A General Guide to Salt Mixes

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
See below for the link

Thanks, that clears something up for me (based on what you wrote and why they would give numbers for such a low salinity), but makes me ask why you said they gave numbers for sg = 1.0235, when what I read is for 34 ppt, which has a sg of 1.0256. :)
Click to expand...

The instructions I received inside the box reads:

The chart formulas produce seawater at a salinity of 34 ppt (1.0235 Specific Gravity @ 77 degrees) So I guess that is a mistake...I never bothered to check.
 
So canary girl your results are somewhat consistent with my results except for the Alk

I had read a review on MarineDepot to use less of the liquid ingredients so I used ~60oz of "A" and 30oz of "B," then measured parameters. This is how it turned out.
Canary Girl Ecfencing
Alk was 8.5 dhk (Elos) 10.6 (Salifert)
Ca was 450 (Elos) 430 (API)
Mg was 1200 (Elos) 1260 to 1290 (Salifert)
K+ was ~400 (KZ) Didn't test
This was at 1.0245 s.g.
 
he chart formulas produce seawater at a salinity of 34 ppt (1.0235 Specific Gravity @ 77 degrees)

That is disappointing they would make such a mistake. I'll see if I can get a comment from them.

what ESV must have meant by "their mg supplement" is their B-Ionic mg supplement not the mg sulfate powder in their SW mix.

Hopefully not, since that wouldn't be good either, and not matching their description of ionically balanced, but I'm not sure what they meant to write. :)
 
Last edited:
Not to kick a dead horse. I mixed 20 gallons of Reef Crystals for a week and the bottom of the left over two gallons I poured into a five gallon white salt bucket had brown skim floating around the bottom of the two gallons?

I am wondering whether I should just mix my Reef Crystals overnight with heater and wait until I have it all used up. Then I can switch over to Instant Ocean and not have this "scum" at the bottom of my mixing container?
 
I have never heard of the "scum" hurting anything in any ones tank. I would use it. If you switch to IO, you will more then likely have to supplement from time to time.
 
Supplementing

Supplementing

Billybeau1 said:
I have never heard of the "scum" hurting anything in any ones tank. I would use it. If you switch to IO, you will more then likely have to supplement from time to time.
Click to expand...

Yes, the issue of not having to supplement is nice.

Maybe I will stick with the Reef Crystals after all.:rollface:
 
Finsky said:
Not to kick a dead horse. I mixed 20 gallons of Reef Crystals for a week and the bottom of the left over two gallons I poured into a five gallon white salt bucket had brown skim floating around the bottom of the two gallons?

I am wondering whether I should just mix my Reef Crystals overnight with heater and wait until I have it all used up. Then I can switch over to Instant Ocean and not have this "scum" at the bottom of my mixing container?
Click to expand...

I get the scum with IO but not with H2Oceanic
 
Finsky said:
Yes, the issue of not having to supplement is nice.

Maybe I will stick with the Reef Crystals after all.:rollface:
Click to expand...

I can't see you not having to supplement with 10 to 15 per cent weekly water changes---it's just not great enough volume change to make a difference if you are supplementing already.
I've used the new IO, Reef crystals and H2oceanic and still are supplementing the same amount of two part.
 
According to ESV at 1.0235 sg the following parameters should be achieved:

450 ppm Calcium • 3.25 meq/L Alkalinity • 1400 ppm Magnesium

Do you have a link to where they claim that? I'd like to read what they say.


Thanks, that clears something up for me (based on what you wrote and why they would give numbers for such a low salinity), but makes me ask why you said they gave numbers for sg = 1.0235, when what I read is for 34 ppt, which has a sg of 1.0256.

I emailed with Bob Stark (at ESV) and he indicated that the specific gravity value on the label is incorrect and will be changed. They apparently used a hydrometer reading that wasn't temperature corrected to get true specific gravity. The values are for 34 ppt, but not that quoted sg. :)
 
Randy Holmes-Farley said:
According to ESV at 1.0235 sg the following parameters should be achieved:

450 ppm Calcium "¢ 3.25 meq/L Alkalinity "¢ 1400 ppm Magnesium

Do you have a link to where they claim that? I'd like to read what they say.


