Battle of the cheap salts: Fritz RPM vs Reef Crystals

[Unitylover]

You would be better off getting a gallon jug of distilled water from the grocery store/Walmart for mixing until you get Rodi. Or even those large 5g blue distilled water jugs you can refill.

Any types of things in your water can impact your aquarium. The types of metals/solids/chlorine/etc. in your tap water will vary from city to city. Some are worse than others, but at a minimum, can cause/fuel algae and bacterial blooms.

i use a water conditioner, I will still get some distilled next time tho

 

[MaxTremors]

I voted RPM, its what I use. I personally don’t like salts that have high alk, so I wouldn’t consider the red line or RC. RPM has always been consistent for me (I know they had some QC issues a few years ago, I never had issues, but all major salts have had issues at some point, Tropic Marin is the most recent), and mixes cleanly and very quickly. Another salt I haven’t seen mentioned a lot, but that is cheap and really quite good is Coralife, it mixes to about 9dkh, other parameters are good, mixes quickly and cleanly, and it’s around $50 a bucket.

 

[MaxTremors]

i dont use rodi ( cant afford yet )ok so its not s good way, but will it hurt my fish or inverts?

You can get an aquaticlife 50gpd RODI unit for $60 on Amazon, they’re not the best or fastest, but you’ll get 0 tds water. When I used one, I got around 500g of 0 tds water before needing new cartridges (which are around $30), my tap water is around 90tds.

 

[sneekapeek]

You can get an aquaticlife 50gpd RODI unit for $60 on Amazon, they’re not the best or fastest, but you’ll get 0 tds water. When I used one, I got around 500g of 0 tds water before needing new cartridges (which are around $30), my tap water is around 90tds.

Hahaha your tap is 90 TDS…my tap in socal is 700tds. It costs me a lot to bring that down compared to that 90. +1 get something cheap and membrane won’t foul quickly! Recommend adding solenoid and electronic float to the end of your permeate to quickly stop the flow instead of dribble floats. Prolongs the membrane even more.
I’ve just recently switched to live aquaria salt from tm and happy to say it mixes clean and clear, stores long. Waited until a sale and got mine for $.32 a gallon. I’ve seen people able to get for $.24, $.26 a gallon.

 

[Chortanator]

I bought my first bucket of Reef Crystals for my QT and phyto culture since I didn't want to use my expensive Red Sea Coral Pro for them - I noticed that every time I open the bucket, small pieces of the plastic (like little slivers) from the lid break off and fall into the salt mix. If you go with IO, I'd recommend watching for this.

 

[homer1475]

I've used the normal IO in my system for the past 3 years now and after mixing, it gets stored for up to two weeks in my AWC container w/o issue. After initial mixing, I do not provide any additional flow in the container or add heat.

It's also only $11 per 50 gallon bag on amazon (which mixes up to approximately 42ish gallons at 1.026).

This ^^

Same way I've made and stored salt water for the better part of 20 years.

I add cold RO/DI(room temp usually around 65F), add salt, mix for 24 hours, and let it sit. Never heat it, or agitate it after the initial mixing.

Regular old purple box IO user.

 

[polyppal]

As of today I'm off the hypebeast express and just got my seat on the budget bandwagon $$$
Thanks for the input everyone!

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

As of today I'm off the hypebeast express and just got my seat on the budget bandwagon $$$
Thanks for the input everyone!

View attachment 2706772

Best deal in town.

 

[DIYreefer]

So I purchased a 200g box of normal instant ocean from chewy for 43$ w tax - that’s 60% cheaper than Coral Pro has been for me (109$ w tax for 200g sack)

A while back on amazon reef crystals went on sale for $39 for a 200g box. I loaded up! Still have about a years worth of salt left but am on the lookout for that deal again.

 

[polyppal]

A while back on amazon reef crystals went on sale for $39 for a 200g box. I loaded up! Still have about a years worth of salt left but am on the lookout for that deal again.

Im sure 60-70% of the price is in the shipping!

 

[sneekapeek]

As of today I'm off the hypebeast express and just got my seat on the budget bandwagon $$$
Thanks for the input everyone!

View attachment 2706772

Some words I received from others… don’t like the values doctor it up to how you like it and run a sediment filter if it isn’t clean enough. If you come across some liveaquaria give it a shot. Best of both worlds; cheap and don’t have to doctor it! Gl on the transition and post your findings please!

 

[sneekapeek]

I think these next few years is gonna be all about availability and good reefers are gonna make anything work!

 

[polyppal]

A while back on amazon reef crystals went on sale for $39 for a 200g box. I loaded up! Still have about a years worth of salt left but am on the lookout for that deal again.

Say something if you spot it again!

 

[92Miata]

For those of you who use Reef Crystals. In the past when I heated the mix Cal/ALK precipitate coats the side of my brewing tank. Five questions for those who believe it works well :

1) How long have you stored water for you AWC? I'm targeting 30-45 days worth.
2) Do you continue circulation in the brewing tank?
3) Do you aerate (air stone) while in storage?
4) Room temp or heated storage?
5) Do you see the precipitate as well?

Reef Crystals

1. Month+
2. Yes
3. No. I can't see any good reason to do this, and plenty of bad.
4. Room temp - in the garage.
5. Very minimal.

 

[LeftyReefer]

Petsmart has a pretty nice sale on Fritz salt right now.
With the extra savings, buckets are under $40 right now.

I was able to get 140 lbs of Fritz RPM for $113 out the door, which comes out to about $38 per bucket.