I've been running red sea salt and there products since I started in the hobby about 3yrs ago my lfs just started to use Red Sea products but not the salt they have Instanocean on one of there frag tanks now I talked to him today he said he was having cloudiness and which is from the alk could there be any other prob that might make that happen
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I can tell what you're asking. If they are using Red Sea Pro salt and they mix it for more than an hour or two, that's why it's cloudy. You should only mix it for 2 hours max then no more.
Red Sea has a video that shows this. It's on R2R somewhere in another thread.
If they're used to IO salt and that 24 mixing rule, tell them to throw that out the window when it comes to RSP salt
Red Sea has a video that shows this. It's on R2R somewhere in another thread.
If they're used to IO salt and that 24 mixing rule, tell them to throw that out the window when it comes to RSP salt
cmanning317
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I run all red sea products on my tank...a b c... plus coral colors...and reef energy....but I use regular red sea salt since I dose everything and keep my alk at 9.5 not 12 or more
cmanning317
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The alk flakes...tell him to dose into the overflow so it mixes in his filter sock.....no cloudiness
Randy Holmes-Farley
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You love it because it starts to precipitate due to the very high alkalinity in it?
It doesn't necessarily dissolve faster than any other mix, it just goes beyond dissolving into precipitation of calcium carbonate faster.
Nomadic1
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So if you can't mix it for more than two hours without it precipitating out the calcium, what prevents it from doing the exact same thing once added to your tank and mixed by the tank's circulation? Definitely not a product I'd be wanting to use.
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Several things.
First, you likely do not keep alkalinity at 12.5 dKH.
Second, organics and phosphate that are in the aquarium but not in the salt mix reduce the rate of precipitation.
Also, many folks have a lower pH in the aquarium than the raw mix does.
sromero287
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Guys the solution is the RSM blue bucket salt, either one never mixed more than 1 hour, in my personal case i mix it no longer than 35 minutes and never any precipitation or cloudiness in the last 4 years, i use all the RSM reef care products the reef elements ABC and corals colors ABCD and reef energy AB. The salt Coral Pro comes with a really high Alk like 12 or 13 dkh, the blue bucket alk is 7 dkh, clearly says for reefs stablished, coral pro its mainly for frag tanks with the need of high elements or new tanks. I have SPS dominated and some acans and zoas.
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hybridazn
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Not exactly sure what your point was with this post but if you would take a second to read my post you would see I wrote I like this salt because of the quicker mixing time from being mixed to clear compared to synthetic salts other ppl use like IO.
Randy Holmes-Farley
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Perhaps we are both misunderstanding each other. I won't belabor my point, but there are two different mixing time issues (time to dissolve the salts and a time limit for RSP for how long you can mix it due to excessive precipitation issues). If you do not clarify which one you are talking about, folks may misunderstand.
I now recognize from your clarification that you believe RSP dissolves faster than other mixes. Have you compared them? I've never noticed mixing times to be a problem with IO.
hybridazn
Acro killer.....
Perhaps we are both misunderstanding each other. I won't belabor my point, but there are two different mixing time issues (time to dissolve the salts and a time limit for RSP for how long you can mix it due to excessive precipitation issues). If you do not clarify which one you are talking about, folks may misunderstand.
I now recognize from your clarification that you believe RSP dissolves faster than other mixes. Have you compared them? I've never noticed mixing times to be a problem with IO.
Yes I have seen quite a difference is dissolve time between rsp and IO/RC. Mix time to clear for rsp I have timed to be 30 minutes, while IO/RC takes almost half a day to become clear. I use the same mixing procedure for both, 15 gallons slowly added in while being mixed with a wp40 and some hand mixing.
Ectogamut
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I've used Instant Ocean, Reef Crystals, and am currently using RS Coral Pro Salt. The only time any of those were cloudy for me was when I initially poured it into the bucket. Now, I can echo what previous posts have stated and say that the Red Sea salt mixes significantly faster than IO or RC, but I haven't had any precipitation issues with any of them. Probably a silly question, but is your friend using RODI water? From what I understand, the Alk/Ca ratios in these salts are ionically balanced, so I would think that there wouldn't be any precipitation unless something was causing the mixture to become unbalanced somehow.
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I don't think the ingredients take very long to dissolve, but if you are waiting for undissolvable solids to settle out, that can take longer.
