I wonder if one day we will ever know the real truth about what actually happened not what they want us to Believe.
Keep blowing smoke up our rears and don’t offer a buy back or trade out process……
I know this post will be cut and pasted, and in some instances my comments may be misrepresented. However, this issue is important enough that I would still like to try to address it. I also apologize for the length of this post. But there is a lot I need to say.
Tropic Marin has been one of the most respected salt manufacturers for well over 50 years. In addition to our loyal hobbyists, our products are used by zoos, aquariums, and research facilities around the globe. This positions us extremely well to identify any systemic issue with our products. We have tens of thousands of buckets and boxes of salt in the marketplace that were manufactured in our new facility in Turkey. Much of that product has gone to commercial accounts including many research facilities working with extremely sensitive organisms. We have not seen one complaint from any of those accounts. Contacting them directly for feedback has not turned up any concerns. This is in addition to our internal ICP and HPLC testing of many batch samples.
I, personally, have done everything I can to track down and address as many of the hobbyists concerns as possible. For all the online mentions of “tons of them”, they amount to a couple of dozen at best. However, the small number doesn’t stop me from still trying to track down each one and help. People have been very “vocal” in message boards. But seem very hesitant to reply to requests for direct contact. And when I have been able to make personal contact, they are then very hesitant to submit samples of the salt they are complaining about. This has resulted in my only being able to actually test a hand full of samples from customers complaining of issues. Of those samples none has resulted in my being able to reproduce any of the concerns.
Here are just two specific examples:
This is the result of a test of a sample from a customer complaining of “cloudy” result when mixing water change water. This is what the test water looked like right after everything was dissolved. The bucket on the top is my “control” mixed with salt made in the German facility. The bucket on the bottom is the result of the mixing with the sample, from the customer, of salt made in the Turkish facility:
This is the picture of the clarity, with a fork in the bottom of the buckets for easier viewing. This is the salt made in the German facility in the left photo and the Turkish facility in the right photo:
As you can see, they are Both crystal clear!
Here is another example. In order to address the complaints of “brown residue”, I left the salt sit in the bucket. The photo on the left is right after mixing. The photo on the right is after 14 days in the bucket:
As you can see, these are just two examples of testing where I was not able to reproduce the complaint, no matter how hard I tried or how long I left the sample sitting. BY the way, I did not smell an acidic scent when mixing the salt either.
I am NOT saying that the complaint is in the customer’s head. I am NOT saying that they are not having the issue. But I am saying that I cannot reproduce the issue when reproducing their mixing procedure with the same exact salt.
Tropic Marin stands behind it’s products 100%. We will continue to follow up on everycomplaint that we can. We will continue to do our best to help our customers when they are experiencing any type of issue. We respectfully ask that you help us by contacting us directly and sending in samples when needed. Forums like these are fantastic places to discuss methods, principles and issues in reef keeping. They are less effective when being used for individual product support and customer service issues. Those types of things are much more effectively done in direct contact. I am always available to help. You can email me directly at
[email protected]. Or you can call the office, during east coast business hours at 413-367-0101.
There has been no change in the formula of Tropic Marin salt. This is true for both of our German facilities AND for our facility in Turkey. There has been no compromise in raw materials grades, mixing procedures or quality controls in ANY of our facilities, including our one in Turkey. There should be no differencesin salt made from ANY of the Tropic Marin manufacturing facilities. We have done extensive and exhaustive testing of our salt products from our Turkish facility and find NO differences in comparison to the salt manufactured in our German facility. We encourage any user of Tropic Marin products to contact us directly, at the email or phone number above, with any complaints or concerns. We will be more than happy to help address your issue.
I sincerely hope that this post in taken as intended and shows the commitment that Tropic Marin has to our customers and to the the continued quality of our products.
