Catalina salt water vs synthetic

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#1
So I just noticed I cant get a refill on seachem salt on amazon (out of business).. so Im kind of in limbo. I have enough salt for another water change, however Ill need a new source.

A place near me sells Catalina water... I know its filtered and some, including the Long Beach aquarium, use it. However, its hard for me to find salinity, alkalinity, and other parameters online. Been reading random google searches and it seems people are mainly misinformed about NSW. Doesnt help that only us in California are privy to this specific brand.

Anyone on here actually use it? Anyone have any parameters?

Or can anyone else recommended another brand of salt?

I have a few acros, mainly zoas. Salinity is around 1.025-26. Alk 8-9
 
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#3
I used it years ago. Hated it!. My LFS said not to use in for my saltwater tank, just for my brackish, 1.016. I could not get the algae out of that tank to save my life. I doubt the elements are ever consistent. I used the Scripp's water for bout a year later, from San Diego, it was a little cleaner, not much, and my numbers bounced around are it was more work to keep things stable. Scripp's even gives their water out for free, and not much further than my LFS. I stick with synthetic. I wouldn't use Catalina in my tank unless it was a live or die situation for my tank.
 
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#4
I used it years ago. Hated it!. My LFS said not to use in for my saltwater tank, just for my brackish, 1.016. I could not get the algae out of that tank to save my life. I doubt the elements are ever consistent. I used the Scripp's water for bout a year later, from San Diego, it was a little cleaner, not much, and my numbers bounced around are it was more work to keep things stable. Scripp's even gives their water out for free, and not much further than my LFS. I stick with synthetic. I wouldn't use Catalina in my tank unless it was a live or die situation for my tank.
Most people have tremendous phosphate issues with catalina.

Sent from my 1+3t
 
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#5
I use it. And have been for a while, with and without problems. Because of it or something else? Dont know. I have been battling Cyano for a month or so but my maintenance at keeping my tank is sloppy even though I'm constantly telling others about keeping water is what it's all about. I did recently change to LEDs roughly about the time it started. I need to practice what I preach. But I don't care what my tank looks like. It's in the garage and my fish are healthy and that's what matters.
That being said I have 5 gallons in my garage I'll test for you tomorrow with the basic test kit I have.

If the water was all that bad I would think I'd have more problems than just cyano which I'm still not sure nor do others seem to have come to a consensus on what brings it about except lighting seeing that it tends to disappear over night then come back as the lighting comes on and intensifies. At least my research on it has found. But I'll test it to see what it shows.

I do always check the specific gravity of it and it's always around 1.025-1.03. If my tests come back weird maybe I'll change it up and see what happens. Be interesting to find out.
 
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#6
So I just noticed I cant get a refill on seachem salt on amazon (out of business).. so Im kind of in limbo. I have enough salt for another water change, however Ill need a new source.

A place near me sells Catalina water... I know its filtered and some, including the Long Beach aquarium, use it. However, its hard for me to find salinity, alkalinity, and other parameters online. Been reading random google searches and it seems people are mainly misinformed about NSW. Doesnt help that only us in California are privy to this specific brand.

Anyone on here actually use it? Anyone have any parameters?

Or can anyone else recommended another brand of salt?

I have a few acros, mainly zoas. Salinity is around 1.025-26. Alk 8-9
Here's what I found with Catalina water sitting in my garage since Tuesday S.G.
With two different meters. 1.026 the other was just under 1.028
PH is 8.2-8.4
Ammonia is 0
Nitrites is 0
Nitrates is 0
All I have test kits for.
image.jpg
image.jpg
 
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#7
I think the biggest problem with Catalina water is phosphates like Nick said. I also think algae spores make it through their filtration. I have also heard that the trinity seems to fluctuate, and is often lower than synthetics.
 

reefes pieces

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#8
I'd say find a salt brand that closely matches your seachem brand of salt. Corals like stability for sure and your routine of water changes account for stability your in tank's parameters. In other words it's used to getting a certain level of Alk, Cal, and Mag from your water changes. I've seen sweet SPS tanks having success with synthetics and catalina water, but mainly it's what they stuck with from the start and the tank built it's stability around those parameters. I've seen many problems occur when "change" was introduced.
 
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#9
That is my main concern, consistency. So I would like to slowly start acclimating another brand while I still have about 30 gallons left worth of salt.

Thank you for testing the water, that helps a lot. Would like to get some phosphate results as well. I once tried in many moons ago and also had algae issues around that time, however I didnt test the water so I cant blame it on that.
 

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