Batch of bad salt, foreign objects in salt -- 1.026 = 5.8 dKH

[Lou Ekus]

Dosing 123 method explanation

Dosing 123 method explanation

I am reading a lot on this thread about 3 part dosing. Please understand that most of these 3 part methods are Balling Method imitators. This is not to say that they don't work or are bad. They are just not the true Balling Method or Hans-Werner Balling's formula. If we are talking the true Balling Method, then the NaCl free sea salt is complete, with ALL, not "some" trace elements, and is the Part C, not the part 2. Here is a link to a You Tube explanation of the Balling Method. (if you select "captions" in the video options you will get English captions of Han-Wernrer's narration).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZy7RS8kEag

This is not posted here as a Tropic Marin advertisement. It seemed to me to be an appropriate explanation for the questions in this thread. I hope it helps clear up any misinformation or questions.

 

[GoVols]

Thanks, Lou

I only thing missing now is for "Randy Holmes - Farley" (The Master) to jump on this thread and rip us all a new one. (lol)

 

[GoVols]

Let's get this thread back track. "Buckets not mixing to data sheets"

AF is your data sheets stating what your "full batch" read, but maybe not accurate to what's in each and every bucket from the that "full batch"?

 

[sk8elenex92]

@AquaForest

How true is this " Component 1+ 2+ 3+ will only work with AF or Tropic Marin salts to stabilize ions" Need to be NaCl free salt???

Is this the cause of SPS STNing just after couple days of dosing COMP123???

 

[BB215]

Hello,
As author of this Thread wrote: we will replace new bucket of salt.
Dear customers - If you will have any problems with your salts. Please contact with us at: info@aquaforest.eu

Best regards,
Aquaforest

Here's my reply from info@aquaforest.eu

Hello,

Thank you for your e-mail and information.

I am sure that salt with Mg 1500 could not go out from our factory.

We are active at many forums and also in Aquaforest Group at Facebook - users are showing their tanks and corals look amazing with using Aquaforest products.

 

[Mr.Fishtank]

Here's my reply from info@aquaforest.eu

Hello,

Thank you for your e-mail and information.

I am sure that salt with Mg 1500 could not go out from our factory.

We are active at many forums and also in Aquaforest Group at Facebook - users are showing their tanks and corals look amazing with using Aquaforest products.

LOL. Really AF. With all of us on this thread having the same problems.Your going to tell us that the salt is fine and you wouldn't ship out bad batches.

It really ticks me off that you don't take blame for you F up's. I will not purchase anymore of your products. Even my LFS discontinued selling your products because they said that too many of their customers were complaining that things were going wrong after they started using Aquaforest products. Good luck with business!

 

[2dawghouse]

I liked their products and raved to several club members about their products. But this batch of salt is definitely subpar for the level of quality I have been receiving before. I agree it's not a coincidence that several people have come forward telling of QC issues with their salt. And I would like to know why my bucket of salt arrived in block form, not in powder form. And I'm certain it has something to do with the water looking dirty.

 

[Yonp11]

Honestly, if you can order from Amazon, I'd advise you to do that instead. If you open up the bucket and it doesn't mix to the QC certificate, just tell Amazon you got a defective batch and you'd like a refund or an exchange, and you'll even provide photo evidence if needed. This will ping the distributor, who I'm sure will tell AF they are getting an increase in complaints in product quality.

It seems by the lack of AF response to the complaints in this thread, along with the customer service email reply posted by BB215, AF would rather ignore the problem or assume its a user error.

 

[plyle02]

I am here to help, but when it escalates beyond my support capabilities, I have to allow AF to decide on how things are to be handled. I have had no issues at all using the Probiotic Salt. I do not have the increased mag, nor do I have other shifting parameters, but the complaints I am seeing seem to be related to AF Reef Salt. I apologize for any of your frustrations, I have interacted with the Co-Owner and Debora, who are with the team in Poland. They are very fair and are excellent aquarists too, to think they don't care is a tad harsh! Cheers and happy reefing

 

[Martin Kuhn]

Hmmm... reading this is like a "Deja vu" for me.

Understanding everybody who is disappointed here, i would anyhow suggest to look for further clarification before everybody claims the manufacturer for delivering poor quality.
Give the AF guys a fair chance.

