oceanic salt "bad press"

dkh0331,

Good point. I am in the north east. I did water canges with O for two months. I did water changes every week on my nano thinking that was going to help. The more I changed the water the more the Dinoflagellates and brown algea came. Then When I switched back to TM thing went away. I have a algea free tank. and do much less water changes now then when I had O. I still have half a bucket left if anyone to test it. Like I siad in one of the other threads. With a new salt and less water changes and algea gone. It has been a month and no algea.

Regards,
ZC
 
I've been using Tropic Marin for the past year and just switched to the New Tropic Marine "Pro Reef". I think this is the best salt on the market. You won't find it as discounted as the other salts, and if you do send me a PM. : )
 
Have you tested a frsh batch? If yes what are your findings? I was wondering if there is that much dif. Only thing I don't like about TM that my Mag level is 1000 - 1100 on a fresh batch. I would like 1350.

Regards,
ZC
 
I started both my 75 and 55 tanks on instant ocean. Beginning of last summer I started using oceanic for water changes on my 75 since I wanted to start keeping more corals. Since that time, each water change on my 75, my tank seemed to become worse and worse. More and more corraline algea on the tank walls would die and flake off. The last 2 months my tank has been plagued with cynobacteria growing on everything. I have done almost no water changes on my 55g and it has been doing great. It has great corraline algea like my 75 used to have. I use ro/di water and have not changed anything else besides switching to oceanic. If anything, the 55g tank should have more problems since it is fed more, has no refuge and the skimmer on it rarely skims due to finicky adjustment.
I know there are several variables different between the two tanks, but my engineering judgement tells me that changing the salt in my 75 is the likely cause of the tank problems. Since others have not had problems with the salt, maybe starting a tank on Oceanic is ok and changing a tank to oceanic causes problems. After 6mths of watching my tank degrade, I'm doing water changes with instant ocean again. If my tank starts becoming better, than oceanic just didn't work well for my tank and water parameters.
 
Hey Clark, I am going to officially switch to Bio-Assay (have no idea if it spelled like that) (sold at Premium, another friend gave me aabout 20lbs to try.) I love the specs that Oceanic gave me in the Mg, Ca, and Alk catagories, but I am going to see if if it has anything to do with my algae breakout.
 
bigzman said:
Have you tested a frsh batch? If yes what are your findings? I was wondering if there is that much dif. Only thing I don't like about TM that my Mag level is 1000 - 1100 on a fresh batch. I would like 1350.

Regards,
ZC

Interesting numbers on your Mg levels. Everyone was tauting the high Mg levels, mine were in the same range as yours, normally 1080. Just looking for common denominators.

David
 
Lack of lot to lot uniformity and industrial grade ingredients combined with inconsistent mixing would explain peopleââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s reactions with Oceanic salt.

Reefers all know that any bulb you pick out for lighting are not created equal so why would salt be any different?

Dwaine
 
The lack of uniformity thought crossed my mind too. Sodium chloride is of one particle size range, then substances used for Ca (i.e. CaCL) is another, other trace salts another, etc. It seems to me that the substances would settle into certain areas in the bucket over time the way different sand particle sizes do. Unless you mix your whole bucket before using it I don't think it would be entirely uniform.
 
After reading this thread... I decided to test my RO/DI water and a recent batch of salt water created with Oceanic - focusing on PO4 levels - as I have been battling midly high PO4 for months (around .1).

The RO/DI water showed 0. The batch of new salt water showed .5 - both using Salifert. I was shocked! I thought for sure the phosphate was being introduced through feeding and/or my calcium reactor - just have been too lazy to figure it out.

I have another 200 gallon bucket and will test to see if it is a bad batch... but it looks like I will be making a salt change in the near future.
 
My hair algae problem began when I switched from I/O to Oceanic. Was Oceanic really the culprit? I don't know.
But last week I started doing water changes using I/O to eventually replace all Oceanic in my tank. Now my hair algae is half of what it used to be and I expect it to be totally gone in a month or two. Is it the switch back to I/O that has caused my hair algae to recede? Or is it the cutback in feedings and the 150 miniblue-leg hermits I deployed last month? Maybe one, two, or all reasons. I don't don't know, but it's working.
 
Saltz Creep said:
The lack of uniformity thought crossed my mind too. Sodium chloride is of one particle size range, then substances used for Ca (i.e. CaCL) is another, other trace salts another, etc. It seems to me that the substances would settle into certain areas in the bucket over time the way different sand particle sizes do. Unless you mix your whole bucket before using it I don't think it would be entirely uniform.

I never had a problem with my Oceanic, but I do shake the jug up quite a bit before pouring out (only use 2.5 cups, lol).
 
quick question

quick question

Your tank it wonderful

what are the red (plants?) - the ones that are populating the most

the seahorses have patches of brown texture on yellow - what are the patches - almost look like growth of sorts

i saw mini 1/2 - 3/4 inch white horses at the lfs yesterday with black gravel really cool not much in the tank but what i said and a black branch of sorts for the horses - i should always take my camera with me.....
 
I'm about 3/4 though my first and probaly last bucket of Oceanic..My new tank (12 month old) hasn't done well since the start. One of the many things I did to hopefully get things back on track was to switch from IO to Oceanic..I thought it was a good thing until I started testing Mag levels..I'm getting 1600 using 2 Salifert test kits...I'm sure I got a bad batch but from what I'm finding out about Oceanic is the Mag levels run high anyway..
 
five pages and no tank crashes?there must be someone out there that has had a tank crash related to this salt (well you would think so living where i do. i hear this rumor all the time and i am almost sure that it is unfounded),i suppose maybe there are no actual documenetd cases of oceanic causing acro deaths and entire tank crashes.
 
Ok my turn. I started my tank with oceanic and still use it. Everything is doing great with no ploblems. Since reading this thread I decided to test a fresh batch of water and guess what I found. I said guess, Ok I will tell you. ca of 725ppm!!!!!! alk 8.2dkh and ph8.0. I know sound impossable. Itripple checked my result using a seachem test and the same results every time. Am I cracked?? I did not think ca could even be that high and not precipitate???
 
I ran through a 90-gallon mix several months ago and started to "issues" with things about 2/3 of the way through the bottle. Things just weren't "right". Lost a couple corals and started to have various algae issues (diatom/ slime, hair and boring). Loved the way it mixed though.

Went back IO salt and NSW (when I'm feeling ambitious enough to go get it).
 
I switched a few months ago and have had no problems with the salt. I add a little baked baking soda to it when I mix it up to get the alk up to ~10dkh but that is just personal preference. I have had no increase in algea. I have tested couple buckets now an never had phophates in mine and reasonable readings. I think their batch consistancy probably does leave something to be desired though!
 
Has anyone had any snail problems with Oceanic. I used instant ocean for about 8 months when I first set up my tank, then switched to oceanic. Since switching I have been unable to keep snails alive for more than a week or two. Everything else is fine>
 
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