A bad batch of Instant Ocean salt mix

[Tomoko Schum]

Hi y'all,

How many of you check alk and Ca of your newly mixed salt water?

I have been kinda lazy and checking only alk for awhile. I do this because the alk of freshly mixed water turned out low a number of times in the past.

Well, this time, it's was calcium that was low. I only got 270 ppm out of a pretty new salt bucket of Instant Ocean. Unfortunately I noticed this only because the ca level in my 120 reef has dropped so low. I suppose that we all should check alk and ca level of our newly mixed salt water periodically.

So, if you are using a relatively new bucket of IO, you should check if yours is okay.

Tomoko

 

[Mariner]

Thanks for the heads up Tomoko.
I've gone back to IO this year, and have been following RandyH-F's recommendation to routinely add magnesium and calcium to new batches. I've not tested the levels, but it sounds like it would be prudent, especially when you first open a new bucket.
Mariner

 

[8BALL_99]

I haven't used IO for probably 3 years cause I just don't trust it. I had a few bad batches of it myself. So much so when I first started out I didn't do water changes cause they seemed to hurt more then they helped.. I figure IO is the cheapest for a reason Hope your tank is ok

 

[scapes]

I've heard this about IO last year, that's why I don't use it anymore

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I understand that the majority of salt mixes are produced by the same company just like the most of dog's and cat's canned foods are produced by the same company for a variety of brands (Canadian company Menu Food produces inexpensive El Roy by Wal-Mart as well as more expensive Iams, Eukanuba and a whole bunch of other brands.) IO is supposedly used as the base material for many other salt mixes including more expensive Seachem's Reef Salt. The manufacturer tweaks the base by varying the volumes of some ingredients based on each brands' spec's.

Tomoko

 

[8BALL_99]

Tons of stuff is made this way now days. Everything from LCDs to your homes central unit. But I mean just cause the same factory makes two different product lines doesn't mean there isn't a difference. My biggest issue with IO was the levels varied so much.. I use Reef Crystals now which is pretty much just instant ocean with stuff added to it. But it seems to be much more consistent from bucket to bucket. From what I was told IO was ment more for fish only where is ReefCrystals was ment for reef tanks. Which going on what I've seen with IO thats probably true.. Fish could care less if your CA drops 100ppm or if some of the Trace elements are off a little. Besides for the 5-7 bucks difference why fool with having to add stuff to my new saltwater.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I switched from IO to other salt mixes a few years ago because of its variation in alkalinity. However, since then, I have found that alkalinity sometimes drops as I get near the bottom of a bucket with many brands of salt mixes. I initially thought that the exposure to air/CO2 might have affected the alkalinity material in the salt mixes. However, when I mentioned this to Dr. Randy Holmes-Farley, he thought that the alk materials in salt mixes might have settled over time. Since I do water changes every two weeks, my bucket of salt does not sit around a long time. It is rather annoying to me to find my salt mix changing its properties with time. This alk drop also happened with both Reef Crystal and more expensive Reef Salt as well.

Tomoko

 

[Shelby2u]

I used IO when started my tank and switched to Reef Crystals since. A few months ago I got 3 buckets of IO when I bought a bunch of stuff from another reefer and now that you mention this I have had nothing but problems with the params in the tank. My wifes tank seems to be doing fine and I have only done small water changes to it so I bet my problems all along was the salt.
As my tank params got more out of whack my reaction was to do another water change which was just making it worse and I never tested the new salt water.

When I got the 3 buckets I started by mixing my last half a bucket of Reef Crystals with IO but I just never made myself buy another bucket cause I figured I could just burn through the 3 buckets and go back to Reef Crystals but may I need to go back now.

 

[JR's Reef]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13998664#post13998664 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tomoko Schum
I switched from IO to other salt mixes a few years ago because of its variation in alkalinity. However, since then, I have found that alkalinity sometimes drops as I get near the bottom of a bucket with many brands of salt mixes. I initially thought that the exposure to air/CO2 might have affected the alkalinity material in the salt mixes. However, when I mentioned this to Dr. Randy Holmes-Farley, he thought that the alk materials in salt mixes might have settled over time. Since I do water changes every two weeks, my bucket of salt does not sit around a long time. It is rather annoying to me to find my salt mix changing its properties with time. This alk drop also happened with both Reef Crystal and more expensive Reef Salt as well.

Tomoko

It settles in shipping due to vibrations in transport. I get a couple buckets and pour some it each acouple times to get it mixed up then put it all back in the same bucket.

 

[teamreefers]

We had a problem with Reef Crystals earlier this year. Just couldn't keep the Alk and Mg up. No matter how much we dosed it was always low. Come to find out, we had 3 or 4 buckets of RC that were bad. Everytime I did a water change I just undone all of my dosing. Come to find out, many people had the same problem around Jan-March of this year.

It pays to test your salt mix no matter what brand.

Jack

 

[8BALL_99]

Maybe you could run one of those paint mixers in a drill Tomoko to mix the salt up. I haven't really noticed a difference from the top of the bucket to the bottom, But I make 40-80 gallons of New SW each time.. So one bucket only last me 2 to 3 water changes. Besides that I'm sure be sticking the bucket back up on the top shelf probably mixes it pretty good

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I guess that I should shake up the bucket from time to time. It's not all the time, but a number of buckets had a low alk level toward the end. Since I have a few empty buckets lying around, I should try to redistribute alk and calcium content before use like Joey suggested. I am going to flip my current batch of IO a few times and see if the reading changes some.

In any event, we should test our salt mixes like Jack suggested.

Tomoko

 

[Bill Cobb]

I've used IO since I got into reefing, but lately I'm just not happy with the low alk, cal, and mag levels. My tests are showing really low numbers for the past few buckets. Thats why I'm switching to Corallife, it has better numbers.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Some people mix several brands together to offset this type of problem. It's kind of costly to do it in a small scale (buying small bags), though. I suppose that I will keep on supplementing ca, mg, or alk. Too bad that we cannot really test for other Macro nutrients....

Tomoko

 

[H@rry]

I have used I/O since I started several years ago but several months ago I bought two buckets of Reef Crystals on a whim. Surprisingly I have noticed better growth and color since I started with it. I haven't really thought about it but now that you bring it up I have cut back on the CO2 rate going to the calcium reactors because the alk was pretty high. I don't know about the calcium because I never check that.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Calcium has been very stable for me until this time. I test for ca every once in a blue moon because of its stability in my tank. So it was quite a surprise to me. I happened to check calcium simply because my alkalinity in the tank got really high (17 dkh). I suspected first that a high alk might have caused the calcium to get precipitated on rocks and heaters, etc. Magnesium was low as well.

In the process of investigating the cause of the very high alk, I found out that the effluent of my calcium reactor had strange parameters, too. I shut the reactor down for awhile and then flushed out the water inside. Then, I took another reading of the effluent without any CO2 going in it. Believe it or not, the effluent is so acidic that a test kit read below pH of 7. The dKH of it was like 20. I repeated the tests a few times with different kits, but the result was the same. I don't know where the acid is coming from because CO2 has been turned off for awhile and the water inside the reactor was flushed out. Since the pH of input water is 8.0 (tank water), the acid is forming inside the reactor evidently. This does not make any sense to me, but I am going to replace the media (ARM coarse) shortly after Christmas. Luckily, my livestock does not seem to be affected except for a couple of rather sensitive acros which always react to an alk variation drastically by losing colors.

Tomoko

 

[Shelby2u]

I am having such a hard time keeping all Mg, Ca and Alk in check that I bought a Ca Reactor to help and of course eveytime I checked the parameters and they were out of whack I would do a couple of big water changes and add supliments. Then a day
or so later I would check and all the parametes would be even worse so I think I am going this weekend and buy a bucket of RC so I can mix it with the rest of the IO I have.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I wish that the shop I that I bought the salt from or the manufacturer can replaced the remainder of the salt in the bucket...

Tomoko

 

[8BALL_99]

I would try it Shelby, I never had good Luck with IO. I've used RC for the past few years and haven't looked back. Ofcourse like others said you can get a bad batch of any salt. But I think overall for what we need IO isn't a good salt.

 

[Allen77]

I'm no expert and I have yet to mix my first salt batch (been buying it from CRA). I have a RO unit on the way and have been searching for which salt to use. I came across this on nano-reef and thought it might be an interesting read. Don't know how much to trust it but you can compare it to your own experience.

Salt Comparison

Also, where do you guys get your salt of choice? Order or Local?

Allen