switching salt mix to ????

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

I'm switching salt mixes and I was wondering what everyone else uses. I use IO now and the calcium and mag. are pretty low in that. I heard that oceanic is fairly high in Calcium. What about Tropic Marin? Any others? I'm going to Janesville tonight to drop my daughter off by her dad's, and preferred pets there has up to 40% off on salt mixes. It's their March madness sale. I will probably pick up some turbo snails too since mine all died when I moved the tank. Maybe that's why I have hair algae now and didn't then. They were always cleaning the rocks.


I did scrub the HA off of the rocks this morning.....so for the moment I'm HA free.

[dakar]

Oceanic is very high in Cal... mixes up to right around 500ppm, but the Alk mixes up pretty low... about 7.8dKH, That's all we'll use here, so I frequently add baked baking soda to the top off water and it's working out pretty well. That place down in Janesville is the cheapest around for it too... $52 for a 200 gal pail.

Tropic Marin, someone else will have to comment on.

Good luck on the HA battle! We've finally defeated the Cyano, so we're pretty happy.

[Reptoreef]

That's how I basically do it... Oceanic seems awesome in everything, but alk... so common sense tells me..."buffer the waterchange water with a PH buffer"... I now do this weekly(5 gl waterchanges).

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

Cool. I have Kent Marine Superbuffer-dkh so I shouldn't have a problem there. I'm going to pick up the Oceanic salt today. Is there anything I need to be aware of with switching the salts? When I do my next water change it will be with the Oceanic salt. Mixing the IO with it wont cause any problems will it? IO is the only salt I've ever used. Not much for browsing I guess.

I'll let ya know what the oceanic salt costs. Reg price is 52.00 for a 200g bucket. (thanks Dakar) In the ad is says UP TO 40% off salt mixes in the March madness sale. They wont give ma a price over the phone.

Angie

[Reptoreef]

Remember... baby steps. Try a small change weekly for a month or 2 until the water chemistry adapts without any sudden/extreme changes, then return to your normal routine if wanted. I will continue doing small weekly water changes fromn now on.

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

its a 125 g w/ 40 gal sump. How many gallons should I change weekly? I'm really trying to devote more time and PROPER tank maintenance to the tank. Now that I have all the new corals arriving tomorrow, I have to give it more attention. I want a TOM someday, lol. I bought DT's and cyclop-eeze for the corals. I ordered the dosing pump, and will be hooking that up for auto top off and kalk drip. I'm fast approaching the " you spent what in 3 days!!" mark. Oh well......why put off till tomorrow what you can spend today. Cross your fingers that Dan starts a new job soon. If not I'll be heating the house with the MH lamps

Thanks,

Angie

[Reptoreef]

IMO, about 10 gl per week should be ok with proper maint and not overfeeding.

[Sea~Horse~Whisperer]

Thanks repto. I'm going to do a 10 g water change every Sunday morning. I just got back from Janesville and I did buy a 200G bucket of Oceanic Salt. Will changing roughly 40 gallons of water a month keep everything where it should be? I really don't like adding additives to the tank.


Thanks,

Angie

[dakar]

We've been doing 30 gallon water changes every 7-10 days here, never able to set a specific day and stick to it yet, our total water volume is a bit higher than yours at just under 250 gallons though, but it's been working out well, just keep a close eye on your PH, Alk, and Ca levels while transitioning over, the two are very different in composition, but smaller more frequent changes will likely be easier on your inhabitants. And most of all keep us posted on your thoughts and reactions to the new salt, think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the constant high calcium levels.

BTW 200g Oceanic buckets hold just a tad under 7 gallons of water so @ ~8.7lbs/gallon they get HEAVY.