Morton's pool salt ?

[bshumake]

I came across this at Wally World today and thought, "Hmm. I wonder how pure this is?"
It's listed as a product of the Bahamas and since their islands I assumed that it was rendered from ocean water.
My brother is currently using it in his pool so I'm going to try and get a sample from him and test it for aquarium use. I didn't see much in the way of info on reefers using it so something tells me it's not all that great. But, as a supplement it may help the commercial salts we use go a little further.

 

[bshumake]

 

[MrRyanT]

I'm gonna guess it's low in calcium, magnesium and alkalinity, but will be interesting to see.

 

[bshumake]

I'm gonna guess it's low in calcium, magnesium and alkalinity, but will be interesting to see.

That's my guess too. I saw on another site that people were formulating their own salt with Morton's as a base, adding the trace elements from other industrial sources.
My thought is that to use it solely for aquaria and adding the trace elements will either be too much work to make it worthwile, or that it just wouldn't be cost effective.
Using it as a diluent to increase salt volume will certinly decrease trace element' s, if any are even present, but i'm wondering if the OTC trace element restoring products would help to make up for what is diluted in the mix.

 

[Mako Shark II]

...and I also don't use my "Alkalinity Up" from Leslie's Pool supply in my reef tank.

 

[MrRyanT]

...and I also don't use my "Alkalinity Up" from Leslie's Pool supply in my reef tank.

Might not be a bad idea though.:hmm5:

 

[Mako Shark II]

I'll bring some right over and let you test it out.

 

[bshumake]

The findings:
As I suspected, the Morton's is pretty much pure NaCl. I didn't give it a full battery of tests but the only ones I could get a reading on were the specific gravity and pH, which were 1.025 and 7.0 respectively. No PO4, Alk, Mg or Ca were detectable on my kits. I used Salifert for Mg and PO4; DAP for Ca and ALK.
I calculated out how much Brightwell CodeA and CodeB I would need to add to an aliquot of my Morton's batch to correct the deficiencies and it worked. pH, Mg, Alk and Ca all corrected to ideal aquaria levels after CodeA and CodeB were added.
Using Morton's is a waste of time and resources for reef enthusiasts. It's use in the FO market may be viable with buffering, but I still don't think it's worth it.

 

[Mako Shark II]

...but it's a pretty good seasoning for the pan fryers!