to Coralife. According to the testing Instant Ocean doesn't lack that many of the elements but when I did testing myself I found that the Mg was really low, about 1150 in new water. I'm going to switch and see if this is better.

Also Marine Depot is now offering free shipping if you buy 3 buckets of salt....and they have nearly every kind of salt. The salt is no cheaper than it is locally but there are many choices and they have all in stock. Everytime I've tried to buy from LFS they were always out of Coralife and Reef Crystals, I'm ordering from here from now on.

[teg]

thanks for the link, good info.

[jestep]

Based on nitrate, phosphate and silicate level's I think I'm going to give coralife a try as well. Looks like it's low on some of the trace elements, but nothing terrible.

[+Mitch]

Fyi @ RCA sale this Sat... Coralife 150gal (3-50gal bags + free tshirt =) bucket for $32.99.

Also, in the past Jake has facilitated a large group order from ARC with similar/better pricing (i believe $30ea). I'm up for the latter if anyone is interested as I only have 2 more bags left.

Here's the RCA salt group thread for reference:

http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/10827-red-sea-salt-and-coralife-salt-group-buy-from-rca/page__hl__corallife

Edited December 9, 2010 by Mitch

[Robb in Austin]

There was a big discussion on RC about AWT and their practices. IIRC, the general consensus was they got some things right, but some of the tests they run are not valid and/or important. Randy Holmes-Farley punctured their analysis fairly well as I recall.

Link to new thread with links on post 6 to old threads: http://www.reefcentr...ght=awt+results

There also was a set of Ca/Alk/Mag tests performed by one guy on numerous salt mixes, I think it's pinned in the chemistry forum. He results showed some better than others. Link: http://www.reefcentr...d.php?t=1714505

DFWMAS also run a series of water tests that was informative. IIRC they also sent water samples off to AWT just to compare the results between AWT and hobby kits. Interesting read. Link: http://dfwmas.org/files/TestKitAnalysis.pdf (Although, they were just looking for the best kit vs best salt mix.)

All good reading if you are bored. Although I would recommend reading them before accepting AWT's results, especially on Si, P04, and trites/trates.

I find it interesting that Coralife and RC would be hard to find as they are two very popular brands.

[pbnj]

I've gone through 2 buckets of Seachem Reef and I'm extremely pleased with the quality and consistency.

[Derekreefer]

+1 Seachem Reef Salt

[+Hydro]

Ordered corallife salt from Marine Depot this morning. Once it arrives I will do my own testing and compare against their results. I'm only going to test Kh, Ca, and Mg though.

[+Hydro]

Ok I got my Coralife salt from Marine Depot and tested it twice with Salifert test kits

Mixed at 1.026 salinity with RO/DI water

KH 13.6

Ca 500 ppm

Mg 1350 ppm

Overall I'm happy. I wish the Mg was a little higher and the KH a little lower but this is much better than the instant ocean I was using.

[Myvirtue]

the new red sea coral pro salt is really good im really impressed

[offroadodge]

i to use RSPC and have since my tank was set-up.

[+Hydro]

i to use RSPC and have since my tank was set-up.

Have you tested it?

[Derekreefer]

Thanks for the info Stephen. The numbers look pretty good. Is the coralife salt less per gallon compared to others you have tried? With the size tank you have I know you are spending more for supplements and a good salt can help reduce overall expenses.

[+Hydro]

Thanks for the info Stephen. The numbers look pretty good. Is the coralife salt less per gallon compared to others you have tried? With the size tank you have I know you are spending more for supplements and a good salt can help reduce overall expenses.

I was adding about $10 worth of supplements (bulk reef supply prices) per bucket of salt with instant ocean. The coralife bucket does make 10 gallons less water though and is the same price as instant ocean. So with supplements instant ocean is .40 per gallon and the coralife is .36 per gallon. When you factor in adding in a little Mg to the corallife they pretty much cost the same, just more of a pain to keep the supplements on hand to dose the instant ocean before using it. If you aren't buying supplements from bulk reef supply then it would be much cheaper to buy coralife salt than instant ocean no doubt.

Oh BTW marine depot sends out the free shipped salt in boxes, not buckets.