Fritz RPM

[Wade]

What's you experience with Fritx RPM? I've been using Seachem, but a fellow reef addict has recommended I switch to Fritz. What's the consensus of opinion?

[Sascha D.]

I've never heard of that salt mix. Here is the website if anyone is interested.

There have always been arguments for which salt mix is best. In my opinion, everyone keeping SPS agrees that stable parameters is a necessity. The Seachem Reef Salt website doesn't specifically say what that alk level is so I assume it's natural seawater. If you maintain 8.5 dKH and do a water change with 7.0 dKH (natural seawater), then your alkalinity is definitely going to go down. The smaller the tank or the bigger the water change then the bigger the drop. You can either use a salt mix that closely resembles the parameters that you maintain or buffer the water before you do a water change. It depends on what your parameters are and what your goal is. I would say that 2/3 of hobbyists are just wasting money buying higher dollar salt mix with no rhyme or reason.

[+FluxCapacitor]

Sascha - what salt do you prefer? Is it the Seachem Reef Salt?

[Sascha D.]

Sascha - what salt do you prefer? Is it the Seachem Reef Salt?

I nearly always buy Instant Ocean because it's a respectable brand that isn't overly expensive. Instant Ocean dissolves cleanly and doesn't take too long to mix. I keep my tank parameters close to natural seawater and I don't need to buffer the water beforehand. I buy the 200g boxes from DFS for $39 and it ships for free. Right now there's a 15% off coupon that brings the price down to $34 a box. The 160g bucket is the same price as the 200g box, but I'm not paying the same price for 40g less salt mix. If I need a bucket then I'll buy one from The Home Depot for $2.

I used Coralife from about 1998-2004 because it was the cheapest and I was on a tight budget. I started using Instant Ocean around 2005 and I've been using this brand most of the time since then. I have tried different salt mixes when they go on sale - usually around Christmas and Black Friday. Kent Marine went on sale for $25 a box during Black Friday 2015 and I bought 3 boxes to set up my new aquarium. I don't like it because it doesn't mix cleanly and has a lot of byproduct. I have also tried Oceanic and Red Sea, but I didn't notice a difference in the corals or an improvement over Instant Ocean to justify the increased price. In my opinion, the nano tank community benefits greatly from higher dollar salt mixes because they tend to do smaller, more frequent, water changes instead of dosing.

Salt mixes come and go, but you've been around awhile if you still remember this mix. I had like 10 of those free T-Shirts!

[+FluxCapacitor]

Nice, good info, thank you very much. I haven't started making my own salt water at home but I'm going to soon when I muster the energy to set up my RODI.

[Sascha D.]

I feel as if salt mixes are like batteries. Every brand makes some claim to set itself apart from the rest of the market, but in the end there aren't many ways to make a battery. Nearly everyone is on a different water change schedule and has a different reason for why they use the salt mix that they use. I do a 20% water change every 2nd month. In my case, the mix parameters don't matter as much as someone doing weekly water changes.

BRS puts RODI units on sale every Black Friday, if that matters to you. I have had the best results mixing water 48 hours in advance. You'll also get the most consistent readings if you mix a whole bag at a time.