A General Guide to Salt Mixes

[rigleautomotive]

Whatever this junk is it can burn corals.I have had a chip of this stuff land on a montipora cap when doing a water change.About 10 minutes later I got my trusty turkey baster out to blow it off only to find bare skelton under the chip.I dont like this stuff

 

[TheFishMan65]

rigleautomotive,
Sorry I'm lost chip from where? of what?
Thanks

 

[rigleautomotive]

rigleautomotive,
Sorry I'm lost chip from where? of what?
Thanks

Sorry,I should have been more specific.The chips of this precipitate(from salt mix) will break off in the water change container and get sucked up by the pump I use to transfer the water change water from the container to the DT.If these chips fall on a sensitive coral,it will burn flesh in some instances.

 

[TheFishMan65]

Thanks for clearing that up. I just like to know what to watch out for. Now if I could just remember them all

 

[Aquarist007]

Buy a $2 gallon of vinegar and let it sit in there overnight.....That crust will come off with ease...

I agree---I have to clean out my brute containers every three to four weeks with the salt water I go through. I just look at it as another necessary maintenance task that has to be done

 

[Finsky]

Vinegar

Vinegar

I ran my two Hydor 8's in a five gallon salt bucket with a couple of gallons of vinegar for two days after I switched them out for two replacements 8's. I then ran them for a day with fresh water.

They are now waiting for their newcomer replacements to grime up.

Point is I think vinegar is a safe way to go with crud removal.

I was reading through this thread about six posts back there is a picture of a bucket with the topic of conversation?

You do not have to apologize to me?

Oh yeah, my new pair of Hawaiian Leaf fish really like my water made with Reef Crystals mixed with a 400 and 270 gph Hagen powerheads in a Rubbermaid Brute which I rinse in hot water after use and clean with elbow grease.

Ooohhhh, Reef Crystals is good for me and my reef tank inhabitants including six bubble tip anemones and five gonioporas.

 

[lukinrats]

I just ordered a bucket of CoraLife since I liked the params posted. I especially liked the 9 DKH since that is my new target level. I rolled around the bucket to get it mixed up, and made saltwater at 35PPT measured with a refractometer. My results were...
ALK 13.8 measured with 2 different Salifert kits
Cal >500 salifert
Mag 1350 salifert

The magnesium and calcium were close to what was posted on the sticky, but the Alk was way off. I am a little disappointed with this because I switched to this salt from IO because IO was getting alk of around 12.5.

That's a surprise to me;I'd be disappointed too.If it's a Salifert alk test kit ,they do test high more often than not in my experience.

I've used coralife for 8 years. The alk has been consistent around 9.

I can confirm that the higher dKH is there. I too have been using Coralife for quite some time. It has always been a good salt for me, and I will continue to use it, if I can confirm somehow that this is isolated

I have been having some trouble with corals TNing from the tips. I have tried everything to figure out what my problem was, and now I think that I have found it

I mixed up a fresh batch yesterday, and decided to do some tests on the fresh batch. I will admit that I got so comfy with the Coralife salt that I had stopped checking every batch. My new procedure with be to check every new bucket that I open

So anyway, the tests that I did came out like this.......

Ca = 550-560 (Elos)
KH = 13-14 (API, Elos, Tropic Marin, Sera, Salifert)
Mag = 1350 (Elos)

Billybeau. I don't know what you think, but it may be time to obtain some fresh coralife to check for yourself. It seems as though they have either changed the Alkalinity in the saltmix, or made a bad batch. All I know is that it has caused me some problems

BTW. Saltmix was mixed to 35ppt with a refractometer that was calibrated with pinpoint calibration fluid

I am not real sure what I am going to do here. I think that I may have to resort to weekly, small water changes, so that I don't impact the Alk in my tank to much.
I have 3 new buckets of Coralife coming in any day now. I will do a check on each one, and see if maybe this is a fluke

Later,
Nathan

 

[lukinrats]

Wanted to add to my post above. I recieved 3 new buckets of Coralife salt today, on my lunch break. So I mixed up a 5 gallon bucket full of water, so that I could get a quick measure of the Alkalinity.
I am ****ed to have to say that these new buckets are still giving the same high dKH reading as the previous ones.

Here is what I noticed about the salt. There is a number on top of the bucket lid, and on each bag that is inside.

Number that was on my previous bucket: 932101
Number that is on this new bucket: 003407

I was going to open another bucket to check it, but all 3 of my buckets have 003407 on them

I wish I knew why they had to go and screw up a good salt


I wonder if this has anything to do with Energy Savers Unlimited being bought by Oceanic. I don't know when that happened, but it does make you wonder.

 

[lukinrats]

What is another salt mix that I can use which is around the range of what Coralife used to be?
Want to keep Cal = 500 then KH = 8.5-9 then Mag = 1300.

Then there is the price which is another reason to use the Coralife, so that has to be factored in

 

[lukinrats]

I suppose that the new thing will be to Buy Coralife and Red Sea Coral Pro, and mix them 50/50 to drop the KH. Then everything else should stay about the same

Sound doable?