- at which exact salinity should the water have "too much Mg". Are you really sure this is at the salinity level AF is posting their values? including the Q report of the batch? Are you really sure that your measurement kits work correct and that you measure correctly?
(too high salinity too high Ca/Alk/Mg values !)

- shouldn't we do a X-Check of what was measured and stated to be out of specs with another, trusted source?
From my side i offer to check a sample "that is thought to be out of spec", fully indepentently.
For my salt measurements from ACalc i own quite reliable "measuring stuff"
a) calibrated Mettler-Toledo weigh + calibrated temp.measurement unit + TM Aeromter
b) Testkits for CA/Alk/Mg from Peter Gilbers which are the most trusted kits in Germany at the moment, checked for corrections factors with Multi-reference
however... somebody needs to send me a sample of the salt to germany....PM

units with arrived in "block form" obiously should not be part of of this.
Anyhow: the packaging might get damaged during transport without any fault from the manufacturers side, besides it would be a good idea to improve the packaging quality then ;

 

[2dawghouse]

Hmmm... reading this is like a "Deja vu" for me.

Understanding everybody who is disappointed here, i would anyhow suggest to look for further clarification before everybody claims the manufacturer for delivering poor quality.
Give the AF guys a fair chance.

- at which exact salinity should the water have "too much Mg". Are you really sure this is at the salinity level AF is posting their values? including the Q report of the batch? Are you really sure that your measurement kits work correct and that you measure correctly?
(too high salinity too high Ca/Alk/Mg values !)

- shouldn't we do a X-Check of what was measured and stated to be out of specs with another, trusted source?
From my side i offer to check a sample "that is thought to be out of spec", fully indepentently.
For my salt measurements from ACalc i own quite reliable "measuring stuff"
a) calibrated Mettler-Toledo weigh + calibrated temp.measurement unit + TM Aeromter
b) Testkits for CA/Alk/Mg from Peter Gilbers which are the most trusted kits in Germany at the moment, checked for corrections factors with Multi-reference
however... somebody needs to send me a sample of the salt to germany....PM

units with arrived in "block form" obiously should not be part of of this.
Anyhow: the packaging might get damaged during transport without any fault from the manufacturers side, besides it would be a good idea to improve the packaging quality then ;

Im not to worried about the numbers per se...I can manipulate the mixture to match what my tank is currently reading. I am more worried about my salt being contaminated and hardening up. I am also going to try an experiment at home and see if maybe the salt was exposed to humidity which may have caused it to solidify due to the probiotic nature of the salt.

 

[plyle02]

Im not to worried about the numbers per se...I can manipulate the mixture to match what my tank is currently reading. I am more worried about my salt being contaminated and hardening up. I am also going to try an experiment at home and see if maybe the salt was exposed to humidity which may have caused it to solidify due to the probiotic nature of the salt.

Hello,
From my understanding, binders are not used. For this reason, it is imperative that the salt is tied off and the lid on the bucket is re-sealed completely, as it will harden. I had a bucket towards the middle/ end of it's use do this, the reason was that I did not re-seal the bag or the bucket properly. I have since become very aware of this and the issue has never happened again. On another site, many who ordered from a specific online retailer had the same issue with the NEW salt arriving this way. The communication I received stated the salt is still ok to use, I used it to completion with no negative impacts on my reef. The only issue was that it did not mix as well as normal. Regards,

 

[dz6t]

I have three buckets of Reef Salt turned into hard rock in their SEALED containers and stored in the house in 6 month. AF (actually his boss) simply told me to go pound sand.
So these salt can't be stored in their seal container for 6 month? I wish I knew that before I bought them. I never have this kind of problem with any other brand of salt in the past 12 years.

 

[Martin Kuhn]

I have three buckets of Reef Salt turned into hard rock in their SEALED containers and stored in the house in 6 month. AF (actually his boss) simply told me to go pound sand.
So these salt can't be stored in their seal container for 6 month? I wish I knew that before I bought them. I never have this kind of problem with any other brand of salt in the past 12 years.

Isn't there something like a shelf life stamp on the container?
i can hardly imagine that shelf life of such a product is as short.

What do you mean with "simply told me to go pound sand" ?

