A General Guide to Salt Mixes

[Finsky]

I hear you on the temperature of the mixing water and I agree.

Would you keep a heater (my spare is set to the temperature of the aquarium) in your mixing container overnight after mixing your water at aquarium termperature? If you put a heater in overnight, you cannot seal the container completely due to having a heater cord in the way? How tight does the container seal have to be?

 

[bertoni]

I'm not sure why you want the container sealed. Is the issue evaporation?

I never heated my water for changes, but I did keep the water at room temperature, and I did small changes (10-20% or so).

 

[PhreeBYrd]

PhreeBYrd:

An hour before pumping the replacement water into the tank, I should turn on the 802 Hagen powerhead to circulation and aerate or powerhead and air pump to circulate and aerate before pumping the replacement water at aquarium temperature into the tank(Also checking for proper salinity of replacement water).

Is it a problem to allow a slight gap in the mixing container lid overnight for the heater cord or should I wait until the day I am changing the water to turn on the heater, powerhead, and air pump on an hour before pumping the replacement water into the tank?

That's pretty much what I do. It's not a problem to have your lid open slightly. Ideally, your container wouldn't have a lid at all, but for practical reasons, a lid is desirable to prevent evaporation and heat loss, and to keep dust, insects, pet hair, and other such undesirables out of your clean water. If your lid fits tightly, then an air pump may be a good idea... I don't personally use one, though. I take the lid off for an hour or so with the circulation pump running before pumping out water. Usually the pH rises 0.2 in that time just from equalizing with the indoor air.

I keep the heaters on in my containers all the time, and keep enough water in them to keep the heaters covered. You want your mixing water at your target (tank) temperature before you add salt.

I'm sure others have different methods, but this works for me.

 

[Finsky]

I was thinking more of keeping the water at aquarium temperature than evaporation.

It sounds like I can leave a lid on the mixing container after mixing in the salt.

Then putting the lid on and letting it sit for 24 to 48 hours until approximately one hour before pumping it into the aquarium. At this time I can turn the powerhead on to circulate and aerate the water. Heating the water after mixing at aquarium temperature is optional when leaving it a room temperature which would be 71 degrees for me? Would the water evaporate if I left the heater on from mixing to pumping into the aquarium?

 

[bertoni]

For smaller water changes, using 71 F water should be fine. I never had any problems. If I was going to change more than 20%, I might heat the water up closer to tank temperature.

If you put a heater in the tub, you should have a pump to keep the tank from stratifying. Higher temperatures will encourage more evaporation, but that's the only issue.

I tended to aerate my water for a few hours before using it, but some salt mixes might require more or less aeration to reach a reasonable pH. I doubt that the pH is all that critical for small changes, but some salts mix to fairly extreme pH levels.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Here's my rational for using Instant Ocean (which I mostly copied and pasted from another thread):

I do not think there is a "best" salt mix. Nearly all of them will work fine as long as you know their pros and cons.

I don't want excessive borate, which leaves out Seachem.

I don't want vitamins or anything else organic in my mix (because I doubt their utility, they degrade with time to who knows what, bacteria may thrive on them as I store new salt water for a substantial period, they are totally undescribed with respect to amounts or identity, they are not naturally present in natural seawater at appreciable levels, and because I've occasionally had them mess with my skimmer), so that tosses out some like Reef Crystals, hW Marinemix Plus BioElements, Kent, Coralife, and Nutri-SeaWater.

I don't want excessive calcium (long term use of limewater as I use drives up calcium, so I do not want it starting high), so that tosses out a bunch, such as Kent, Seachem, Coralife and Oceanic.

There are certain companies that I will not support due to their misleading claims and/or product lines. That tosses out a few which I won't detail here since it is my personal thought as opposed to a specific issue with their salt mix.

I won't use certain lines of natural seawater due to excessive metals in it.

That only leaves a few to choose from, such as Instant Ocean and Tropic Marin Pro. The remaining ones might all be fine for me, but IO is lower in cost, especially if you get it when it goes on sale (which it frequently does). It also has a very long track record of success in many aquaria with relatively few concerning issues of bad batches.

 

[DheereCrossing]

Pretty straight forward right there. Thanks for laying that out like that Randy.

 

[Finsky]

Water changes and salt mixing

Water changes and salt mixing

Bertoni:

This sounds like a plan and a benefit to my mini reef inhabitants.

