Lab Analysis of Synthetic Sea Salt Mix Brands

[Mako Shark II]

Recently here on RC, there has been much brackish discussion, opinions and lingering questions regarding synthetic salt. I too was in this “mix”. (Oooh, sorry if I poured some salt in the wound.)

Then, someone a Lot older and wiser than me put me onto the right “solution”. Thank you Richard Rendos. (And okay, I might have stretched the truth about the “older” part.)

Anyway, I too used to think that Oceanic had higher CA levels as compared to Instant Ocean, which is why I stopped using it even though I did prefer its overall performance. Eventually, I went back to IO, but now in retrospect, the attached data suggests that might not have been the root cause for my CA spike, forcing me to change brands.

In any event, that old salt Richard from MemFish forwarded me this information a while back when we were having a similar discussion.

http://www.aquariumwatertesting.com/AWT_Salt_Analysis_0208.pdf

Also, not to dilute the issue, but Dave at Kermit’s weighed-in and made a heavy point: Salt Mixes are formulated with a certain specific gravity, also affecting trace Mineral levels.

Anyway, I thought I’d share this so WTMRAC members could bookmark this webpage as a valuable and objective reference.

http://www.aquariumwatertesting.com/

Happy Reefing!
:thumbsup:

 

[alkamar]

They tested with two buckets of each salt, both being from different regions. The Calcium for one of the Instant Ocean samples was 503 while the other was a mere 246. That is quite a variation. The Oceanic was 462 and 443 which brings the average Calcium for Instant Ocean to 374.5 and Oceanic is 452.5.

One thing that is interesting is that I didn't realize I.O. had that much magnesium.

I just double checked my bucket of I.O. and it states Nitrate and Phosphate free. That is irritating unless they mean they didn't charge me for it. They have about the highest Phosphate level of all the salts tested and none of the brands had an average of 0 for Nitrate levels.

I'll have to say I have never seen this before, but it is very informative. It shakes things up a bit. Thanks for the info.

 

[Lucky.U]

Neither one of those guys(Richard or Dave) know that much. Im not even sure they have tanks.... I would get my info from much more informed sources such as Ms. Cleo as Dave mentioned in another post...

 

[just dave]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15094906#post15094906 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> Miss Cleo
I'm going to touch on a few points one of which may have been brought up in one of the links referenced. Technically you are supposed to mix the entire amount of salt at one time. In other words if you get a 200 gal bucket you are supposed to mix the entire thing or you could get some skewed readings because you may not have a uniform mixture in the amount you measured out. So if you don't mix 200 gallons at once you should consider buying smaller mixture sizes or look into some of the mixes that package larger amounts in smaller unmarked bags and package those bags together in a box ( a 200 gallon mix would consist of 4 50 gallon bags.) Another point is that when water and salt are mixed together you should add the salt mix to the appropriate amount of water and not the water to the appropriate amount of salt mix. The way it's mixed and the time ( duration) it's mixed can have an effect as well.

I don't know how much stock I'd put in AWT as there have been numerous posts about errors in their results. AWT is Aqua Medic for whatever it's worth.

 

[alkamar]

Oh, different Miss Cleo. I automatically picture the late night television version. I thought you were kidding.

 

[just dave]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15095740#post15095740 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Miss Cleo
Oh, different Miss Cleo. I automatically picture the late night television version. I thought you were kidding.

 

[alkamar]

Hmmm. You should see a doc about that.

 

[just dave]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15096053#post15096053 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by alkamar
Hmmm. I want a monkey!