All other salts are double the price of Instant Ocean. Is it really worth it?

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Make your own:
Sodium Chloride 23.477 grams
Magnesium Chloride 4.981
Sodium sulphate 3.917
Calcium chloride 1.102
Potassium chloride 0.664
Sodium bicarbonate 0.192
Potassium bromide 0.096
Boric acid 0.026
Strontium chloride 0.024
Sodium flouride 0.003
water to a total of 1000 grams
this makes a total of one liter of saltwater
Lyman and James, The Composition of Sea water, 1940 Journal of Marine Research No3, Vol 134

You will need to add a lot more things than that if you want a complete mix.

 

[scchase]

Lol ya true just one of the old formulas that from my understanding worked for at least fish.

 

[BanjoBandito]

...but seriously, who has the fanciest buckets? I collect buckets. Very picky. Red sea...now that's a nice bucket. IO the design scratches off so you can't stack them....TM has all that weird language stuff on it that makes it awkward to show off around my friends....Fritz buckets....are you even trying, Fritz? That bucket lacks sparkle. I don't waste my time looking at what's in them, that's a fools pursuit. Gimme a snazzy bucket any day of the week and my money is yours.



....you guys crack me up. As always, just happy to be here.

 

[nick0206]

That's quite an extreme assertion. Why is 10 dKH not suitable?

Randy, I'm not a chemist, so I won't argue with you.
I work with the Zeovit system of Korallen-Zucht.
Their recommendation is DKH 6.5 - 8.

https://www.korallen-zucht.de/out/pictures/wysiwigpro/korallenzucht_guide_easy_reefing_engl.pdf

In addition, I read on many websites and articles that if carbon is used for denitrification (vodka method), the alkalinity level should not exceed 8 DKH.

 

[RazorRamon]

This is coming from someone who spent the earlier part of their reefing life changing salts expecting better results. This stuff is all the same men. Don’t believe marketing. I use IO and if anything my corals look the same or better

 

[Nburg]

I've used instant ocean from when I started in 2006/2007 and have tried a bucket of others but always end up using IO for typical weekly water changes. Now I like to keep some Red Sea Blue bucket on hand if I need a huge emergency water change since the alk matches my tank, but don't use it otherwise.

Anyone remember Kent? That was the first bucket I bought, but switched to IO/RC right after. dKH was 14 and back then, there were some that ran dKH that high.

 

[CoralB]

Just about every salt representative I've talked over 15yrs has pretty much said

"You're not paying extra for what's in the salt but what's NOT in the salt.... contaminates"

I believe IO comes from evaporation pools, evaporated down to minerals

View attachment 2550307

Who knows what's in that salt mix and how well they refined-out contaminates (?)

I mean Red Seas whole marketing is that they use saltwater from the Red Sea and evap out the h2o to retain all that "goodness" in each crystal

Higher end salt mixes (TM) uses pharmaceutical grade calc, carbonate, mag, potassium, etc etc. So the mix is more "pure"

Purer is better??? Who knows....

I personally think routine WATERCHANGES is a LOT more important than what brand of mix you use.


.

Agreed !!!

 

[90's reefer]

I ran esv for 5 years and before that IO purple.
I went back to IO when Esv was not available.
First bucket was:
Alk 10.5
Ca 410
Mag 1325
I just reduce alk and im good to go.
I bought 2 buckets together and do wc once a month.
So I opened the second bucket and was not going to check it but did.
Alk 8
Ca 290
Mag 900.
I dumped the bucket into another and mixed real good. Same results.
Lfs uses same and says this happens more than you would think.
Well im going back to esv as I never had an issue and can get it now.

 

[fish farmer]

...but seriously, who has the fanciest buckets? I collect buckets. Very picky. Red sea...now that's a nice bucket. IO the design scratches off so you can't stack them....TM has all that weird language stuff on it that makes it awkward to show off around my friends....Fritz buckets....are you even trying, Fritz? That bucket lacks sparkle. I don't waste my time looking at what's in them, that's a fools pursuit. Gimme a snazzy bucket any day of the week and my money is yours.



....you guys crack me up. As always, just happy to be here.

How about FREEBIES....got a Coralife shirt once and a plastic plant in another.

I like the TALL buckets that IO had...do they still make those?

Those work great for stocking big trout....I'd hand a IO bucket down to a school kid "Look it's Nemo"....nah just a couple of 3 pound rainbow trout.

I stick with regular IO, I've tried Reef Crystals and Kent in the last few years and they mixed too high on the alk for me.

 

[vlangel]

For my softie/macro algae reef instant ocean works quite well. I add a capful of iron, strongium, and a capful of 2 part to my fresh made saltwater in the brute can. This has been very reliable and economical and I am satisfied with it.