New Instant Ocean Salt with very low ALK!!

[TWT5011]

I rrecently purchased a new 200G box of Instant Ocean Salt... opened each pack and dumped the contents into a IO bucket for easy storage... when I mixed my new salt water, the ALK was very low. I've now mixed 10 different buckets of salt water and the ALK was very low in each bucket. I have to raise the ALK with baking soda... very time consuming to mix

Any thoughts?

I purchased the box from Amazon... should I contact them?

 

[CoralWealth]

what is very low?

 

[TWT5011]

60 - 70 ppm

 

[Barnabie Mejia]

new to the game, but what should be normal levels for a reef tank or mixed coral reef tank?

 

[CoralWealth]

60 - 70 ppm

Oh wow.

 

[Rick.45cal]

I’d maybe contact Instant Ocean’s themselves and see what they say. I’d also seriously consider whether my test kit I was using was giving me an accurate result.

 

[shred5]

new to the game, but what should be normal levels for a reef tank or mixed coral reef tank?

2.5-4 meq/L
7-11 dKH
125-200 ppm CaCO3 equivalents

I’d maybe contact Instant Ocean’s themselves and see what they say. I’d also seriously consider whether my test kit I was using was giving me an accurate result.

Yea I would test the test kit to see if it is right. I have had some of bad test kits lately.
I would also test the salinity if it is right. I have also had allot of bad reference solution for refractometers.

I have had some bad salt but never IO.

 

[TWT5011]

I use a Hanna ALK tester and it's been rock solid... I did think the testing solution could be an issue, but when I checked my tank water is was typical at ~170ppm. So ALK in the tank water and the newly mixed saltwater was way off using the same testing solution.

 

[Radman73]

FWIW, running into this myself. Getting a mixed value of ~4-4.5dkh on my Hanna with current reagents. Not a testing issue. I only realized it after a water change and my Trident reported a significant drop in alk. Working through this box and hoping it isn't a problem with the other 2 boxes and bucket I have on hand.

I also got my salt from Amazon. Wonder if a bad batch went out summer to fall of last year.

 

[x2uranium]

It could be.. I have heard of them having issues with the box stuff a good friend of mine just the other day told me his box of I.o magnesium was 1800 out of a New fresh box. but alk was fine.
I buy the buckets

 

[ariceneo]

Get a hold of IO

 

[TWT5011]

FWIW, running into this myself. Getting a mixed value of ~4-4.5dkh on my Hanna with current reagents. Not a testing issue. I only realized it after a water change and my Trident reported a significant drop in alk. Working through this box and hoping it isn't a problem with the other 2 boxes and bucket I have on hand.

I also got my salt from Amazon. Wonder if a bad batch went out summer to fall of last year.

I had the same exact thing happen to me... and salt was purchased from Amazon.

The salt was not in a bucket but a box... the larger size they sell.

I was adding baking soda to bring alk up and I got tired of doing that so I contacted Instant Ocean... IO Representative asked me to ship two small bags of salt to them to test... they ended up shipping me new box of salt.

 

[tankstudy]

I had the same exact thing happen to me... and salt was purchased from Amazon.

The salt was not in a bucket but a box... the larger size they sell.

I was adding baking soda to bring alk up and I got tired of doing that so I contacted Instant Ocean... IO Representative asked me to ship two small bags of salt to them to test... they ended up shipping me new box of salt.

Did you keep the lot number on that box?

 

[Radman73]

Thanks, may reach out to them. I don't find it that big of a deal to raise alk though.

 

[Radman73]

Did you keep the lot number on that box?

Lot # on the box currently giving me trouble is 18184.

 

[TWT5011]

Did you keep the lot number on that box?

I still had the box so I was able to provide the number to them. The box had multiple bags of salt so I opened two different bags to see if the alk was different from bag to bag... both bags had low alk. I also use the Hanna kit for Alk.

FYI... IO told me not to contact Amazon because they would instruct me to call IO anyway.

 

[Humblefish]

Test your vat for ammonia sometime. It doesn't happen with every batch, but I've gotten readings as high as 0.25 ppm on certain boxes/bags. When I called customer support I just got the usual BS answers. I knew I was wasting my time when the person on the other end didn't even realize that IO salt oftentimes causes brown residue/film from the anti-caking agent. It really sucks because I've been using IO salt for as long as I can remember. Now they're just ate up.

 

[jd371]

It could be.. I have heard of them having issues with the box stuff a good friend of mine just the other day told me his box of I.o magnesium was 1800 out of a New fresh box. but alk was fine.
I buy the buckets

This could be the reason my Mg has been higher than normal. I test the mixed water for Alk and Ca but not Mg.

 

[Radman73]

Test your vat for ammonia sometime. It doesn't happen with every batch, but I've gotten readings as high as 0.25 ppm on certain boxes/bags. When I called customer support I just got the usual crap answers. I knew I was wasting my time when the person on the other end didn't even realize that IO salt oftentimes causes brown residue/film from the anti-caking agent. It really sucks because I've been using IO salt for as long as I can remember. Now they're just ate up.

Yeah, not ideal for sure. But cheap lol! In my case, I do ~10% WC every other week. So even that level of ammonia would be consumed quickly. Still, maybe I'll drop an ammonia alert badge in there and look at it every now and then lol!

I just can't bring myself to start paying ~50% more for salt when I am only dosing 4ml of alk/calc per day. And, IME, all salts have occasional issues. When the corals start growing and I add even more, maybe I'll look at a "nicer" salt.

 

[bsr2430]

With the cost coming down on Reef Crystals, you’d be better off buying that in buckets.

Better bang for your crystal.