Reef Crystals salt

[eugeneK]

I know many use it on here. I opened a new box last night and to my surprise it measured at:
@ SG 1.025 powerhead mixed and heated for 3 hours.
DKH 12.5
Ca 280
Mg 1260

Thats pretty weak for being a reef blend isnt that what you get from IO? I dont remember having to supliment it so much MG and Ca in my water canges 2 years ago. Did I just get a bad bag of it?

Can someone plz test theirs next time you do a water change. thanks!!

 

[dreaminmel]

Did you use the whole bag with the water you mixed and tested?

 

[talon4x4]

I had almost identical results with a batch I just mixed up yesterday. However, my Ca measured out at 410.

 

[Conesus_Kid]

If the answer to Mel's question is "no", did you mix up the dry salt before making the ASW? Contents can settle during shipping, so unless you're mixing the entire box, you can get inconsistent results.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

eugene- did you purchase a 200 gallon box containing 4 bags of mix?

did you mix up the entire contents of one bag?

 

[dreaminmel]

Great question Gary...

 

[pascal32]

Gary has a good point. We should probably be mixing.

my last batch (going on memory) was:

10 KH
420 Ca
1100 Mg

(the MG stands out because I had to dose MG in the last two water changes.

 

[jaybfresh]

I buy the 160gal buckets but cannot mix the whole thing at once. I instead invert the bucket several times and shake it up as good as possible before adding salt to my RODI water. I get consistent results this way, with around 400 Ca, 1200 Mg, and 12 dKH

 

[dreaminmel]

Exactly. I keep an empty RC bucket nearby and dump the salt back and forth between buckets before using to mix it up good.

 

[eugeneK]

eugene- did you purchase a 200 gallon box containing 4 bags of mix?

did you mix up the entire contents of one bag?

Yup, that's exactly what I got. I did not shake up the bag am using now. oosp, never even thought of it separating. I only made 10 gallons of water.

One thing that alarms me though is that this is the second bag from the box, the first one went to fill the tank initially and I ended up dosing 2 liters of Mg sulfate and 975 mil of Ca from 2 part to get it up to par. System total volume is 75gallon. Monday I'll take a different one out and shake it up real good and perform a test on it and report back.

 

[dreaminmel]

the first one went to fill the tank initially and I ended up dosing 2 liters of Mg sulfate and 975 mil of Ca from 2 part to get it up to par

Have you recently had an LFS double check your test results? If not, might be a good idea just to rule out potentially inaccurate test kits. 975ml of Ca being needed on a new tank/new salt fill up seems unusual.

 

[superkat]

eugene- did you purchase a 200 gallon box containing 4 bags of mix?

did you mix up the entire contents of one bag?

Yesterday 06:27 PM
dreaminmel Did you use the whole bag with the water you mixed and tested?

great minds think alike.:beer:

 

[eugeneK]

Have you recently had an LFS double check your test results? If not, might be a good idea just to rule out potentially inaccurate test kits. 975ml of Ca being needed on a new tank/new salt fill up seems unusual.

gonna pop into RS tomorrow for a test

 

[superkat]

trs is open on Sunday? (down, Kat, down.....)

 

[eugeneK]

yup just talked to Tom on the phone, gonna run down and get a clown fish yay!

 

[eugeneK]

stopped by the TRS and Karen tested my water. It came up 450 as expected , so bad test is ruled out. Now for a fresh bag test tomorrow.

here is the fish for your viewing pleasure:

 

[superkat]

hello, cutie!

 

[eugeneK]

wife named him Merlin, since we were watching the show on TV when he was being aclimated.

 

[superkat]

great name!