Kent salt

[fishbait]

i have been switching and experimenting with different salts that are available to me locally (i hate ordering supplies from the internet and paying all that shipping) my only options are; instant ocean, oceanic, some generic brand at petco, and red sea. red sea being the worst yet! i'm trying to find something that has all the essentials out of the bag without having to dose and buffer for every freaking thing before i pour it in my tank. here is how everything has tested so far.
I.O. calcium has tested around 360, ph 7.8, can't remember what alk was.

oceanic had good calcium at 420, but serioustrouble keeping ph and alk from crashing.

red sea has had the crappiest calcium yet at 300, good ph of 8.4, but alk. is a little on the low side at 7-8dkh.

i noticed a few people in here have been using kent. i was wondering how it measured up, and perhaps reef crystals. if any of you guys have tried it before. if i find what will work for me i'm sure that my lfs will order me a few bags.

 

[bobby]

I have only used and am still using is oceanic and IO. Both were short on something but I read if you mix it half and half you will have a great mix, so I now mix it half and half and am not having a prob at all.

 

[Bifferwine]

I used Kent Marine salt to set up my new tank. I had only heard good things about it. Plus Kent generally has really good products, so I trust their name. If you order from Drs. Foster and Smith their shipping is only $17 no matter how much your order weighs. I ordered 350 lbs of salt and sand from them for the flat shipping rate. You can't beat that.

 

[fishbait]

that's not a bad idea bobby i may try that. i guess the oceanic will balance out the low calcium?
biff, 17 bucks shipping is a lot to me. lol, i pay 17 dollars for the bag of salt at my lfs. i still have a wimpy 55 gallon, so one bag will last me a while. have you tested parameters on the kent yet? how was everything?

 

[Bifferwine]

Just tested the calcium. It was at 450. I haven't tested pH, alkalinity, or anything else since I set it up. I suppose I should...

 

[bobby]

I think that 17 a bucket. What you can do fish, if there is a pet smart around you. You can go online and print out the page that says a bucket of IO is like30.00 or 33.00 and they honor all online prices, if you have the page printed. Thats what I did anyway. BTW petco doesn't match online prices. If your buying a bucket foster and smith is a great deal.

 

[fishbait]

unfortunatly we don't have a petsmart close. the closest one is in tulsa, that's nearly an hour and a half from me.
yeah, i know pet-ho totally blows. oceanic was like 16 bucks online, went to the store and it's 22 bucks and they wouldn't match the price.

 

[reeffreak]

I use Kent salt too......as John would say superior magnesium level?
I ordered a 200 gallon mix of Kent Salt from the 2Docs like Biff.It maybe cheaper for shipping than what Biff paid since you're not ordering sand.Don't forget no tax.

 

[Rcpilot]

I've been using Oceanic. I originally set my tank up with Red Sea, but just didn't care for it.

Oceanic costs me $23 for the 50g size at the LFS. I can buy that same size at FosterSmith for $11. And I can get a bunch of other stuff for a shipping charge of $9.99. I went to a LFS in Boulder, CO. and he wanted like $45 for a Rio 1700. The mofo is smoking some serious drugs!! And the box was covered in like 1/2" of dust, so ya know he didn't just order it last week. It's been sitting there for 10yrs. If it were my shop--I'd drop the price just to get it outta there. Not this guy. I'll bet he's RAISED the prices 5 times in the last 8yrs. He'll NEVER sell that powerhead.

I've come to the conclusion that the LFS around here are a rip off. Their prices are totally inflated on hardware and dry goods. I'm doing most of my shopping on the internet. $11 shipping is cheap with gas prices hovering near $3/gallon. I hate driving in Denver anyway. I drive all day at work. Last thing I wanna do on my own time is jack around with more traffic. I can shop on the internet in my bathrobe and it shows up at my front door about 5 days later. I don't have to go anywhere. All I gotta do is sign for it when the UPS man shows up. My wife is a stay-at-home mom, so she can usually find time in her schedule to be here on delivery day. I track the packages andtell her when they will arrive. She doesn't mind sitting home to wait on the UPS guy once in awhile. It's easier with the fish tank--not so easy to talk her into staying home to wait on the UPS truck when it's an RC airplane. :grumble: (my other addicti....errr, I mean sickness)

Same thing with RC airplanes. Prices are over-inflated at the LHS (local hobby shop). They almost never have what I want. Gotta fight traffic to get there. Gotta pay sales tax. The tax alone is almost as much as the shipping charges.

