Reef Discussion

[OSCAR85]

Im on my 3rd bucket of bright well and I'm feeling pretty average about it.
There are heavy metals attaching to magnet from pump when mixing and it the water is very ashy and grey in the bottom of the container.

Thinking i might go back to red sea coral pro. I also think they had more trace elements as well. Every time i did a water change i would have a burst of coraline.

Any thoughts or users of Instant ocean reef crystals?

 

[slin1977]

I had great solid colour with Red Sea pro , going back to Tropic Marin while I set up my tank. It's KH levels are close to NSW which is what you want for a Zeo tank.
Am very keen to try Continuum salt. Saw it in the AOA website and a Reefbuilders blog.

 

[Lesley]

i bought a heap of the Blue Treasure LPS salt, very impressed. clear, easy to mix and has the parameters that suit me everyime.
Picked it up cheap at 660lt of change for $29.00 each. Bought 3 so next 1800lt are blue treasure lol (was using Red sea coral pro) very happy with that too but my husbands wallet not so ! lol

 

[holly]

We're using blue treasure as well, the normal reef type. Like Lesley said, mixes well no problems.
We're still waiting to get comprehensive feedback from the people who are trialling it for us. Wish I could give you more info!

 

[OSCAR85]

I havnt heard of it but shit thats cheap.
Money saving is not my priority though.
Where do you buy it ?

 

[Sam Parker]

Not to trash your thread, but as a NSW user these threads surprise me. I always thought the advantage of ASW was that you got consistency. Everywhere I read people are saying that the one brand of salt they have used is not the same as it used to be etc.

 

[Lesley]

I havnt heard of it but shit thats cheap.
Money saving is not my priority though.
Where do you buy it ?

Guppies online. Was on special. Normally $49. Our local lfs has it for. $85.00. Still a lot cheaper than Red Sea. And we have over 35 corals all thriving.

 

[Lesley]

Not to trash your thread, but as a NSW user these threads surprise me. I always thought the advantage of ASW was that you got consistency. Everywhere I read people are saying that the one brand of salt they have used is not the same as it used to be etc.

Like you sam we also use nsw during summer months. Winter it's a bit harder to collect so that's when asw comes into play. New tank will be nsw completely now we are purchasing a fire pump for collection lol. 250 lt with bucket is a massive workout lol

 

[daveH]

Not to trash your thread, but as a NSW user these threads surprise me. I always thought the advantage of ASW was that you got consistency. Everywhere I read people are saying that the one brand of salt they have used is not the same as it used to be etc.

I'm with you on this Sam, I stopped using ASW over a year ago and can't believe the change in the tank.
I don't know what extra goodies are in the NSW I gather but just hours after a water change everything goes gangbusters.
I've got half a bucket of Red Sea Pro that I reckon I'll never use. Even if I can't get out to get water, my LFS always has great NSW really cheap.

 

[thepubenator]

red sea blue bucket

 

[rnscross]

I'm with you on this Sam, I stopped using ASW over a year ago and can't believe the change in the tank.
I don't know what extra goodies are in the NSW I gather but just hours after a water change everything goes gangbusters.
I've got half a bucket of Red Sea Pro that I reckon I'll never use. Even if I can't get out to get water, my LFS always has great NSW really cheap.

It depends on your location. In queensland your NSW will have different trace elements etc than down here. It is likely to contain fauna that are helpful to a reef tank and be closer to reef parameters. You dont need to look very hard to find scientific papers showing that water parameters change alot in the ocean with location, depth etc etc.


I've been using brightwells neomarine in my tank for the past 10 months its been going well.

 

[suta42]

Would definitely use NSW if I could rely on its cleanliness in sydney, but it's highly variable even when sourced from good locations.

ATM, I'm using Red Sea blue which currently does the job fine. That said, the moment I come across a dodgey batch etc... I'll bail and switch to something else. As usual, jm2c

 

[OSCAR85]

Wow Thanks for the all responce guys,
Very helpfull

 

[ezza]

I was using Tropic Marin (it was the only thing i could buy at the time) last year when I had a total crash. It is definitely only for people who are doing weird and wonderful things with really technical dosing like this zeo thing. I picked up on that quickly without really understanding it at the time. I think for whatever reason it's forumlated in such a way as to only really benefit clockwork changing and all the other tricky things... plus it costs a bomb.

I have been using Red Sea Coral Pro until recently. I have no complaints about it. I liked it very much, it did the job, it was perfect to measure by weight according to the pack for the salinity required. I knew precisely how much I needed to get my top ups done. Everything grew well and looked happy.

I bought some Ultimate Aquacare recently. I thought I'd give it a go as it was spruiked as being the "same" as Red Sea Coral Pro, just from Australia, so therefore supporting the littler guy and spending less money. I have found that for some bizarre reason, the salinity is not exactly as it ought to be. I have a chart so I can measure out specific salinity per 1/10/20/40/50/60 etc litres according to the chart on the pack... I have found that when I am measuring the salinity after mixing what should be correct... I am having to tweak it with a bit more salt, a bit more water etc until we hit the right amount. It's driving me nuts. I'm just not sure why this salt is finicky to mix exactly.

I don't know about the salt apart from that... Everything else seems fine. The corals are alive, the chalice is growing, snails are growing, softies are growing. The fish are alive.

So yeah... Red Sea Coral Pro is great, Ultimate Aquacare is probably fine but perplexes me... Tropic Marin is for people who don't mind throwing money in a bin and setting it on fire.

 

[ReeferRob]

I use Red Sea or Marine Environment, I haven't been able to find a source for Blue Treasure here. If I wanted to kill my tank, I'd use NSW, WAY too much pollution here unless you can get offshore.

The difference you're probably seeing in the north and south is probably plankton if I had to take a stab at it. In the spring your plankton populations bloom on the south side of the island. I'd kill to be able to use NSW just for that reason.