I can set a 20 gallon mix container to the left of my tank with the lid on after mixing the salt with a 400 gph 802 Hagen powerhead.

After letting the mixed saltwater sit 24 to 48 hours with the lid on, I can circulate with the powerhead and aerate with my air pump for a couple of hours before pumping the mixed salt water into the aquarium.

 

[Finsky]

Randy:

"I store new salt water for a substantial period"

I was wondering how long is your substantial period of time?

When you hear the Georgia Aquarium uses 2,000 pound bags of Instant Ocean, it makes you wonder why they are not using reef crystals although I have never had problem with Reef Crystals and my very sensitive Aqua Medic Turboflotor skimmer.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I was wondering how long is your substantial period of time?

It depends on a variety of factors, but maybe 3-5 weeks. I make up 88 gallons at a time, and aim to change 1% daily.

 

[PhreeBYrd]

B-Ionic Seawater System

B-Ionic Seawater System

I've just recently stumbled upon the B-Ionic Seawater System salt mix. It appears to be a 4-part mix -- I'm guessing this is NaCl & MgCl or MgSO4 in dry form, and other components in two liquid additives. They are claiming 450 ppm Ca, 3.25 meq/L Alk, and 1400 ppm Mg at 34 ppt salinity. They are also claiming to use high-purity NaCl and USP grade MgSO4.

It's on the pricey side, about the same price as TM Pro here. Has anybody used this yet or have any plans to? BB1?

 

[kaskiles]

B-Ionic Seawater System

B-Ionic Seawater System

Has anybody used this yet or have any plans to? BB1?

I'm planning to try it. I hope it's easy to scale down batches to 5 gallons and still get the Alk/Cal/Mag advertised... I also hope there are no organics in it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

and USP grade MgSO4.

Sounds impressive, but that's the equivalent of Epsom salt from a drug store.

 

[RossW]

as I store new salt water for a substantial period

I have heard it is OK to store salt water in a plastic container but that you should not store RO/DI water in a plastic container as the RO/DI water will leach "bad stuff" out of the plastic.

Is their any truth to this? If so, how long is too long to store RO/DI water in a plastic container.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I do not think that is a concern with a good container, such as a Rubbermaid Brute. I've stored RO/DI in such cans for many years. RO/DI and new salt water (absent organics)will last as long as you want it to.

 

[PhreeBYrd]

and USP grade MgSO4.

Sounds impressive, but that's the equivalent of Epsom salt from a drug store.

That's what I was thinking, too; but then again, I have no idea what grade of most of these compounds is usually used in aquarium salt mixes, and it may still be an improvement (in purity, at least) over some others. Whether or not it would be a valuable improvement also remains to be seen.

I do like the idea of the separate components, though, even though it's more trouble. What do you think, Randy? Is that really a better strategy?

 

[Billybeau1]

I wouldn't call it a better strategy, maybe a different strategy.

Salt manufacturers are always trying something different to get a step ahead on the competition. Gimmicks and fancy slogans temp the eye of the aquarist. Not unlike anything else we buy.

Instant Ocean and Reef Crystals continues to have well over 50% of the market and I suspect it will be like that for a long time.

 

[2 TAZ]

I just recieved 4 buckets of tm pro from thatfishplace.com they sell the buckets fo about 70 bucks and shipped all 4 buckets for 6 bucks. Also I think a tm bucket will mix about 200 gallons while most other salts mix to 160 gal

 

[Finsky]

Smaller more frequent water changes

Smaller more frequent water changes

I was wondering how long is your substantial period of time?

It depends on a variety of factors, but maybe 3-5 weeks. I make up 88 gallons at a time, and aim to change 1% daily.

Randy:

You really have your mixing down to a science! One percent daily! Have you always changed water this way or did you move from a 10% weekly to the 1% daily? Did you notice any difference if you did go from larger changes to the 1% daily? What would be the benefits of a 1% daily compared to a 10% weekly change?:bigeyes:

I previously purchased a 32 gallon Rubbermaid Roughneck for mixing. In my apartment, this is about all the saltwater storage I would have room for.

 

[alrha]

changing more frequently removes the nutrients before they can build up and replenishes trace elements before they are depleted and just keeps things more stable as compared to a weekly/monthly change where levels will change by a larger amount at a time.