isn't there a salt with balanced alk and calc??

[jennmac415]

seems to me that every salt has its ups and downs...low cal, high cal, low alk, high alk, low mag... etc...there has to a salt out there that has these more in balance that the others....anyone know which one that is?

[atvdave]

Don't know. I just use IO and add Dow flake & Mag flake.

[o.c.d.]

Reef crystals has measured up but I don't rely on the salt I use a par A &B supplement.Do you rely on the salt for your supplementation?

[jennmac415]

no, I don't, I dose homemade 2-part, I am only wanting to use the most balanced salt I can find.

[jennmac415]

o c d how do you like your Aquactinic lights? what bulb combo do you run? I am really liking mine..still fiddling with my bulb combo a little, but having good growth and of course no heat issues...

[o.c.d.]

on 14 bulbs i run 4 ATI Aqua blue special , 4 ATI Blue plus, and 6 Fiji Purple by Korallen-zucht . I'm still trying things like -2 Fiji and + 2 aqua blu sp. But so far no los in coral growth and for me the color is very pleasing love the fiji's

[jennmac415]

awesome... do you have a pic of your tank using those lights? every tank I have seen using the figi Purple I have really loved... they are just so dang expensive!

[o.c.d.]

Sorry not yet super busy with work, the pics in my gallery are with atinics before fiji but I am anxious to take and post the new pics . I'll do a post of before and after. I'm paying $29CAD for fiji's and about 25 for the others.

[Canarygirl]

to your original question, both Seachem Reef Salt and Tropic Marin are balanced in Ca and Alk. However, mg is on the low side.

[jjakes24]

There is a salt from a distributor around here I am about to try. They sponsor our local club. Its quite different as you mix the salt first with RO water and then add the calcium in later to prevent precipitation and keep it balanced. They send the salt in two parts to you to do this. PM me if you want the vendor, not sure if I can post it on here.

[jennmac415]

I have heard of a salt like this... sure PM it to me...

[impur]

Hey Jenni!!!!! How is your tank doing??? Its been awhile.

If there is a balanced salt, i haven't found it. Every salt i've tried is low in something. If i had to choose, i'd choose a salt low in alk, but good in Mg and calcium Alk is so cheap to dose. My favorites are Oceanic and Red Sea. Currently i'm using Red Sea and it mixes up low in alk, but a friend of mine that uses the same exact salt, we ordered it from the same place at the same time same order, and his mixes up perfect on alk/calcium/Mg. I always get the shaft. Oh well, what you gonna do? :lol:


Miles

[Canarygirl]

I have a bucket of Red Sea bought in spring of 07 and it mixes up to 8.0 dhk. They either changed their formulation or something is wonky with their quality control.

[impur]

Mine mixed up at 6.8dKH. My buddies mixes to 9dKH.

I've found this is common with all salts. Just look at all the discrepancies with IO. I bet you could ask 100 people what their IO tests at, and you would get 75+ different answers. But its the most common salt used? Heck i tried IO and got different readings within the same bucket! :lol:

[jennmac415]

Hey Miles!!!!

Great to hear from you! Glad to see you are still reefin!I sure miss good ol' Oregon...we have a nice little reef community here, but nothing like we had there. You can see in my signature my new tank specs...it has been alot of fun getting this big thing up and going and it is doing really well right now...I am still head over heels in love with this stuff....

I am using Oceanic at the moment... it is OK, was just wanting to know if there was something better out there...

Tell all my Oregon buddies hey from me...

Take care, don't be a stranger... update me on your tank too.

[jennmac415]

Miles... I see that you are a fellow T5er too... how do you like them, I am loving mine.. great colors and growth... still tweaking my bulb selection but overall I have been happy.

[atvdave]

This is what I use on my 14 bulb 72" Aquactinics T-5 fixture.

Here's my set up now: from front to back same on both sides.

(1) switch 1 on first, (2) switch 2 on second, (3) switch 3 on last.

(1) ATI Blue Pluse
(3) ATI Aquablue Special 12,000K
(2) UVL Aquasun 10,000K
(1) UVL Super Actinic
(2) UVL Aquasun 10,000K
(3) ATI Aquablue Special 12,000K
(1) ATI Blue Pluse

I get very good groth of all of my corals.

[jennmac415]

thanks, Dave... do you have a current tank pic with these bulbs?

[jennmac415]

I guess i can hijack my own thread.... LOL!

[atvdave]

I have a few in my photo gallery. It's kinda cool to see what my tank looked like 1.5 years ago and what it looks like now.

The pic's where taken with a old camera so there not the best. My wife just ordered a new 7.1 megaplix so hope I can get some better ones soon.

Also those pic's where taken with a 2 UVL Super Actinic in-place of 2 of my ATI Blue Pluse.

[snagged by reef]

hey jennamac....ive been debating for about 4 months now if the money is worth the fiji's. theres a new felow in S. Carolina that is now a vendor for KZ. the shipping is cheaper than the fellow from Canada (well, for me anyways). i have a four bulb setup, do you think 1 fiji would make a difference? and also, are they worth the money?

thanks in advance

[snagged by reef]

im sorry, that thread was for O C D...

