Billybeau1
Premium Member
There are a number of salts that leave that residue in the mixing tank. I has not seem to affected anyone in a negative way that I've heard. 

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15373511#post15373511 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Billybeau1
There are a number of salts that leave that residue in the mixing tank. I has not seem to affected anyone in a negative way that I've heard.![]()
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15333510#post15333510 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Billybeau1
Boosting calcium and magnesium does not raise salinity. If you dose evaporated water with limewater, your salinity should not increase.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15384894#post15384894 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pandadoc
Billy,
It took me three days, but I managed to read through all threads! Thanks for all the work you've put into this thread!
I'm starting a tank from the beginning and I envision a mixed but predominantly SPS tank with a heavy bio-load of fish eventually. The tank will be a 120g w/50g sump. If I plan to do top off w/Kalk and do small daily water changes with a Spectrapure Litermeter III dosing pump, do you feel that I can use Coralife salt without overdosing with calcium while I'm getting things established? I know that Kalkwasser will help with increasing alkalinity, but I wasn't sure if the additional calcium will cause precipitation in the tank. Is it better to use 50-50 Coralife with Reef Crystals?
Thanks
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15385566#post15385566 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bertoni
Dosing calcium and magnesium (within the normal specs) shouldn't affect salinity appreciably because their concentration is very low. I'll do some calculations if my brain holds up to the jet lag.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15386814#post15386814 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nirvanaandtool
Did Oceanic's salt formula change by any chance? Or is it still just as bad as it was when the first test was done.
Cause I have a 200g bucket of it that I picked up from the LFS without thinking last week. Didnt open it but was intending on using it for my Solana when i pick it up this week. Figured it was good cause my brother is using it on his 90g mixed reef with pretty good success but those levels just scare me. Dont really want to risk starting a tank with it if its that bad of a salt mix. What do you guys think?
Guess I can try to return it for IO instead...
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15388530#post15388530 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Billybeau1
I do not think Oceanic is bad. Just unbalanced. The extra calcium is nothing to be afraid of. Nor is the extra magnesium. Most reefers wish they had that much out of the box. You just have to keep an eye on alkalinity which is easily fixed with baking soda.
I haven't tested Oceanic in awhile, but that said, I have not heard of their formula changing either. If it is good enough for your bro, I'd say it is good enough for you.![]()
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15387548#post15387548 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kfick
So if we dose 20 gallons of mixed up IO from 1050 to 1350 ppm of Magnesium with Randy's 2 part formula, it will take 483ml according to JDieck's calculator. At 3785ml in a gallon, that will take roughly 1/8th of a gallon. There are 5 cups of salts in the gallon of mix (3 MgCl and 2 of MgS04), so that mean we dosed aproximately 5/8ths of a cup of salt. I'd think that would be a noticeable difference in salinity. And then I add 100ppm of calcium...
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15389949#post15389949 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by bertoni
That sounds about right for raising Mg that much. Most maintenance doses are much smaller, though.