A General Guide to Salt Mixes

Well I mixed up a 50 gallon batch of the salinity. Its been mixing for 24 hours and I must say so far I am a little disappointed with the cloudiness.....Its so cloudy I cant see the mag pump in the bottom of the bucket....I hope it clears up after a couple days of mixing......
 
OK did some tests on the Seachem Salinity. Like I stated above I am really disapointed with the cloudiness, and now really confused by my test results. Granted I am using API kits that have been around for a year but I think they are still fairly accurate. Here is what I got from 35ppt water.

Alk 8
Calcium 400
PH 8.0

Now the bucket states my certified lab results are

Alk 3.7 meq
calcium 440
ph 8.5

I am going to call Seachem tomorrow and see what they tell me. But so far the results I got are no better then reef crystals. I don't have any brown residue on the can so that is a positive. But other than that I am a little disapointed so far.......
 
Billybeau1 said:
Well, I trust you are using the Salifert kit correctly. But I find it unusual that a bucket of RSCP has that much alkalinity. That is even higher than IO and RC.

If you've mixed the bucket real good, then I guess it is what it is. At least you wont have to supplement alk for awhile :D

I'd be surprised if all RSCP buckets are that high, even if they changed their formula.
Click to expand...

I will report in few months as to whether the entire bucket had that much alkalinity.

I don't think all buckets are this high either, but I think it's almost more interesting to know how much the values differ between buckets than to know the actual values in each bucket.
 
The only thing that is annoying in this case is that it says on the bucket of Red Sea Coral Pro that the alkalinity should be 2,2-2,5 meq/l or approximately 6-7 dKH, it doesn't say at which salinity though but right above is a table of expected calcium levels at different salinities, from 30,6 - 35 psu so I guess that it either means 6 dKH at 30,6 psu and 7 dKH at 35 psu or 6-7 dKH at 30,6 psu which would mean that the alkalinity should be about 7-8 dKH at 35 psu.

No matter how you try to look at it it shouldn't be in the 14-15 dKH range.
 
Neither do I, but I see so many different numbers posted for it that either it's so inconsistent it's a miracle anythings alive or a poor reflection on many test kits and procedures.
 
mano84 said:
The only thing that is annoying in this case is that it says on the bucket of Red Sea Coral Pro that the alkalinity should be 2,2-2,5 meq/l or approximately 6-7 dKH, it doesn't say at which salinity though but right above is a table of expected calcium levels at different salinities, from 30,6 - 35 psu so I guess that it either means 6 dKH at 30,6 psu and 7 dKH at 35 psu or 6-7 dKH at 30,6 psu which would mean that the alkalinity should be about 7-8 dKH at 35 psu.

No matter how you try to look at it it shouldn't be in the 14-15 dKH range.
Click to expand...
You prob got a bad bucket cause my RSP bucket tested 7.3 dkh everytime.
Try rolling the bucket a few times first unless your mixing the entire bucket all at once.
 
henrystyle said:
You prob got a bad bucket cause my RSP bucket tested 7.3 dkh everytime.
Try rolling the bucket a few times first unless your mixing the entire bucket all at once.
Click to expand...

I did roll it around for quite a while, but like I said earlier, I will be writing again in a few months when I know if the value is constantly high throughout the entire bucket.
 
Just tested a new batch of Coralife using the same procedures for all of my testing.

No need to update the list. Coralife @ 35 ppt still comes in at about 560 calcium, 1380 magnesium. I did get 10 dkh instead of 9 but thats close enough for me to say they have not changed.

There are still many that are satisfied with this salt. :)

I was going to get some RSCP but I see someone is still reporting dkh in the 7's.

RBU, what are the lot #'s on the bottles of your kits ? The last 4 digits should be the month and the year it was manufactured. If it is over a year, I would get new ones.
 
RBU1 said:
Well I mixed up a 50 gallon batch of the salinity. Its been mixing for 24 hours and I must say so far I am a little disappointed with the cloudiness.....Its so cloudy I cant see the mag pump in the bottom of the bucket....I hope it clears up after a couple days of mixing......
Click to expand...


I'm in the same exact boat you are. My water is cloudy after almost FOUR days!!! What gives?
 
I mixed up a batch of 20 gallons of Reef Crystals with 25 1/2 cups which gave me a salinity of approximately 35.0 ppt. I let it mix with a Hagen 802 400 gph and a Hagen 402 270 gph along with a heater for about one week.

This is left me with crystal clear water replacement water close to the salinity and temperature of my tank's salinity and temperature. The replacement left my tank's salinity at 34.7 mS measured with a Pinpoint Salinity monitor. I pumped the replacement water into the aquarium with the Hagen 802.

I really like having my replacement water at almost the exact salinity of the tank's salinity. If I am off .3 mS I can siphon out a bit of tank water and hand mix a bit of Reef Crystals until it becomes clear and then get an exact 35.0 mS tank salinity after a 20 gallon water change to a 120 reef tank.

This is really good for my five bubble tip anemones and two pairs of clowns(one a breeding pair of Cinnamons) along with the corals and fish.
 
That can't be right Tom. Maybe a typo ?

Most salt mixes require at least 1/2 cup of salt per gallon but certainly not more than 3/4 cup per gallon. :confused::confused::confused:
 
12.5 cups a salt

12.5 cups a salt

Billybeau1 said:
Thanks Jeff for helping me re-read his post .

Makes much more sense now. :o
Click to expand...

I apologize for any heart palpatations caused by my post. It was meant to say 25 of half cups of salt or 12.5 cups.

I almost thought I was going broke with my salt bill doubling!

I do have three 200 gallon boxes of Reef Crystals in reserve stacked in the hallway near the front door. Every time I get near two they run a sale at Drs. Foster and Smith with 8.99 flat shipping. I just received the third and I have an almost empty 160 gallon plastic bucket to pour two of the four bags which the boxed salt comes in. I have kind of gotten used to putting two bags in a bucket at a time and I have about six plastic bucket which I use for filling my 20 and 32 gallon Rubbermaid Brutes for 12 gallon weekly and 20 gallon monthly water changes. Every month I clean out my two Rena XP4 Canisters which hold about 5 gallons total.
 
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