===========
also, one thing i fogot to write the first time: Of course it is absolutely NOT OK if some "pieces of whatever" (eg used grinding paper ?) are within an (unopened) salt bucket.

you wrote: "Additionally... I found what looks like used sandpaper in my mix"
Q: was this within the sealed part /bag in the bucket ? Just mixed in, so that you couldn't see it once you used the first amount of salt?

or was it just lying in the bucket and not within the sealed part ?

 

[GoVols]

Aquaforest Please Respond,

After further research and trying to learn...

If I'm correct your "Salt Mixes" ARE NOT (NaCl free salt) salt mixes.

Meaning: With out NaCl "Sodium chloride" it's not sea salt.

NaCl free salt mixes are made for the consumer to add the "Sodium chloride" while mixing the salt.

Is this a correct?

Before new water is added to a tank it must have "Sodium chloride".

Is this correct?

So, Component 1+ 2+ 3+ would make a great choice to be used with all brands of salt mixes!

Is this correct?

If I'm not correct with any part of this post, please explain so I can learn.

 

[Martin Kuhn]

Aquaforest Please Respond,

After further research and trying to learn...

If I'm correct your "Salt Mixes" ARE NOT (NaCl free salt) salt mixes.

Meaning: With out NaCl "Sodium chloride" it's not sea salt.

NaCl free salt mixes are made for the consumer to add the "Sodium chloride" while mixing the salt.

Is this a correct?

Before new water is added to a tank it must have "Sodium chloride".

Is this correct?

So, Component 1+ 2+ 3+ would make a great choice to be used with all brands of salt mixes!

Is this correct?

If I'm not correct with any part of this post, please explain so I can learn.

i got a bit puzzled by what you write

a) sea salt mixes: are "added to freshwater" and "generate seawater with a certain salinity" including macro & trace elements.
Target is to make your water "just like seawater" (normal mixes) or "at a bit elevated Ca/Alk/Mg/trace-Element level" (reef mixtures).
(Exact mixtures differ from brand to brand and type to type)

b) Balling salts or liquid stock solutions of Balling salts
these ones "raise your level" of ca Alk and also Mg (some types only)
AF 1+ and 2+ eg "raise Ca and Alk".
they are NOT sea salt mixes ! you US guys call them "2 part's"

c) "NaCl free salt"
this is a dry salt mixture (or available also as stock solution / liquid mix, eg in 3+) containing "several trace elements"most of it being "Mg salt".
It is called NaCl free because "no pure NaCl is in the mix of other salts"

The exact mix is unknown to me.
This is used to raise Mg and other trace element levels as your SPS/LPS "consume it". It is in no way a "sea salt mix" like under a)

 

[dz6t]

Isn't there something like a shelf life stamp on the container?
i can hardly imagine that shelf life of such a product is as short.

What do you mean with "simply told me to go pound sand" ?

===========
also, one thing i fogot to write the first time: Of course it is absolutely NOT OK if some "pieces of whatever" (eg used grinding paper ?) are within an (unopened) salt bucket.

you wrote: "Additionally... I found what looks like used sandpaper in my mix"
Q: was this within the sealed part /bag in the bucket ? Just mixed in, so that you couldn't see it once you used the first amount of salt?

or was it just lying in the bucket and not within the sealed part ?

There is no shelf life stamp on any buckets.
They said that they were not going to do anything about it.
Also I was told to use the rocked (harden) salt despite I told them it did not dissolve completely. Also, they said the salt was OK to use if it did not turn BLUE.
No idea why the salt would turn blue.

 

[dz6t]

I am talking about the Reef Salt, not the probio salt.

 

[2dawghouse]

There is no shelf life stamp on any buckets.
They said that they were not going to do anything about it.
Also I was told to use the rocked (harden) salt despite I told them it did not dissolve completely. Also, they said the salt was OK to use if it did not turn BLUE.
No idea why the salt would turn blue.

Same here!!!! I did my experiment and the salt had a blue hue to it as well the salt in my bucket is slightly blue. The salt in my bucket and experiment will not dissolve completely. It leaves a residual in the bucket and my water is cloudy and dirty. This was an unopened bucket till I opened it.

 

[2dawghouse]

I'm dumping this bucket. There is no way in hell I'm putting this in my tank