A General Guide to Salt Mixes

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From just reading that, I'd say it is the usual Aqua Craft S-15 test nonsense. Take what your mix looks like, skew the discussion to make whatever is in it sounds good, and advertise it as a plus.

Elevated lithium? Why? Probably more expensive to remove it from a main ingredient.

It is way heavy on sulfate. It is way deficient in borate. It seems very high in copper. I don't understand why they think this is a good marketing tool? And that is before the "extra" trace elements are added. :(


The "Little Bottle"â"žÂ¢ also contains a stress/shock preventative, colloids, chelating agents, & numerous water conditioners

I know for sure I do not want any of those in my salt mix.
 
When I read the article on it I was :confused: at the least. And the packaging to me looked like 1950's advertisement?? That and the results were photos from the 70's?? I think the main red flag was to use tap water, because it has agent's to remove chlorine?? I almost died :lol2:

I thought that Boomer once used this brand back in his hey days?? :eek: :lol: J/K boomer.
I thought Billybeau1 would get a chuckle out it anyway, apears he did. :)
 
maybe someone here can help me because trying to get an answer from oceanic it's just a waste of time. i bought a bucket size from oceanic and when i mix it, it doesn't clear up. not even if i leave it mixing for a whole day. i use ro di water and when i had the smaller packages it never did this. is it supposed to do that or it's just a bad batch. the lfs told me it was supposed to do that and when i dump it in the aquarium it will clear up. i truly don't know if to believe it or not. can anyone help me???:( :(
 
I'm currently using the 200lb bucket of Oceanic, I've never had what your explaining happen. I've use this brand off an on since 2004. I mix in a 55 gallon drum, it's cloudy at first but always clears up. I let it mix for 24 hours before I use it, but it's crystal clean by then. I'd say their's something wrong.
 
thanks a lot. any more help will really be appreciate it.

If you stop stirring it, I presume it clears up? There may just be some fine calcium carbonate present, which is not usual nor a concern. If the alkalinity is normal for it, I'd use it after letting it settle. :)
 
I have had the same problem before - when I added some PH buffer while mixing up the batch. It never cleared up. I used it and it cleared up in the tank in probably less than 20 mins.
 
I had the exact same problem with the most recent bucket of Coralife salt that I used and I have never had that issue before. Usually premixing a cup or two of mag flakes into the RODI water before adding salt prevents any Calcium carbonate precip or encrusting on the bottom of my vat. I did that this time and still got the "fine snow" of calcium carbonate. I also noticed that I had to dose more CA and Alk than usual to get the levels up before using the salt - which seems consistent with it being a CA carbonate precipitate.

I saw no adverse affects of using the mix in my systems.

I wonder if something changed in the Coralife and Oceanic supplier's chemicals/raw materials?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13733458#post13733458 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Randy Holmes-Farley
thanks a lot. any more help will really be appreciate it.

If you stop stirring it, I presume it clears up? There may just be some fine calcium carbonate present, which is not usual nor a concern. If the alkalinity is normal for it, I'd use it after letting it settle. :)
Click to expand...

thats exactly what happens. i haven't tested it for calcium or alk but if everything shows ok, can it be used without worriyng about something in the tank going wrong?
 
i haven't tested it for calcium or alk but if everything shows ok, can it be used without worriyng about something in the tank going wrong?

I would use it, yes. That doesn't prove there is no possible issue, but it helps rule out the most likely possibilities (very high calcium or alkalinity or very low magnesium). For example, a few years back there were some bad batches of Instant Ocean with super high alkalinity that lead to precipitation shortly after making it up. An alk test easily confirmed that concern.
 
wow what a thread , I mix my salt, coralife & IO with very good results, occasionally I have to boost my Alk but that's about it, a heavily sps dominated 300 with CA reactor.
 
ida, it appears you found your mix. :thumbsup:

evil4, I would use it regardless of whether it clears up or not. Like Randy said, as long as the alkalinity is fine, you should be good to go. :)
 
Hello,
The make up water is at 12.5 dkh, and I keep my reef at 8 dkh,
How do I lower the alk in the make up water?
Thanks,
Frank
 
It is tricky to do so. Unless you are very concerned about alkalinity levels, I would not bother. A 10% change using 12.5 dKH in an 8 dKH tank only boosts the alkalinity to 8.45 dKH.

Adding a mineral acid is the only way, as described earlier in this thread. Muriatic acid from a hardware store will work, but you can easily overshoot and in any case the ph will be very low until you completely drive off the excess CO2 that will be generated.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13846760#post13846760 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CheckitOut
Out of Reef crystals, Oceanic, and kent which salt do you prefer?
Click to expand...

Reef Crystals and Kent would be my choice. Oceanic can only be used in a tank at the brink of overstocking although the extra calcium in Oceanic may or may not be a problem if you do not mind cleaning your pumps and such now and then. :)
 
I just finished testing Reefers Best salt. A special thanks to Canarygirl for sending me some salt she had left. This was from a fresh un-opened bag that she mixed real good, so I trust that I received a quality sample.

It mixed well. It is potent (for those of you with big tanks). 1/2 cup of Reefers Best overshot the s.g. to about 37 or 38 ppt. I had to dilute it to get to 1.0264.

Calcium 420 ppm
Alkalinity 11 dkh
Magnesium 1200 ppm. (I thought for the price of this salt it would be higher.) :(

Oh Well. :)
 
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