DIY salt?

[beanoil]

Does anyone make their own salt? I stumbled across this website and it turns out that I live near this guy, so I checked it out. He has a small store attached to his home. I go in, and his tanks are beautiful! All fish and corals appeared very healthy and the guy has been in the hobby forever and seemed to know what he was doing. Point is, me makes his own salt, cautioned me away from the major manufacturers, and gave me some free to try. I have no interest in making my own. The reason for this post it to find out if anyone else has made their own or used someone else's homemade salt. The guy was knowledgeable and seemed trustworthy, and his tanks speak for themselves. Here's a link to his site. Opinions, please?

Thanks in advance.

http://www.gettankedaquariums.com
(you'll find the link to the salt on the left, about a third of the way down)

 

[BeanAnimal]

The local aquarium here in pittsburgh used to make their own salt, but has since switched to a retail brand (at least that is my understanding). The raw materials will be expensive in small quantities, and not really worth the trobule, unless of course you simply have the desire to make your own salt.

Bean

 

[gath2]

A local reefer here in St. Louis makes his own salt. He has a 5000 gals of salt water in his basement, so he uses plenty of it.

http://www.seaplace.org/~kevinc/Zilla_III/saltmix.html

 

[Adam]

Hi all,

I have looked into this. Bean is right... it is not cost effective on a small scale, especially if you want to use really high grade reagents. The suppliers for the chemicals usually offer deep discounts over their list prices, but only if you order very large quantities.

That said, if you have even a college chemistry 101 background, it is pretty easy to come up with a recipe and even account for impurities. There are even some recipes floating around the internet.

The Pittsburgh PPG Aquarium did not actually make their own salt. They used a brand that come with everything except sodium chloride. This primarily saves on shipping by allowing the user to buy bulk NaCl locally.

Adam

 

[MCary]

http://www.aquaticeco.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/product.detail/iid/1559/cid/392

 

[BeanAnimal]

Thanks Adam! I figured you would set me straight on that (I forgot to ask when we were there last year)