oceanic salt "bad press"

[klongo]

I've used Oceanic exclusively in my tank for 5 months. I've got snails dying left and right, a small amount of diatomes on the sand. BUT the glass, rocks, etc are spotless. I kinda think my snails are dying due to starvation. I populated the tank with an awful lot of them without having any real problems. I tend to overfeed a bit which is what I attribute my sand problems to. I'll test my change water next week to see what's up with that - I'm in the Northeast also.

 

[tygger]

I went from IO to Oceanic and my snails are fine. Coincidentally, I started have some algae problems after the switch a couple months later.

Keeping everything the same, Im going to try Tropic Marin and see if there are any improvements.

 

[wmam]

Well, for what its worth, there is some questions now about IO.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=502636

I myself have had to get my water from my LFS and he ran out of IO and started using O and when I saw this thread I thought I was going to fall out. I to have had an issue with hair, diatom and red slime alge and it started, as it seems, right about after I noticed my LFS had changed salts.

Someone stated before: "maybe its not the starting with the salt but with the changing of the salt."

I was thinking of going and trying to mix my own with IO but after seeing the other thread I wonder if I should try TM or something else.

 

[73ChargerFan]

IO had a bad batch of salt go out a year or two ago also. Wouldn't desolve no matter how hard you tried, and made water with dKh of 60 IIRC.

 

[mummra100769]

in the past when i have used IO i have found dirt,black specs that float on the surface and sometimes when you mix the salt at first the surface of the water has stable bubbles similar to what you would find in a skimmer.

i do not have this with red sea (only a little powder that does not dissolve very fast) and any oceanic i have seen was very clear and clean.

the IO i was using at the time that i had the above problems was a brand new bucket with the seal in tact and the black specks came from two or three 50 gal bags that i had opened and mixed the whole bag.

has anybody else noticed how dirty it is?is this just my exp. now there were other times when it was fine i might add and there seem to be very little contaminants if any.

 

[djtodd]

Interesting thread. I started with IO myself and had no complaints about it at all. Switched to Oceanic about 6 months ago for the high Ca levels. I can honestly say I've never had any problems.

Knock on wood!

 

[kozmo02]

IO is great salt in my opinion, I used it from day one, I also switched to Oceanic when it was introduced and was happy with that as well.

my 180 is in progress, im still debating on what salt to use, i never had any problems with Oceanic whatsoever so I will most likely just go with that.

 

[MiddletonMark]

I thought it was a good thing until I started testing Mag levels..I'm getting 1600 using 2 Salifert test kits

Are you mixing this up to 1.026 or what SG?

This sounded like the numbers Habib mentioned in that thread linked earlier ... that if you were at 1.022/3 as it's formulated, you'd get `more normal' numbers ... but as many run their SG more 1.025/1.026 ... it's another 10% or so more.

Just throwing it out there, don't doubt 1600 @ 1.023 either.

 

[wmam]

Well............... My LFS called O today while I was at the store and they told him that they had never had a run in with phosphates as yet but he did say that the guy he spoke with said that the extremely high Cal. levels might be with those that keeps their salinity above .024

He said anything above that would raise the salinity levels quit a bit.

<----------- Just posting what I heard so please don't shoot the messenger.

 

[wmam]

MiddletonMark,

What is the picture (avatar) of?

 

[golfish]

Are you mixing this up to 1.026 or what SG?

Mark, 35 salinity.....

 

[MiddletonMark]

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..

Their specs for magnesium is 1250 - 1350 ppm again at the low salinity of approx. 29 PSU.

So at 35 PSU that would become 1250 x 1.2 upto 1350 x 1.2. Which is 1500 - 1620 ppm magnesium at a salinity of 35 PSU.

From this thread:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=407011&highlight=oceanic

Sounds like you line up with those numbers, or close.

 

[MiddletonMark]

MiddletonMark,

What is the picture (avatar) of?

The Phishy `tort' [aka in my book, sapphire acro]. Only coral I've waited for, turned out to be worth it.

My future barter for trades ... once it grows out a heck of a lot more

 

[jnb]

oceanic

oceanic

Due to this thread and the fact that my water tested a little off in the direction of the calcium, alk, etc as others have explained - except for the fact I screwed up the parameters by adding two part at a point I thought I needed it - I tested a new made up batch of oceanic at salinity of 1.0214 and the calcium was 500 and alk was 2.5. I plan to lower my overall salinity to 1.023-1. 24. This is the first batch of makeup water to go that way. So I am going to keep using oceanic for a while and see - otherwise I do not have algae problems and my tank is otherwise healthy.

But I do have a question - do you think salinity of 1.023 is a problem for a reef tank?

 

[Saltz Creep]

1.023 is OK for FOWLR tanks, but IME inverts and corals don't thrive as well as compare to 1.025-1.026. I've seen a noticeble difference when I raised it.

 

[mummra100769]

i keep mine at 1.024

 

[wastwage]

Io oceanic Tropic Marin all used all about the same results. all 3 good salts.

 

[gdm42001]

There are a couple other threads about Oceanic possibly causing increased algae growth. Some people have tested fresh Oceanic mixes with PO4 readings of 0.5! My algae problems also started when I began using this salt. Maybe it's coincidence, but I'm going back to IO and kalkwasser.

Same here, and it was back to IO for me.
Things are clearing up.

 

[Natterjak]

I seem to have pH problems with Oceanic (~7.7 freshly mixed). I'm switching to Kent to see if that works a little better for me.

 

[mojodeli]

This is a 44g Brute trashcan. I washed it with a touch of bleach and completely dried it followed by a rinse in tap water
and another rinse in RODI with a TDS reading of 0. All this bucket has ever been used for is mixing salt water. All that
is in this bucket is RODI water and Oceanic salt mixed to 1.027 at 77 degrees.

I hug a 250w 10 USHIO DE pendant for two days over this can and this is the result. My tank looks like crap because
I have been making water changes with this salt and adding whatever the hell this crap is that came with the bucket of
Oceanic brand salt. The particles you see are some form of algae. There is a brown slime growing on the surface and
on the sides of the trashcan. I haven't tested the water but I don't think I will bother wasting a test to know that I will
never use this salt again.



http://www.michalekstrone.com/oceanic.htm