 

[henrystyle]

Wanted to add to my post above. I recieved 3 new buckets of Coralife salt today, on my lunch break. So I mixed up a 5 gallon bucket full of water, so that I could get a quick measure of the Alkalinity.
I am ****ed to have to say that these new buckets are still giving the same high dKH reading as the previous ones.

Here is what I noticed about the salt. There is a number on top of the bucket lid, and on each bag that is inside.

Number that was on my previous bucket: 932101
Number that is on this new bucket: 003407

I was going to open another bucket to check it, but all 3 of my buckets have 003407 on them

I wish I knew why they had to go and screw up a good salt


I wonder if this has anything to do with Energy Savers Unlimited being bought by Oceanic. I don't know when that happened, but it does make you wonder.

Damm, don't tell me that. Now I have to go in the garage and check my buckets number. These salt companied are really ****ing me off now.

 

[Finsky]

What about Instant Ocean or Reef Crystals?

Georgia's Shedd Aquarium uses Instant Ocean exclusively!

 

[lukinrats]

Damm, don't tell me that. Now I have to go in the garage and check my buckets number. These salt companied are really ****ing me off now.

well all I know is that I have checked the last 6 buckets I have. They were all from the two numbers I posted earlier and they all measure outragiously high in alk.

I have contacted DFS to see if they can find something out

 

[Aquarist007]

What is another salt mix that I can use which is around the range of what Coralife used to be?
Want to keep Cal = 500 then KH = 8.5-9 then Mag = 1300.

Then there is the price which is another reason to use the Coralife, so that has to be factored in

Randy has stated previously that anything over 420 ppm for calcium is not really necessary.

check the salt charts at the first of this thread

 

[lukinrats]

Randy has stated previously that anything over 420 ppm for calcium is not really necessary.

check the salt charts at the first of this thread

Thanks Cap! I realize it is not necessary, however it is what I have had lick with. I will probably end up going with whatever is cheapest in the end, but I have not seem another salt that I like as much as I did the coralife. I am hoping that this will not be permanent, but it sure seems that way. One thing I have noticed with the high CA is that I do not ever need to check my Ca levels, so that is cool.

 

[tmz]

I also like Coralife even with the higher calcium. I've used it for a very long time. After reading these posts I checked a batch at 1.026. mixed from a new 300g box. Sorry, I don;t have a batch number since I already dumped the box. Alk was 9 dkh (api) as it should be. Thanks for posting the information. Let us know if the lfs finds out any information re: a bad batch or change in formula.

 

[lukinrats]

I also like Coralife even with the higher calcium. I've used it for a very long time. After reading these posts I checked a batch at 1.026. mixed from a new 300g box. Sorry, I don;t have a batch number since I already dumped the box. Alk was 9 dkh (api) as it should be. Thanks for posting the information. Let us know if the lfs finds out any information re: a bad batch or change in formula.

Well that certainly is nice to know. I am off work today, so I am headed to the lfs later to buy some kits. I can't imagine how the 4-5 kits I have are all bad, but I guess anything is possible. I too use Api mostly for KH. I bought many Elos KH kits and they never gave me any different results than API. I find it true with most of their kits as well.

My plan is to buy a couple of kits at the LFS as well as a different salt brand. Possibly oceanic. Then I am going to Petsmart (they sell coralife) and I am going to get some more salt with (hopefully) different batch numbers

I know I will be able to verify my results after all of this.

The final reason that I think I am getting the correct results is that I have checked my tank with all of these kits. They all yield the same result of 8.5-9 dKH, just like they should. Then I go and check the fresh saltwater and it is still 13.14.15 dKH.

So, I am convinced that there is a problem

 

[Finsky]

I am with Randy on the 420 ppm calcium

I am with Randy on the 420 ppm calcium

Randy has stated previously that anything over 420 ppm for calcium is not really necessary.

check the salt charts at the first of this thread

I use Reef Complete from Seachem which is fine for my six bubble tip anemone tank with five gonioporas and two palythoa rocks one one montiopora mountain shaped coral. I do not have a heavy calcium using tank.

Seachem recommends 380 to 420 ppm.

I try to keep mine at 420 and everybody seems happy.

I do a 10% 12 gallon weekly water change with Reef Crystals.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I just always assumed this meant a tetramino complex of copper II.

Do they?

Seems odd then that their salt mixes are 500+ ppm.

 

[lukinrats]

Well. I have comfirmed "to myself atleast" that the Coralife buckets I have purchased from DF&S have an Alkalinity of at least 14 dKH.

I bought a brand new API kit from my LFS yesterday, and when I got home I did 3 seperate tests on the fresh saltwater that I have mixed. I have about 40 gallons of it mixed up, so it should not be skewed.

Again, I checked my tank with the test kit to be sure it was reading ok, and it checked out at 8.5-9 just as it should

I don't know what the deal is with the Coralife