High Ca and Mg in Tunze Reef Excel Salt?
- Thread starter austinaqualung
- Start date
Terry, i should have some coming in shortly. I should have the result by next week. I know Kevin at OCA will bring in some for the Reef of Palooza.
You know me and my obsession with Tunze product. Once i hear something is wrong with it. I want to find out and experience it myself....
You know me and my obsession with Tunze product. Once i hear something is wrong with it. I want to find out and experience it myself....
austinaqualung
New member
Steve, it will be interesting to see what you get when you do the measurements.
In all honesty, I'm hoping this is something simple, like settled salt or something. I really just want to use the salt in my setup. The original numbers from others looked great, that's why I chose to use this salt. I don't claim to be an expert in testing salt, but I haven't had any obvious wierdness in previous testing before this. But I'll give an update on the additional testing in the next day or so.
Doug
In all honesty, I'm hoping this is something simple, like settled salt or something. I really just want to use the salt in my setup. The original numbers from others looked great, that's why I chose to use this salt. I don't claim to be an expert in testing salt, but I haven't had any obvious wierdness in previous testing before this. But I'll give an update on the additional testing in the next day or so.
Doug
Let me use one of the lame excuse i got in the past when i experiment a bad salt.
Were the salt bucket or bag arrived in perfect condition?
Do you notice anything abnormal about the salt as far as color?
Were the bag ripped open? If so, your salt may be contaminated by the air or fumes during transit. :lol:
For you Terry and Austin, i will order a brand new test kit from Elos and also use the salifer
to compare...
Were the salt bucket or bag arrived in perfect condition?
Do you notice anything abnormal about the salt as far as color?
Were the bag ripped open? If so, your salt may be contaminated by the air or fumes during transit. :lol:
For you Terry and Austin, i will order a brand new test kit from Elos and also use the salifer
to compare...austinaqualung
New member
I going to try and bring in the water sample to Bruce tomorrow, if I can break away from a few meetings, but in the meantime, I took a Ca and Mg reading again tonight just for the heck of it. This time Ca=500 and Mg=1900. So it appears that they have been going down over the last 5 days. I turned off the circulation pump for a while, and there does appear to be a little precip (but not a lot).
Doug
Doug
africangrey
Active member
I also received 4 bags of Excel salt last Monday, not knowing the reported high Ca and Mg issue, I already made one water change with this batch. I have to say my resberry milli has lost its brilliant red after the water change.
So I made up a 13 gal at 1.025 (refrectometer was calibrated using Pinpoint's 53 sm conductivity solution prior to the reading) and used ELOS kits to measure both Ca++ and Mg++, which is 475 mg/L and 1500 ppm respectively. I am very concern about this because my readings of the free sample back in May was 425mg/L and 1300 ppm consistently.
The elevations of 11% for the Ca and 15% for the Mg is big enogh of variation especially if the salt are the same batch and made in a ISO 9000 facililty. There must be something going on inside the bag that cause the problem.
BTW, precipitation of Ca and Mg would only cause the readings to go much lower becasue the ionic form of both elements have already binded to something else and fall out of the solution.
Spencer
So I made up a 13 gal at 1.025 (refrectometer was calibrated using Pinpoint's 53 sm conductivity solution prior to the reading) and used ELOS kits to measure both Ca++ and Mg++, which is 475 mg/L and 1500 ppm respectively. I am very concern about this because my readings of the free sample back in May was 425mg/L and 1300 ppm consistently.
The elevations of 11% for the Ca and 15% for the Mg is big enogh of variation especially if the salt are the same batch and made in a ISO 9000 facililty. There must be something going on inside the bag that cause the problem.
BTW, precipitation of Ca and Mg would only cause the readings to go much lower becasue the ionic form of both elements have already binded to something else and fall out of the solution.
Spencer
africangrey
Active member
BTW, there is no lot # printed on the bag, but the bar code reading is 4025167700811 which I am not sure is the lot #. Terry can you check your sample bag and see if the bar code is the same, since I already used all mine up, thanks.
africangrey
Active member
Terry, I didn't test the salt mix of the previous water change which I should have done because this is a new shipment of salt, and I trusted the ISO 9000 certification.
Just tested the Alk which is 9dkH and consistent with the free sample.
Just tested the Alk which is 9dkH and consistent with the free sample.
austinaqualung
New member
Terry, yes, I did bring the salt in to Bruce for testing. Should have the results tomorrow.
The mystery seems to be solved. Bruce reported to me that the austinaqualung was getting a correct reading from what he mixed, but the remaining salt in the bucket had the opposite result, low Mg and Ca and when the values were added the results were correct. Roughly 420 and 1350. It makes some sense as Magnesium salts should be the least dense and rise to the top, they also are a larger flake. Old school aquarium books always mentioned the need to mix an entire package of salt in one batch to avoid this issue. I would say if you are not going to use all of the salt you need to thoroughly mix the package.
I would bet that Spencer will find the same thing, his remaining salt mix in the package is low in Mg, it was concentrated in the top of the package due to settling in transport.
I would bet that Spencer will find the same thing, his remaining salt mix in the package is low in Mg, it was concentrated in the top of the package due to settling in transport.
