looking for people who switched from Instant Ocean to Reef Crystals

[jon99]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10946913#post10946913 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cd77
jon99 -- Did you mix the salt up really well before testing?

Yep. Atleat 5 -10 minutes. Checked salinity in each stirred some more, checked salinity again, stirred some more, etc. Until I was getting consistent readings for salinity

 

[jon99]

Checked the phosphate and nitrate in both. near 0 nitrates and 0.3 phosphate in both. This is from the DI water though. Tested it and it had same results

 

[cd77]

I meant the dry salt (the bucket or bag) -- did you shake that up?

 

[jon99]

they were both 5 gallon buckets of salt. the IO was brand new, the RC about 2/3 full. No I did not mix it up. Just scooped salt outa the buckets and mixed with water. Never heard of mixing the salt before adding water. Is this necessary?

 

[chuppy]

Well i am looking forward for you to try cos that's what im doing LOL
and curious to see the results...

 

[cd77]

Me neither. People were discussing it in this thread though. It makes sense that some of the contents would settle.

 

[jon99]

Hmm... will try mixing and running a few of the test 2mrw again. That is a great thread by the way. Everyone should check it out.

 

[Mavrk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10946597#post10946597 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jon99
First of all I tested the DI water I used...
8.35 pH
0 ppm calcium
1.6 dkH alk
75 degrees F

Looks like you need to either recalibrate your pH meter, or change out your RO and/or DI filters. pH really should be neutral in RO/DI water (i.e. 7.0). The fact that you read 8.35 is odd.

It was cool of you to do this. I am switching from Oceanic to Reef Crystals (it is only a couple bucks more online). I should do something like you did comparing those two. Of course, my test kits aren't as good as yours

 

[cd77]

Regarding pH of DI water, read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deionized_water#pH_values

 

[Mavrk]

So basically electronic pH probe and DI water = bad

 

[Vinnie71975]

One of our more wealthy members should get a 5g box of each salt on the market today and mix up a gallon of each and run the full battery of tests on it just so we all know where everything tests out at!

 

[dwd5813]

Vinnie, check out the thread that is linked to at the top of the page. hopefully we will all have exactly that information soon, and without having to worry about cost. THANKS go to the people at AWT.

 

[jon99]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10947936#post10947936 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cd77
Regarding pH of DI water, read: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deionized_water#pH_values

Wow thanks guys. I had no idea. So basically the value I was getting for the pH of the DI water was invalid because of the lack of ions in the water necessary for the pH meter to operate properly. I'm glad I know now, wouldn;t want to damage the probe.

 

[cd77]

Yes, that is the impression I got. The people who frequent the chemistry forum might be able to better explain it. Another thing I've found with my digital pH meter calibrated using ph 7 and 10 solutions, is that I get a crazy reading (usually very high) if I test it on anything below 7 without recalibrating it using ph 4 and ph 7 solutions. I use a hanna instruments tester if that matters. As far as your DI water is concerned regarding the accuracy of your test, the only thing I'd really want to know is what the TDS reading was.

I've got a bucket each of IO and RC as well, if I have time and motivation this weekend I'll try running the same test at 1.02 s.g.

Oh one other thing -- what instrument did you use to test your specific gravity with? I was just shocked to learn (I'm a two month newbie mind you) that my refractometer was off by ~.0025 when tested against a 35ppt solution. If you or anyone else is interested, check out this thread. Not an insignificant error IMO.

 

[jon99]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10953453#post10953453 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cd77
Yes, that is the impression I got. The people who frequent the chemistry forum might be able to better explain it. Another thing I've found with my digital pH meter calibrated using ph 7 and 10 solutions, is that I get a crazy reading (usually very high) if I test it on anything below 7 without recalibrating it using ph 4 and ph 7 solutions. I use a hanna instruments tester if that matters. As far as your DI water is concerned regarding the accuracy of your test, the only thing I'd really want to know is what the TDS reading was.

I've got a bucket each of IO and RC as well, if I have time and motivation this weekend I'll try running the same test at 1.02 s.g.

Oh one other thing -- what instrument did you use to test your specific gravity with? I was just shocked to learn (I'm a two month newbie mind you) that my refractometer was off by ~.0025 when tested against a 35ppt solution. If you or anyone else is interested, check out this thread. Not an insignificant error IMO.

I used a 5 year old cheap swing arm type hydrometer. I know those things are very inaccurate, but I was mainly interested in seeing if the two salts mix to the same salinity if equal amounts of each are measured (weighed) out. And they did. I have a much better floating glass hydrometer but it's pretty large 12 inches or so and the one gallon I mixed up wasn't enough to float it in.