Thanks, that clears something up for me (based on what you wrote and why they would give numbers for such a low salinity), but makes me ask why you said they gave numbers for sg = 1.0235, when what I read is for 34 ppt, which has a sg of 1.0256.

I emailed with Bob Stark (at ESV) and he indicated that the specific gravity value on the label is incorrect and will be changed. They apparently used a hydrometer reading that wasn't temperature corrected to get true specific gravity. The values are for 34 ppt, but not that quoted sg. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks Randy!

That's why the batch I made was all out of wack. I never bothered to check. I compensated by using less water to make up for the salinity I thought I needed but in reality I could have used the entire 30 gallons instead of 27 gallons.
 
Hi Reefers,

So I just made a new 300 gallon batch of Coralife salt last night and ran a full test on it. This is what I got.

Temp- 79f - Probe
SG- 1.026 - Refracto
PH- 8.2 - Hannah Meter
Alk- 10.9dkh - Salifert
Cal- 550ppm - Salifert
Mag- 1425 - Elos
N03- 0 - Salifert
Po4- 0,.06,.08,.04 (Four measurements with hannah) lolololololololololol

With the phospate if I drop the high and low readings and avg the remaining then we get about .05 for phosphate in this batch. The Hannah meter has an error margin of .04 and I just used every inch of it with four tests...lolololol

Did Coralife increase there Alk numbers. I thought it was previously in the 9 range. I tested it twice and it came in right at .31 on the dropper which is 10.9 for alk.

Anyone else test alk in new coralife recently.
 
Billy's results were similar to yours, at least within the margin of error with most kits.

560
9
1380

FWIW, most salt mixes have about 0.03 ppm phosphate on average. The average of your results is close enough. ;)
 
Hi Cliff, thanks.

I was thinking about running a reactor of GFO on this batch of water to eliminate the Po4. Does anyone do this now with any of the salts out there?
Is it a waste of time?

If it was .03 I wouldnt worry but if it was .08 then I may worry only because my display is at .06-.07.

Thoughts? Im not sure if this was discussed earlier in the thread..this thing is huge. :lmao:
 
vegaskid11 said:
Hi Cliff, thanks.

I was thinking about running a reactor of GFO on this batch of water to eliminate the Po4. Does anyone do this now with any of the salts out there?
Is it a waste of time?

If it was .03 I wouldnt worry but if it was .08 then I may worry only because my display is at .06-.07.

Thoughts? Im not sure if this was discussed earlier in the thread..this thing is huge. :lmao:
Click to expand...

why not just run the reactor on the whole system's water rather than just the makeup water?
 
capn_hylinur said:
I can't see you not having to supplement with 10 to 15 per cent weekly water changes---it's just not great enough volume change to make a difference if you are supplementing already.
I've used the new IO, Reef crystals and H2oceanic and still are supplementing the same amount of two part.
Click to expand...

I guess I should retract this statement.:hammer:
I tested my water after a month of weekly water changes and was very suprised
calcium had rose from 400 to 490
alk had rose from 10.5 to 14 dkH
I cut back on the b-ionics two part for 3 days now and am assuming that I will probably be able to dose about 1/4 the amount if any at all while using the h2oceanic salt mix
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
Calcium very elevated
Replies
3
Views
814
jcarlilesiu
J
Kona26
Aerate instant ocean reef crystals salt mix..?
Replies
3
Views
497
griss
griss
F
Re-using salt (crazy idea)
Replies
14
Views
1K
DjPhato
DjPhato
AZBigJohn
New Build... I'm back
2
Replies
25
Views
1K
Dustin07
D
A
Aquarium Temperature Control: How I Hacked My Air Conditioner to control my tanks temperatures
Replies
6
Views
361
Naso180
N
Back
Top