Any Red Sea Coral Pro Users Out There??

[DaveK]

... too much supplication...

An excellent point. IMHO, if you have to add a lot of supplements to you salt mix to "get it right" you are using an inferior brand and should switch. A decent salt should not need much in the way of additions.

It's factors like this that let you judge that a salt is inferior, but it can't demonstrate which salt is "the best".

I once came across a post (not here) where someone was saying that they used a mix of 1/2 Brand A and 1/2 Brand B because Brand A was low in one are and high in another and Brand B was just the opposite. To my want of thinking this was very foolish, because this only accounted for parameter that you can test, and not all the possible parameters in SW. I'd much rather use a brand that when mixed was at least close to the parameters I wanted.

Another thing that gets me about some salts it that the 50 gal package weighs in at quite a bit less that 15 lbs. and the instructions say it makes 50 gal of water at 1.022. Since we usually want our SG, especially in a reef to be much higher, I feel we are being short changed, almost to the point of fraud.

 

[DaveK]

... Back when we started it was pretty much AO only in those plastic bags with the bottles of liquid trace elements that always leaked during shipping. Or you made your own.
...

The first salt for making SW the I used was Rila Marine Mix. The company no longer exists. I do believe the IO salt was made before this, but Rila was the only salt available at the very few LFS that had SW fish. By today's standards, it would be considered a poor salt.

Making your own was something I never tried. While some decent formulas were published and available, it would have been very expensive to obtain all the trace elements needed. For example, you might have to purchase a 1 lb jar of the chemical needed, and then might need only .5 grams of the material for a 50 gal mix.

Looking back, it was amazing how many useless products have been made for the SW hobby, but that a subject for another thread.

 

[reeferwanabe]

another thread on useless products is a good idea especially for those of us still new to the hobby. I'm sure I have a couple of those items in my cabnets.

 

[cmart28]

Since I'm asked so nicely, by two members, The salt I use is Aquacraft's Marine Environment. It is just about unavailable on the east coast as a LFS. I have to order my supply via the net. Naturally, this makes it very expensive. You can order it direct here (offsite link) - http://www.aquacraft.net/s9914.html You can also order it from North Coast Pets, and it will be slightly less expensive (offsite link) - http://www.northcoastmarines.com/salt_mixes.htm If you want to read all stuff about why Aquacraft thinks they make the "best salt", it's all off their home page here (offsite link) - http://www.aquacraft.net/ Needless to say, take everything you read there "with a grain of salt".

I am in the same boat as Bill, I use TM Pro and Will(AO) doesn't get it anymore and the price at DFS just went up $20, it is now up to 84.99 a bucket. I have been searching for a new salt and haven't come up with anything. I used Red Sea Coral Pro and noticed elevated levels of Phosphates and Nitrates also hair algae and red slime which I never experienced in my tank. I have been reading about Aqua Craft and there are a lot of negative things written about the owner, here is one thread on RC

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1166971&highlight=marine+environment

 

[billyr98]

i used TM Pro for a good year and had awesome results. But the price went up and the salt results were getting a little different from the beginning. So after going to Houston's MACNA I switched to Red Sea Pro, and loved it and still use it.