Reguarding salt and reef

[souly]

My question: I have my tank thats going to be my marine tank, half full. The salt used in it is: Oceanic Sea salt. I'm mainly just keeping it in there for the life rock, and live sand to keep it alive. I plan to empty this out, and then redo it with the Instant ocean I have. I plan to go reef with this tank and wanted to know if I needed Reef specific salt or is the salt I have now going to be okay? (basically bought this stuff when I got the tank)

[kaybee]

You don't need a Reef specific salt to go reef but you will probably have to utilize more additives (calcium, alkalinity, magnesium, etc) to compensate. Depending on the brands "reef salts" will typically have higher levels of essential and trace elements required by (mostly stony) corals.

[souly]

Makes sense. I wasn't to sure what the difference was.

[AABatteries]

I actually think Instant Ocean would be worse, but I don't have the properties of both in front of me. Could you get Reef Crystals? They're worth the extra couple bucks more than Instant Ocean from what I've heard. And if I start another reef, I plan on using it.

[labnjab]

You should be fine with instant ocean if you don't mind supplementing a few things. I've been using it for over a year in our reef and have been getting awesome growth in stony coral. You will have to supplement calcium and magnesium but its not much. I use a cup of magnesium and 1/3 cup of calcium to supplement the 8 gallons a week I use for water changes. I made my own supplements with magflake and dowflake which you buy in a 50 pound bad for cheap money that will last several years

[Amazon]

i agree with labnjab 100%.