I LOVE internet shopping.

Sorry--off topic rant............. :grumble: ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I am wondering how to dose for trace elements. I bought a calcium, alkalinity and pH buffer. But how do ya know or test for trace elements? I did buy a bottle of CombiSan--a trace elements supplement. But, I have no idea whats in my water now. I don't want to overdose the tank.

I have been doing water changes every week. It's a 30g tank and I'm doing between 8 and 10 gallons every Saturday.

With Oceanic, my regular parameters are pretty good. I was running a little high on my calcium (490), but a test this week had me back in the 400--410 range. My pH is stable at 8.2 Alkalinity is 10.4 +/-

Good idea about mixing Instant Ocean and Oceanic. I might try that.

I'm also curious about the Instant Ocean reef crystals. Anyone?

 

[yote]

I might have to try that mix myself.

RC,If you want to dose the trace elements,then just follow the directions on the bottle.Theres not a test kit that I know for those.
You can get kits for stuff like iodine and strontium though.
I personally dont use the trace elements,But thats just me.

 

[fishbait]

rc, in my oppinion the regular water changes replenishes the trace elements, as long as a quility salt mix is being used.
instant ocean supposedly is in the top ten for trace elements (besides the calcium and ph) reef crystals are made by I.O. but with higher amounts of the missing ingredients in regular i.o. i just don't know anybody that has tried it to see how it works out.
i hear 'ya on the lfs price hikes. mine are the same way on equipment. it's way cheaper online. but, on their drygoods and fish they are as cheap or cheaper than the internet. unless i go to one in tulsa. they were selling true percs for 55 bucks a piece! i gave 11 bucks a piece for mine at my lfs. teeny tiny frags were going for 50 bucks and up! i needed to take a piss while i was there and didn't because i was afraid i would need quarters to use the toilet!

 

[yote]

Most of the LFS around here are way over priced on dry goods and equipment too.But their live stock will run about the same by the time you figure in the shipping for live orders.

 

[fishbait]

biff, did you ever test the rest of the parameters? i was just curius how they turned out. i still haven't had to buy any salt yet. but, the time is near.

 

[Bifferwine]

Using the Kent Marine salt, calcium was at 450 and alkalinity was at 3.0.

 

[yote]

What was the Ph?

 

[Bifferwine]

8.2. Normal.

 

[yote]

I'm thinking about trying some Kent salt.
Bermuda's got some 200 gallon buckets that I can get fairly cheap.

 

[fishbait]

I will probaly break down and order some online. I can't find good salt around here. the lfs i went to today was selling the 55 gallon mix of oceanic for 30 bucks! freakin' crack heads. i'm not paying that when good salt if 45 online for a 200 gallon bucket.

 

[yote]

Ive been getting the 200 gallon buckets of Oceanic for 40 bucks at my LFS.
But they got the Kent for the same price.
The only thing is,I just got a bucket about 2 weeks ago.

And the 50 gallon jug is 19.99,Thats the sticker price.

 

[jhnrb]

I use only kent marine salt. with each water change the corals just stand up and shout. They love the mix. most likely the magnesium which helps them convert calcium for growth. I am now noticing some very aggressive growth on the stonies as well as the lps and clams. so, all I can tell you is that Kent marine works for me. I do order a 1000 gal of salt at at time and get it for 256.oo so you can do the math about 14 dollars a 50 gal. There are some new mixes out there now and they might be ok also. I believe in staying with what works once you find it. good luck .