****Attention Seachem Reef Salt Users****

[salt newbie01]

I saw this over on the main rc sps forum. I thought this was the salt everyone got on the last group order. You may already know about this, but I wanted to share it to make sure. What has everyone's ph reading been with the new salt? Has anyone noticed an increase in ph or higher alk readings?

"There has been much discussion about this salt recently, mainly on the Zeovit boards, so I wanted to be sure the word is out to everyone. This information is CRUCIAL if you maintain NSW levels of Alkalinity.

Here is the jist if it:

IF TESTING WITH A SALIFERT TEST KIT, YOU MUST SUBTRACT APPROXIMATELY 20% FROM THE RESULT TO GET YOUR ACTUAL KH READING!!!!!!!

The reason is that Seachem salt has about 3x the normal amount of Borate in thier salt (for a good reason, but we wont go into that). This extra Borate contributes to the total alkalinity, however it is NOT usable by the corals, only the carbonate alkalinity is. Because of this your alk readings appear to be higher than they truely are. So if your running an alk reading of aprox 8.0 dkh then your true alk level is 6.4 dkh which is pretty darn low. Any lower and you may very well experience some tissue recession. So it is highly advised to increase your measured alk to between 9 - 10 dkh to maintain NSW levels of carbonate alkalinity.

I hope this will help prevent any more TN events from occuring with this salt. While this is a great salt, you must keep this in mind while using it or you can have MAJOR issues as a result.

Happy Reefing!


__________________
-Kurt"

 

[cee]

The bold statement is not entirely true, but the paragraph following attempts to quantify it. Boron does add to the alkalinity, as do phosphate and other ions. Saliferts measures total alkalinity, where as the SeaChem kit distinguishes between different consitiutents of alkalinity. To get the CARBONATE alkalinity, you must subtract out the borate alkalinity, which is approximately 20%, but that will vary depending on the % of SeaChem salt in your system. If you don't use Zeovit, it's probably not of a concern since you probably run above NSW levels of alkalinity anyway. I've been following this and communicating with SeaChem for weeks on this and other chemistry related issues, and there are many interrelated issues and it's quite complicated. I won't attempt to go into it here.

Dave

 

[llpoolej]

OMG, this is so far over my head. I see math!!

 

[Runner]

increase your measured alk to between 9 - 10 dkh

Heh. That would be a decrease for me. I do not have the great mass of hard corals sucking down my alkalinity like you guys have. My alk hovers around 11 (10.8 dkH last week).

 

[cee]

Ok, reading this post on the other forum, the borate contribution to alkalinity in a 100% SeaChem salt tank would only add about 1.1 dkH to the total alkalinity. Nobody in the club has been using this salt long enough for the alkalinity issue to be a problem (except for me, since I've been using it for 6+ months). Plus, I run about 7 dkH, which is probably closer to 6 in carbonate alkalinity, and I do see some evidence or TN on some of my acros, but not severely.

Dave

 

[EvilMel]

What's TN? Tissue necrosis?

 

[stevensmd]

for what it's worth, my ph has increased since using the new salt. it is where it should be now.
dave

 

[cee]

Yep, the boron is good for keeping the pH up since very little of the borate alkalinity is taken up by the fauna. Also, you can never have a situation where the boron is higher than the concentration present in the salt mix no mater how many water changes, etc. you do. TN=tissue necrosis in this context, sorry for the poor use of acronyms.

Dave