Purified Water and Instant Ocean Salt

[IBMGeek]

Again Ive had no problems with it but I was talking to a friend yesterday (Turbo4603) and what i understood was that Tropic Marin and Red Sea are better because they have more trace elements or calcium etc..

So if you dont mind the cost get tropic marin

[clownfish]

Originally Posted by omard

STAY WELL CLEAR OF THAT LFS! --- that guy is ripping customers off.

You can mix yourself much much cheaper...If you don't want to use own tapwater (with a conditioner)...get a RO/DI unit, which in your case, will pay for itself very quickly!!

Thank You for the heads up! But now I have a question....I live in Fremont,CA, near San Jose. I don't know where to turn here, I don't know any other LFS around, except for Petco, but they're bigger newbs than I am...so if anybody know a good/reliable LFS around my area I would appreciate the info.

Also, is there a place online where local LFS could be listed besides the yellow pages? 'cause the yellow pages do not list squat....thanks again.

I just realized...this is some of the prices that LFS has...no exact, but close enough...Remora with maxijet 1200 $240!!! T5HO Nova Extreme...$260...so I think HE IS ripping people off....good thing I bought my remora and lights online.

[mandarin11]

There have been incidents near me where a shipment of it was found to be contaminated. I don't know what with, but I remember going to the LFS and they were taking all the IO off the shelf. They told me that they had a few customers complain that they added it and there tanks crashed. Mind you, a few of these customers were not newbies by any means.(The poor assistant almost freaked when I asked him about it. He thought my tank was one of the ones that crashed. Thankfully I don't buy IO so I didn't have that problem)

The LFS became suspicious and mixed some of it for use and sure enough when they added it to an experimental tank their fish started going into shock. (Yes they quickly removed the fish to a recovery tank)

Beyond that freak accident, it also doesn't have as many nutrients and elements in it as the others. Which for those people who add supplements isn't really a problem, but for those that rely on a strict water change regime it is.

I've found that it's not as soluble as other salts used either. However, I used it about 2 years ago, so things could have changed.

I'm not trying to bash anyone who uses it, and hope that this post is not considered offensive. If you use it and it works for you then that is great. I just wanted to share my experience with it.

[IBMGeek]

Originally Posted by mandarin11

I'm not trying to bash anyone who uses it, and hope that this post is not considered offensive. If you use it and it works for you then that is great. I just wanted to share my experience with it.

Not at all. I supplement with calcium and other trace elements so that might be why it works fine. I think I remember now with problems of it being contaminated and producing i think cyano and other bad stuff. I just ordered 2 buckets of IO, If i would have remembered I probably would have ordered something else, just didnt think of it.

[mandarin11]

I'm sure you'll be fine with it. If getting contaminated IO was a big problem I doubt they would be in business anymore.

[ziggy222]

i use io and you've all seen my tank.actually i use tap water,rarely with a dechlorinator lol with instant ocean and always have.i don't advise this practice but it works for me,i have very good tap water and i do use dechlorinater if i do a big water change,otherwise i just let it evaporate out for awhile before doing the change.i switched to reef crystals once and had a big increase in hair algae way back when i first got into salt water and never tried any other salt since.the horror stories do scare me and i know my salt is'nt the best but changing whats working for me would make me just as nervous.some day i will get a water purifier though.reguardless of what my practices are and my brand of salt,i'm sure its better than anything i'd ever buy at petco however i have noticed it does take longer to mix io.

[mandarin11]

Like I said, if it works for you then that's great.After all, if it's not broke don't fix it!

[ziggy222]

i know i should be purifying my water and there are better salts and i will improve my methods as time goes on.i just wanted to point out that people can worry a little more than they need to i guess.

[geekdafied]

Originally Posted by ziggy222

i use io and you've all seen my tank.actually i use tap water,rarely with a dechlorinator lol with instant ocean and always have.i don't advise this practice but it works for me,i have very good tap water and i do use dechlorinater if i do a big water change,otherwise i just let it evaporate out for awhile before doing the change.i switched to reef crystals once and had a big increase in hair algae way back when i first got into salt water and never tried any other salt since.the horror stories do scare me and i know my salt is'nt the best but changing whats working for me would make me just as nervous.some day i will get a water purifier though.reguardless of what my practices are and my brand of salt,i'm sure its better than anything i'd ever buy at petco however i have noticed it does take longer to mix io.

I use IO with dechlorinated tap water and I dont have any problems as far as that goes. However I was buying my water there for a little while out of convience and had algae problems galore and stopped buying it and it went away for the most part.

[omard]

Originally Posted by mandarin11

I'm no RODI expert(I'll leave that to others here.), but a word of warning if you plan to use instant ocean salt. I've heard and experienced some negative things with that brand. Others may have had better luck with it, but just in case you might want to try Tropic Marin( a little more expensive) or Oceanic(relatively the same price)

Never had a problem with IO, or known anyone else that has.

Tropic Marin is MUCH more expensive.

Oceanic is a bucket of nightmares.