# mixing salts?



## PerculaClown (Apr 25, 2006)

i planned to do a water change today but i ran out of salt mix. I had a little bit of Red Sea left but not enough so i went out and bought some Oceanic. I can use both of them together without any problems.


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## Reefneck (Oct 15, 2005)

It's not a good idea to mix salt if at all possible. Sometimes when you make a change problems can happen. Doing this once should not cause any bad effects but pick a brand and stick to it. Try to always keep enough on hand so you don't run out.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

Also, remember to buffer that oceanic sea salt as it has been known to be cronically low in alk.


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## flamingo (Nov 5, 2005)

I had to do that a few times, but I would never do it if there were fish in the tank already. 

And oceanic is a good brand, but the levels don't even out ok. I've heard it's really hard to get calcium levels and the like at a suitable level.


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## tanked001 (Jul 3, 2006)

I have mixed different brands of salt before.... but then again I ALWAYS test the salinity, alk, Ph, temp and aerate over night before the change.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

Mixing different brands of salt is never a good idea.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Here's the thing; salt mix formulas are all different. They have to be, of course, to prevent law suits.

The problem is that while the end result of each mix is pretty much the same after mixing with water, the ratios of components used to acheive that end is different in each brand.

If you mix brands, you run the risk of combining two very incompatible mix ratios, resulting in something winding up way out of balance from what it should be due to reactions between components which shouldn't have normally been exposed to each other. Sometimes this isn't that big a deal, but sometimes....hooboy. 
I have seen a total tank wipeout from this when 40-Fathoms & Tropic Marin were mixed. The water actually turned yellow from the weird sulfide reaction that started when the dechlorinator was added.

So, while you can usually get away with it, you should never expect to.


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## leveldrummer (May 27, 2005)

does that mean mixing different salt mixes is bad, but what about using a brand of salt, in your tank for a while, then switching brands, putting water thats already mixed, and stable in, shouldnt it be better like that then just mixing 2 different salts, then mixing with water?


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