Which salt mix?

Nice work Sone!   I used the Red Sea Reef for a bit and it seemed alright to me.  Now you're going to think I'm bad, but so far, I think salt is kinda like beer.  Most of it tastes the same to me. 

 

Any one ever tried mixing two different brands together half n half to achieve what they wanted?

 

Ok here was my progression and my thoughts:
IO, industry standard fine for FOWLERs but incomplete as a reef salt.  Running IO in a full reef is simple giving yourself a set of daily chores.  The people that defend IO are the same crowd pushing for a 2 part order so they can get more Mag.
RC, then I went to RC basically the same salt with slightly better levels of the big 3 (Cal, alk ,mag).  Again not a bad salt but I was one of the lucky one that got one of the bags with the mysterious red clay in it(WTH!).  Really along the Same QC issue that Jason brought up.
Oceanic, I ran Oceanic for over 2 years and was really pretty happy with it.  Its what I deemed a lazy salt......   What do I mean by that.  Basically reasonable alk, high cal, high mag.  This is really the way I would like any of my salts to be.  Why?  Alk is the most important to keep stable and in a decent range in a stony coral tank.  Alk should be in the 8-12 dkh range(I prefer 8-10).  Too low burnt tips.  Too high crumpy color and RTN.  Alk is important.   Cal....Too low is bad but to high just cause precep at the worst(back to a self adjusted decent level).  Mag is the same way lows bad high is not going to hurt much.  Like I said I real easy salt to use I test alk twice a week to keep it stable.  Tested Cal maybe twice a month and after I notice my mag never went down I almost never tested mag.  Oceanic was a low maintenance salt that really worked BUT I wanted to see if there was more.
THERE REALLY IS NO PERFECT SALT but I wanted to see if there was something better.
Seachem's Reef Salt, I like Seachem there upfront on what is actually in there stuff.  If you have a issue with a Seachem product there is technical support.  Wheres the IO rep?  You can go publicly call out the Seachem on RC and there cool about it.  Okay so I like seachem how bout the salt?  I like Oceanic but was wondering if I could get more trace elements besides the big 3.  Reef Salt has the same "lazy chemistry" that I like about Oceanic.  Reasonable alk, high cal, high mag.  I run Seachem Reef Salt and a Calcium reactor and NO OTHER ADDITIVES and my growth is great and my color are awesome.  Spending another 5 or 10 dollars on a decent bucket of salt is true economy when you don't have to buy anything else.
Past "the big 3" what do I think this salt has to offer?  Potassium is the first.  Not much focus on K but the Zeo people brought this to the fore front.  A NSW level of K helps in adding blue coloration.  About the only place you can get a K test kit is from Zeo.  Most salts are lacking K but Reef Salt is suppose to have a near NSW level of K in it.  All I know is my blues have been popping since the switch.
Boron.  The big controversy about this salt is the elevated level of Boron in the mix.  Like I said the Zeo crowd took a liking to this salt early on because of the K levels.  Then all hell broke loose.  People tanks were doing horrible on Reef Salt.  Burnt tips on SPS dying unhappy coral.  Why?  Simple like I said the Zeo crowd like the salt because of the K levels but if you follow the zeo method to a tee you run your alk LOW.  Like right at NSW around 7dkh.  That might be NSW levels but the ocean is huge and its chemistry is stable.  Most non-zeo reefkeeper run there alk higher than to give themselves a buffer because again if Alk dips to low you get problems.  Borate alkalinity mask total alkalinity.  Basically all of our Alk test kits are based around a small insignificant  NSW level of Borate.  Borate alkalinity is normally lumped into total alk with out a problem but since Zeo said to run alk so low there was an issue.  Basically if you run Seachem salt run your alk a dkh higher than you normally planned to and your fine.  Problem solved.
So if Boron was causing issues for some users and after all it was outside normal NSW level why do it at all?  Borate buffers pH extremely well.  Basically I hear out  of alot of you guys "Man I just can't keep my pH up".  You go thru all sort of measures to get your pH up.  I live in a newly remodeled, air tight apartment.  No oustide air, only running a Calcium reactor(running it hard mind you), no kalk.  All of which SHOULD drive the pH really low right.  I mean alot of you guys are have that problem right?   Even with all of that they lowest my pH got, (logged on the AC), was 8.1!  It swings 8.1 to 8.3 daily but never low.
So the big 3 are where I want them, the trace in better than Oceanic, and if anything goes down I have someone to yell at.  Very happy with the salt and plan to keep using it.
Hope all this helped
Clayton

 

I think I missed something Clayton.  Which salt is it that you use?

 

Yup, Seachem Reef Salt. Alot of people heard of issue with the salt but don't actually understand what the issues where. The borate alk thing is worth understanding on it own.

 

Most of the reefers at BNARC use Seachem. 

 

I did my first change today with Oceanic. It mixes really nicely, however, after agitating it though I did have a bit of slime on the top of the water. The levels were close to what Sone has there, my ph was low, but that may be due to the fact that I makeup my water in the basement where my RO is.

 

Posted By slovan on 01/26/2008 2:44 PM

Posted By BGreenlee on 01/26/2008 1:19 PM
I did my first change today with Oceanic. It mixes really nicely, however, after agitating it though I did have a bit of slime on the top of the water. The levels were close to what Sone has there, my ph was low, but that may be due to the fact that I makeup my water in the basement where my RO is. The surface is a bit slimy and you will see some residue on your heater and pump.  I just rinse and dry everything after each water change.
Please keep us updated on the salt.  I would like to know how your tank responds and if you are still using additives to supplement the Oceanic.
Will do. Did a 20% water change with it. Tank pH is running a little low today at 8.2, but I am sure it will crawl back up in the next day or so. I will measure parameters in the morning and let you know what the "big 3" look like.

 

AWT has finished their testing of all the major Brands of salt....They should be publishing their results any day now.

I am going to wait and see what they come up with before I fully trust any ONE test result...remember that the results here were done with just regular test kits with variables kept to a minimum. We all know how some test kits have proven out recently.
Should be interesting to see how they compare.

eins

 

Oh...AWT has been questioned quite hard and I am not at all saying they are the absolute final answer....however if they line up with other past tests, then we know that most likely things are what they seem.

I think there will be some strong debate over these test...but that is a good thing!!

eins

 

I am now more confused and scared of what I have been putting into my tanks... I would agree with the trends shown as being different between Coralife and IO products. Makes me wish I never switched, would have saved me some unnecissary b-ionic purchases, algae outbreaks, and unknown reason nitrates... Very interesting...

 

So let me get this straight (and I could be wrong cause I just skimmed through the writeup at the beginning) but they tested 7g of the salt mix with 200ml of water for each of their trace elements tests??

How does that help us if the first graph was not 35ppt?? or at least equal?

No one just puts a standard amount of salt when making water, you always bring the salinity to whatever you keep your tank!!

Therefore if you've got different amounts of the salt mix going into water to make the desired salinity, their measurements could change based on the different levels of the mixture used...

I wish they would have mixed all the brands to the same salinity AND THEN tested the trace elements...