homemade salt mix

[tedcocarpentry]

My sisters a chemistry major and asked me why can't we make our own saltmix?
I've got Rock salt (in a 50# bag from Morton(99.9% sodium chloride)), calcium chloride(i have a small quanity on hand,maybe 2 lbs.), and we recently bought a large bag of Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate)(for my daughter to soak here ingrown toe nail)
What i'm after is the recipe or quanities/ratios.
I've got alot more time than money these days also thinking of driving to the coast with a couple of 55 gal drums???

 

[svb57]

I will state the obvious: there is more then salt/calcium/Mg in salt mixes. All thr trace elements that are needed for a balanced system are as important....

 

[WLachnit]

Hmmm....I agree. There are a lot of different ions in seawater. Even if you had all the neccessary ions, you will most likely not be saving any money.

 

[tedcocarpentry]

It's my understanding that Seasalt is a by product of desalination plant. My LFS wants 55 bucks for a bucket, just trying to keep the hobby i've put hundreds into for pennies.
Anyone tried this?
Maybe i should keep good notes...I'll experiment by isolating a 55 gal tank and do the 'new' water changes there only

 

[unhpian]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15052790#post15052790 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tedcocarpentry
It's my understanding that Seasalt is a by product of desalination plant. My LFS wants 55 bucks for a bucket, just trying to keep the hobby i've put hundreds into for pennies.

While using evaporated/concentrated saltwater from desalinization membranes is one way to create a concentrated saltwater mix - I'm not seeing how that has anything to do with using Sodium Chloride and Magnesium Sulfate to create your own saltwater mix. Like others have said, saltwater is NOT just NaCl MgSo4, CaCl, there are macro and micronutrients and buffers that make it "ocean water", and I highly doubt you will get anything to live very long, especially corals, unless you have something that closely approximates real ocean water.
I suggest you check this out: http://reefsaltanalysis.googlepages.com/AWT_Salt_Analysis_0208.pdf

It's not unbiased - but gives a good idea of the chemical makeup of water appropriate for marine species. As you'll see, you'll also need to add potassium, boron, molybdenum, strontium, magnesium, iodine, various buffers to maintain alkalinity, as well as a few more elements that i'm sure aren't listed.

So I think the bottom line is yes you can make your own salt - however, I doubt it's going to be more cost effective than buying it professionally made. This is a case where economies of scale might be a big factor - even with the LFS markup, salt manufacturers are able to get the primary constituents much cheaper than you or I would. Also, I would be a little concerned about inpurities - especially with the driveway salt - even at 99.9% purity, if you put enough in to reach 35 g/L (ppt) salinity, that could potentially be up to 35 mg/L (ppm) of Copper, or some other heavy metal.

 

[JHemdal]

We make seawater in 20,000 gallon batches. Twenty years ago, we made it from its component parts, from Sodium chloride to a tiny amount of Rubidium chloride. I don't recall exactly, but I believe it contained about 20 different salt compounds. We had difficulty acquiring magnesium chloride in sufficient quality, so we began buying Instant Ocen in bulk. Even without figuring in labor, it has been less expensive (and a lot less hassle) for us to just do that.
You can't just dehydrate seawater and get anything useful out of it...when you concentrate brine to a certain point, major precipitates form, rendering it useless.
Forty years ago I tried making up seawater using a recipe that only contained five component salts - it could keep certain fish alive for awhile, but it was deadly to invertebrates.

Jay

 

[tedcocarpentry]

The problem is i used to live in Kauai, and have brought this love for tropical ocean home to Pacific Northwest.
I have family in Port Townsend that has a boat, found used polypropylene drums(although unsure what orginal content was) and a used watertank from a RV. This could be much more work than that 200 gal. mix from the LFS? Maybe catch some rock cod while were out there?
Thanks for your words of wisdom and experience!
Tedco

 

[HighlandReefer]

tedcocarpentry

To Reef Central

You have been given good advice. This question has been posed to Randy Holmes-Farley in the Chemistry Forum many times. His answer is you can make it, but the cost will be higher than buying IO for sure.

What is seawater
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-11/rhf/index.php

Understanding Seawater
http://web.archive.org/web/20030620...m/fish2/aqfm/1998/july/features/1/default.asp

The Composition Of Several Synthetic Seawater Mixes
http://web.archive.org/web/20001215...om/fish2/aqfm/1999/mar/features/1/default.asp

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Natural seawater has organic compounds in it. These organics can cause bacterial problems when trying to store it for not too long a period of time. On the other hand, most (There are some like Reef Crystals) synthetic salt mixes do not contain organic compounds and you can store them almost indefinitely after mixing.

 

[ctenophors rule]

Re: homemade salt mix

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15052641#post15052641 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tedcocarpentry
and we recently bought a large bag of Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate)(for my daughter to soak here ingrown toe nail)

tmi tmi tmi. lol

 

[torr55555]