8 Best Reef Salts Reviewed & How To Choose Guide

Just merely asking the question… “what is the best reef salt available?... is going to get you more answers than you know how to handle.

You’re going to have experts coming at you from every angle, each with their own opinion on what works best and when to use a particular brand. They’ll give you their views on one brand, complaints on another, all while praising their favorite.

What you usually won’t get is a distanced, unbiased review of the different reef salts available based on scientific data and through consolidating the reports from hundreds of customers.

Finding the best reef salt can feel nearly impossible when you’re listening to the “expert” opinions of people on forums and groups. That’s we have done that hard work for you.

Instead of sending you out into the wild, letting you get bombarded with hundreds of opinions from people you may not even know, we’ve consolidated all of their reviews and opinions.

The Top 8 Best Reef Salts In 2019

Each of the “best” marine salts and reef salts listed below was ranked using a wide range of criteria, including those “expert” opinions -- as well as ideas from actual customers that didn’t know what we were using the data for.

Which Reef Salt Is Best? Here’s How We Compared Them.

There are five main factors to consider when you’re thinking about comparing reef salts.

1. Calcium content.
2. Alkalinity levels.
3. Magnesium content.
4. Total costs.
5. Required supplements.

1. Calcium

Calcium is an essential nutrient in your saltwater for a particular reason. It is absorbed by corals and invertebrates to maintain their skeletal systems.

For most tanks, it is recommended to maintain at least a 400 ppm (parts per million) level of calcium. For every one million parts of water, you will have at least 400 parts of calcium. It sounds complicated at first, but most manufacturers bake this formula into their products.

If the salt you’re thinking about buying contains less than 400 ppm you should consider another brand. This usually means the company has cut corners in other areas, too, and you’re going to be required to add additional supplements to get your water to the levels they need to be at.

On the flip side of that same coin, if the salt you’re thinking about buying contains hefty amounts of calcium you will need to dilute the mix before adding it into your tank.

2. Alkalinity

Alkalinity is another concept that can be hard to describe and wrap your head around. The alkalinity in your water refers to a pH scale determining whether the water is acid, or, as you guessed it, alkaline.

A reef salt’s alkalinity will be compared to a neutral freshwater source to determine its level.

Pure water is neither acidic nor alkaline, but once you start mixing in marine salts, it will become more alkaline since you are increasing the alkalinity. The level of alkalinity helps you determine the level of bicarbonate in the water, which is another factor of healthy coral reef growth.

For most tanks, a healthy alkalinity level will be in the 8 to 11 dkH range. This means you want to avoid mixing in reef salts that are too low or too high that will throw off balances in your water.

3. Magnesium

Magnesium is, by far, the most abundant mineral in saltwater tanks. It helps bind to calcium and stabilizes your tank’s alkalinity levels.

Again, for most tanks, a healthy level of magnesium is going in be in the 1,200 to 1,400 parts per million range. Ensuring the salt mix you are going to buy will keep your tank within these levels is critical to avoid having to do more maintenance to stabilize the water again.

4. Costs

What most tank owners don’t realize is that simply buying a reef salt mix isn’t going to be the end of the costs associated with maintaining a tank.

Even though a brand may seem “cheap” on the surface, the added cost of missing nutrients could quickly outweigh the costs of buying a higher-priced salt mix the first time.

However, buying a cheaper reef salt and adding in these supplements could also end up costing you less money in the long run than buying a more expensive, probably overpriced salt mix, too.

For instance, if you have invertebrates that regularly consume calcium from your water, to help build their skeletal systems, you may find it’s cheaper to buy a salt mix that is higher in calcium instead of constantly adding more calcium supplements into the tank.

5. Supplements

With high-quality salt mixes, you’re going to find that you end up spending less money on additional supplements as time goes on. The opposite is true with lower-priced salts.

If your aquarium has “special needs” and requires specific supplements, it’s recommended to either buy a reef salt that is heavier in those particular nutrients or weigh the costs of acquiring them against the cost of purchasing the salt you want.

What you’ll usually find is that buying more in bulk upfront will dramatically reduce your costs over the span of a year, to give you an example.

What Is The Best Reef Salt In 2019?

After weighing dozens of different reef salt mixes against each other, reading through customer reviews, verifying ingredient lists, and understanding what sensitive saltwater ecosystems require, we have found that Instant Ocean 200 Gallon ​​Reef Salt is, by far, the best reef salt available in 2019.