Switching Salts? Red Sea Salt vs Brightwell Neomarine

[shawnriv]

Hello Everyone!

I've been using Red Sea Salt (light blue bucket) for the past year and half and was thinking of trying something new. My tank is mainly SPS dominant with frags to small colonies of Acropora. I was talking to the staff at World Wide Corals and they swear by Brightwell Neomarine salt; which I trust their opinion since I personally have never seen Acropora farms with such success.

I'm wondering if anyone has experienced changing from Red Sea to Brightwell salt.

Thanks!

 

[Scorpius]

Switch to ESV salt. I've been on it since 2013. Lots of Acro's. Stuff mixes clear in under 15mins with zero residue. Alkalinity around 8-9 dkh with calcium around 450.

 

[jda]

What are you looking to get out of it? It is most likely that nothing changes.

Don't switch just because of alk - you can lower than quite easily with Muratic Acid.

 

[shawnriv]

Switch to ESV salt. I've been on it since 2013. Lots of Acro's. Stuff mixes clear in under 15mins with zero residue. Alkalinity around 8-9 dkh with calcium around 450.

My alkalinity hovers around 7.7 dKH. ESV is a great brand - I use their two part. Although I just did a quick Google search and their salt is more expensive than Red Sea's. I'd like to pay around the same if not less.

What are you looking to get out of it? It is most likely that nothing changes.

Don't switch just because of alk - you can lower than quite easily with Muratic Acid.

I'm looking for better coloration and faster growth. Every time I see WWC's I'm stunned. I know salts are from and made differently, but just didn't know how much different Red Sea would be to Brightwell.

 

[Literallyhydro]

Funny, WWC actually recommends I run Instant Ocean and dosing the CA and ALK up to a certain point. They do recommend I use brightwell for almost everything else though. While I'm sure the Instant Ocean would work for me, I'd rather not deal with the hassle of having to dose up my numbers all the time. I switched from Reef Crystals to Red Sea Coral Pro because the CA was too high on Reef Crystals.

There are so many very successful people running Coral Pro, that if your corals have good color and growth, I wouldn't worry about switching over.

 

[mta_morrow]

FWIW I started with Brightwell. It has been very consistent for years and mixes very quickly and leaves minimal if any residue.

 

[jda]

I do not think much. Most of the best hobbyist tanks just use Instant Ocean - most of these tanks are better than WWC. I doubt that the salt will help you much.

 

[Scorpius]

My alkalinity hovers around 7.7 dKH. ESV is a great brand - I use their two part. Although I just did a quick Google search and their salt is more expensive than Red Sea's. I'd like to pay around the same if not less.

It is pricey, but cheap in comparison in what I spend on Acropora. lol. For me my coral are happy so I won't change unless the price sky rockets.

 

[Literallyhydro]

FWIW I started with Brightwell. It has been very consistent for years and mixes very quickly and leaves minimal if any residue.

Do you have any past experience with Red Sea? I haven't seen many people discuss Brightwell salt. It's also readily available and roughly the same price for me. I don't have any immediate plans to switch, but it's interesting.

 

[mta_morrow]

Do you have any past experience with Red Sea? I haven't seen many people discuss Brightwell salt. It's also readily available and roughly the same price for me. I don't have any immediate plans to switch, but it's interesting.

No I don’t. Only Brightwell for my 3 years of reefing. I can only comment on consistency and ease of mixing. Sorry.

 

[Scottsquatch]

FWIW I started with Brightwell. It has been very consistent for years and mixes very quickly and leaves minimal if any residue.

What parameters does your brightwell mix to?

 

[ajtomase]

No I don’t. Only Brightwell for my 3 years of reefing. I can only comment on consistency and ease of mixing. Sorry.

Do you still use Brightwell? Does it take 24 hours to fully mix? how many cups/gallon do you use to get up to 1.026?