Red Sea coral pro salt!

Well guys, I got my bucket of red sea coral pro salt to replace the bad reef crystals I had, below are the specs on a five gallon bucket of ro-di water mixed to 1025. Worth noting is that the salt mixed completey clear in about ten minutes. So far I like this salt but only time will tell, I used to like reef crystals till I got the bad bucket and talking to their customer support was worse than talking to the indian tech support, REALLY! Fot those who don't know, this salt is specially formulated for ro water. It comes from Israel where it is water pumped from the red sea reef and dehydrated then treated to remove unwanted pathogenes and boosted in major trace elements. I like the fact that it has a high alk and calcium + magnesium all in a balanced formula. You also mix this salt by the pound but on investigation found that it is about like the others, I mixed 2-1/2 cups per 5 gallons to get 1025.

Salinity-----1025
PH----------8.4
Alkalinity----14 DKH
Calcium-----480 ppm
Magnesium--1300

I made a 20% water change in my 28g today with the red sea salt and it seems everything likes it, corals are all opened up big time. On testing the alk before and after , before the water change alk had dropped to 6 DKH after the 20% change alk went back up to 8. I'll be glad when all the reef crystals is replaced with water changes. I will probably do 20% a week to get this done. I also changed out 75% of the pico with alk raising to 12 DKH and same results with the corals, they are bulging like they really like the water.

Keep me updated on how you like it. I still haven't had any problems out of RC or Coralife before that but if it works out for you I may try the Red Sea.

I will Gabe. I always liked Reef Crystals myself until that last bucket. You know, it wasn't the salt being bad that ticked me off, that can happen with any of the brands, it was just the fact that their customer service was so rude and didn't give a s**t about it that got me, thats why I changed brands, it wasn't the salt it was the maker. Its going to intersting to see if the chemistry in red sea will allow for a 14 DKH and not burn the corals, again, only time will tell.

Yeah, the 14 dkh concerns me too. I guess if your alk. usage is high and you only change 10-20% it wouldn't be a problem. The problems in my tank started when I got lazy on testing an my alk. got up to 12. Montis were the first to show stress.

ritter678 wrote:Yeah, the 14 dkh concerns me too. I guess if your alk. usage is high and you only change 10-20% it wouldn't be a problem. The problems in my tank started when I got lazy on testing an my alk. got up to 12. Montis were the first to show stress.

The way I kinda feel about the alk thing is as long as the calcium and magnesium and PH are up to par a 14 DKH on alk is ok, its when you have high alk and low calcium and mag that the alk becomes a problem. I know lots of sps reefers prefer 12-14 DKH as long as its not a low nutrient system. I think my tank is suffering from to low of alk because of the bad salt because a few months ago my alk was 12 and everything was growing good but with the low alk 3 DKH salt and me trying to artificially raise the alk right out of the box it became a problem. I could boost the alk with baking soda but it would drop right back in a few hours. I have also read that this could be a problem when boosting with baking soda. If alk is low in the new salt mix its hard to raise it up and keep it there. Makes me wish I woulda took Chemistry in school instead of some of the other crazy stuff.