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View Full Version : Salt mix with phosphates but cheap, still worth it?


plancton
02/05/2010, 11:03 PM
There's a local guy who sells his brand of salt mix here in my city. The salt has been analized and it contains really good quantities of calcium, alkalinity, magnesium, etc.

But most tests also show it contains very little phosphates, they told me about .03 ppm.

Supossedly regular red sea salt contains about .05 ppm.]

Low quantities but still phosphates can't be good.

Why buy this salt then?, well its about 30% cheapper. Your reef is what you add to it, and most people prefer good quality salts, but at the same time with salt this cheap I could do larger and more often water changes which is what my tank needs. And probably save some money to invest on prodibio or zeovit.

What's your view on this?

ludnix
02/06/2010, 12:26 AM
Well phosphates are good in low quantities, but whether or not there is enough in there produce nuisance algae or not will depend on feeding, filtration and stocking.

nikon187
02/06/2010, 02:12 AM
My water changes would be the same regardless of the quality of salt. Stability is key, I use H2O ocean salt.

Spajdi
02/06/2010, 05:34 AM
Hmmm 0.03 IMHO Is very good most brand salt has circa 0.05 and 0.05 Is OK in aquarium. You must decide on Your own but for me 0.03 Is perfect :)

plancton
02/06/2010, 08:19 AM
Ok, because its been a while since I stopped using regular red sea, and right now I was using Tropic marine pro coral, it could be argued that Tropic marine is one of the top brands and contains no phosphates, that's what I'm talking about, does anyone have a measure of phos in tropic marine?.

The other thing about this guy's salt is that it dissolves real quick, I don't know if that's a sign of good quality.

And there were rumors that he was buying regular industrial grade salt to make this salt...

snorvich
02/06/2010, 08:36 AM
Do you want to risk expensive livestock with cheap salt?

Justin74
03/05/2010, 10:48 PM
Do you want to risk expensive livestock with cheap salt?


Im not exactly understanding what he's risking here. The only factor is the .03 PO4 in this local salt. But if other commonly used brands are mixing up to .05. In this instance more expensive clearly does not mean more better.

That being said, why the fuss anyway? Get some GFO and stop sweating the small stuff! ;)

-Justin

ERICinFL
03/05/2010, 11:12 PM
Do you know other people that have used this salt? How do their tanks look? If they haven't had any issues with it, neither should you. I say go for it. Cheap doesn't always mean poor quality. If you want to spend 30% more for a pretty label, then continue to buy what you've been buying. :lol: