A General Guide to Salt Mixes

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Since you are running a Ca reactor, you should be able to maintain your calcium.

If you want to try a new salt, maybe Reef Crystals may be your next try. Same company as IO but a little more calcium and magnesium. Same alkalinity. :)
 
I was reading through Randy's article " Reef Aquarium Salinity" and came across two sodium chloride solutions. One being 3.65 weight percent and one being 3.714 weight percent. I have the ability to measure grams at home and would like to make my own solution. I was wondering what weight solution is more accurate for calibrating my refractometer. Thanks
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13535483#post13535483 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Billybeau1
Since you are running a Ca reactor, you should be able to maintain your calcium.

If you want to try a new salt, maybe Reef Crystals may be your next try. Same company as IO but a little more calcium and magnesium. Same alkalinity. :)
Click to expand...

My issue was a stuck ATO which dropped SG down from 1.026 to 1.022 and then when I thought I fixed it....I mess with a power head that drained my sump. Total in 3 day's I lost ( on my floor ) around 150g of tank & sump water. SG was back down to 1.022. After fixing everything I was now out of salt. I tested and found that ALK was up & Calk was way down.

Calk was 280 first test( after first RO/DI saturation) & 300 second time ( after pump drain the sump and then saturated with RO/DI )

Alk was down from 11dkh to 9 dkh.

Both test were after I added NSW to the system.

I was also out of Calk buffer, so I thought beings Oceanic was high in both Calcium & Mag I could slowly over a week or two bring up those two levels by topping off with NSW. I bought the Oceanic & the Seachem Calcium Advantage Buffer, but did not use the buffer. I've been slowly adding NSW over a 2 week peroid and I have it back up to 1.025 as of today. I'm adding NSW as well as RO/DI. Am I doing this wrong??
 
I guess I answered my own question. Sorry! The 3.65 is for refractometers and the 3.714 is for hydrometers.

Yes, the solutions are similar but slightly different for hydrometers, refractometers, and conductivity meters. :)
 
I'm sorry Ksed, I've been working a lot of hours lately.

I have the bucket of D-D at my feet. I,ve got the weekend off for a change. I should have results by Monday morning. :)
 
Tropic Marin Pro???

Tropic Marin Pro???

Hi,

I'm a long time subscriber, first time poster...

I was checking out this thread and really appreciate your taking the time out to do all those test results!

I have a question though... On the Tropic Marin Pro. I've been using it for some time with good results but never bothered to test it on my own, until today. I got some pretty different results than you and was wondering why that might be???

I used Salifert test kits for my results, been using these test kits for 10 years, so I'm pretty familiar and all. Anyway, my numbers were much lower than yours and I was wondering just how that might be? My kits are all within there expiration dates, that is they haven't expired.

All tests were done at 1.025 salinity and yielded the following results:

Calcium 380

Alkalinity 7.0

Magnesium 840

In all fairness, I should say that I had added fresh RODI water within 1 hour prior to testing to bring the salinity down from 1.033 to 1.025. So, I'm wondering if this may have something to do with it? I will re-test tomorrow just to be sure but, I don't know that it would necessarily have that significant an influence.

Any insight anyone???

Thanks!
 
I'd suggest mixing salt to 1.025 and letting sit there for at least 24 hrs before testing. But I'd refer to the master Billy on this one.
 
Dave

First post in 5 years. Wow

[welcome]

My feeling is that your specific gravity may not be what you think it is.

Many people get different readings than mine because their s.g. is not really 1.0264 (35 ppt)

How do you measure your specific gravity ?

It is also possible you got a bad batch but I have not heard of any bad batches of that particular salt mix. :confused:
 
Here is my post on the D-D, H2Ocean salt that I posted on 7/27:

Here are the results of my first bucket of H2Ocean salt. I was not able to "stir up" much of the dry salt in the bucket. I did stir up the top 2-3 inches. I aerated the freshwater prior to adding the salt, during the mixing, and then afterwards. Water tested 36 hours after mixing:

Mixed to 1.026(4-ish). Refractometer calibrated to Pinpoint's 53ms solution.

Alkalinity, 9dkh (Elos)
Calcium, 450 (Salifert)
Magnesium, 1440 (Salifert)
PO4, 0 (Salifert)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13581112#post13581112 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Billybeau1
Dave

First post in 5 years. Wow

<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>

My feeling is that your specific gravity may not be what you think it is.

Many people get different readings than mine because their s.g. is not really 1.0264 (35 ppt)

How do you measure your specific gravity ?

It is also possible you got a bad batch but I have not heard of any bad batches of that particular salt mix. :confused:
Click to expand...

Don't think so... I use a refractometer. How bout having added the RODI water within an hour of me testing last night? Any effect with that do you think?

I'm gonna test again a little bit later today to be sure.

Is there a method of "calibrating" a refractometer that I'm not aware of???
 
Duh...

Duh...

Just did a google search and answered one of my own questions...

Yes, you need to calibrate your refractometer... and yes, mine appears to be in spec using RODI water. I get a zero reading no problem, so I'm gonna wait and test a little later. I may even test in the next hour or so just to see also for and giggles!

Thanks for your feedback so far
 
If you calibrated your refract with ro/di, it is possibly off. Regardless of what the manufacturer says, some refract can not be calibrated properly with ro/di or distilled. I know mine can't.

Pick up a small bottle or 2 of Pinpoints 53mS Calibration fluid. This is a mock seawater solution and should read exactly 35 ppt or 1.0264 on your refract. Then you will be sure t is calibrated properly.

Mine is off by about .003 with ro/di.

Good luck. :)
 
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