[impur]

I love the T5s. I recently picked up new bulbs and the color is perfect IMO. I'm running:

1 - UVL aquasun
1 - GE 6500k
2 - UVL aquablue
2 - UVL super actinic

My SPS have colored up so nicely under this combo. I love the lack of heat, and the life of the bulbs.

My tank is currently going thru the most terrible cyano problem ever. I've been battling it going on 7 months now. And then last weekend i noticed ich on my sailfin tang and anthia. It came on last thursday or friday, and by saturday morning my anthia and mandarin were dead :( So the rest of the fish are in QT. I'm trying to take a positive spin, i should really be able to kick this cyano problem with no fish in the tank.

I'm going to change tanks this summer though, to a 60gal cube. I'm pretty excited for that!

[TheFishGuy,LLC]

Salts are formulated for you to use the whole amount. If you take a few scoops out of a bucket and mix it with water there will be no telling what levels you'll get. For consistency buy salt for the amount of water you are going to make up. Keep in mind though that most salt mixes say 50 gallons but that may be based on a specific gravity of less than what you normaly keep your water. If you're only changing 10 gallons, only buy 10 gallons of packaged salt.

[impur]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11685567#post11685567 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by TheFishGuy,LLC
Salts are formulated for you to use the whole amount. If you take a few scoops out of a bucket and mix it with water there will be no telling what levels you'll get. For consistency buy salt for the amount of water you are going to make up. Keep in mind though that most salt mixes say 50 gallons but that may be based on a specific gravity of less than what you normaly keep your water. If you're only changing 10 gallons, only buy 10 gallons of packaged salt.

That would cost almost twice as much. This is why we use refractometers.

[jennmac415]

Oh Miles... I am so sorry for your fish loss... how heartbreaking... and battling cyano at the same time UGH!!! I have had this 180 up since late August, before that I still had my 29 up that I had as my first tank in Oregon... still have some of my original rock even...and so far... knock on wood, things have gone pretty smoothly...

I have the 14 bulb 72" Constellation from Aquactinics...love it!
7 rows of 39 watt bulbs, side by side so 14 bulbs...

anyway, I have been messing with the bulb combo since I put the tank up... still not 100% happy but right now is the best so far..I tried the Ge 6500k and the Ge 3000K...but didn't really like the look....actually liked the GE 3000 better than the 6500...what kind of look does the 75/25 bulb give? I haven't seen this bulb yet and I really want to see what it looks like...also, do you like the aquasun?

Anyway, my bulbs right now are...

front
ATi blue plus
UV Super actinic
Ati Aquablue Plus
Ati blue plus
Hagen Powerglow...(needed another bulb and didn't want to wait on ordering one... may replace this with an Aquasun, 75/25 or one of those expensive figi Purples...

Ati blue plus
Ati blue plus

do you have a pic of your tank?

[desara3]

Ive noticed varied salinity in every bag of salt and i assume the rest works the same way.Supplement

[DrBegalke]

I use IO/Oceanic 50/50, comes out just right.

[jennmac415]

I have heard of alot of people doing this IO/ Oceanic 50/50...maybe I will try that...

[DrBegalke]

It works well for me, but apparently it is not as popular as I had thought:

salt mix poll (http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1218384)

You might be interested in this, the results should be out soon:

lab anaylsis of saltwater mixes (http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1216536)

[m2434]

Why do you care if it's balanced? What do you want to achieve? Do you want balanced, or just reasonably high in certain components?

balanced consumption doesn't often hold anyway, there are other factors such as precipitation that can really skew the "balance" and IMO "balanced isn't so necessary.

Coralife salt has very high ca, alk and mg, if your tank can handle it. I've switched to it and have substantially cut down on dosing these. If you don't have such a high demand for ca, for example, the levels may be too high for many tanks...

If i were to use a salt closer to NSW levels, the levels would quickly drop below NSW levels.

[DrBegalke]

Balance is necessary for not causing radical swings in reef chemistry when making a water change, and also when filling up a new system it allows you not to have to manually adjust every parameter.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I'm personally a lot more concerned about the things in salt mixes that we do not routinely measure and adjust, than I am about the easily adjusted ones like calcium and alkalinity. That said, it would be nice to have a mix that matches NSW in as many ways as possible.

I do not like the philosophy that many such companies take that they pick and choose what to boost and what to leave out because they think they know better than mother nature.

[impur]

I think the aquasun and 6500k balance out the bluer bulbs just right. You have a lot more bulbs so i imagine its mind boggling coming up with combos :lol:

i'll get you a pic later today :)

[impur]

Here ya go. I'm planning on taking this tank down and going with 2 60gal cubes. So i'm riding things out until those tanks are done. I never did finish this tank :/ But this gives you an idea of the color.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/impur/001.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/impur/039.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/impur/lps/040.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/impur/lps/041.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/impur/lps/011.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v292/impur/zoos/037.jpg