salt mix

[newreef0415]

hello i knwo there a huge debate on salt mix and all i been in the hobby for 2 years and always used rc
i have a mix of softies and lps mainly softies.
at the moment i been having problems with reef crystal and well is time to change salt...

i am on a budget and cant really get does high end salt mix
i did see that kent had salt mix for 50 $ and well is a great price but has anyone had any luck with this salt ?? is it any good thank you in advance

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

What problems are you experiencing with the salt mix?

 

[jsker]

This might help you out link

 

[Legal Reefer]

Following. I am getting ready to switch to IO reef crystals as soon as I find the lowest price with free shipping on 160 gal bucket or 200 gal box. Seems like the only problems I have heard of people having with it was from storing it too long, over mixing (may make it cloudy but still useable), and possible inconsistancy in batches. I used IO 25 years ago and had no issues with it.

 

[newreef0415]

just really higth calcium is at 680 checked with red sea kit
and mag is at 600 i doo weekly water changes 20 percent

 

[newreef0415]

dont get me wrong i do love io

 

[Legal Reefer]

dont get me wrong i do love io

Thanks for sharing info.

 

[newreef0415]

sorry this is my first ever post so i am new to this

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

just really higth calcium is at 680 checked with red sea kit
and mag is at 600 i doo weekly water changes 20 percent

Did you make up only a portion of the batch?

I think it much more likely the test result is off for some reason than that the salt mix is that far off.

 

[newreef0415]

there is too salts that are on my budget rigth now with are
200 gallon kent reef salt
200 gallon coralife salt
155 aquaforest sea salt

 

[Legal Reefer]

There were some really nice pics posted in a thread of reef tanks using aquaforest salt and products. All corals looked excellent, but after looking for the AF salt it seemed a good bit higher than IO. It would be nice to see some IO reef tank coral grows. A lot of people have been using IO for a long time, should be some impressive tank pics using it.

 

[newreef0415]

i tested a freshly mixed salt and calcium is at 700 0.o
mag at 800
alk 7
red sea test kit

 

[Legal Reefer]

Just checked price on AF reef salt and it's not expensive, actually just a little more than IO RC

 

[newreef0415]

true

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

i tested a freshly mixed salt and calcium is at 700 0.o
mag at 800
alk 7
red sea test kit

Those values are seriously incorrect somehow. I've been seeing salt mix numbers for decades and I've never heard of any mix being so far off of the manufacturers specifications in all three parameters, even when the error is test error rather than a mix problem.

How much did you mix up out of what size bag?

FWIW, people have an unusually large number of problems with the Red Sea magnesium kit leading to mismeasurements, but not usually the calcium kit.

 

[nkyreef]

Those values are seriously incorrect somehow. I've been seeing salt mix numbers for decades and I've never heard of any mix being so far off of the manufacturers specifications in all three parameters, even when the error is test error rather than a mix problem.

How much did you mix up out of what size bag?

FWIW, people have an unusually large number of problems with the Red Sea magnesium kit leading to mismeasurements, but not usually the calcium kit.

I tested a sample of IO Reef Crystals @ 35 ppt a few months ago because I was curious what the values were. I came up with...

Alkalinity - 12.16 dKh
Calcium - 480 ppm
Magnesium - 1240 ppm

Also the claim about Red Sea magnesium test being flakey has proven to be true in my situation. I sent a recent sample to be analyzed by Triton. Here was the results...

1440 ppm (Red Sea)
1374 ppm (Triton)

I know it's not fair to compare hobby grade kits to a lab but even recently my Red Sea magnesium results have been between 1400 - 1600 ppm. There's no way to pin it down with those swings in test results.

 

[newreef0415]

i mix perfect salinity of the 1.026 on a 40 gallon trash can bin

 

[Tautog]

i mix perfect salinity of the 1.026 on a 40 gallon trash can bin

RC is always high on KH, but Ca is perfect at 1.026, whereas Mg is around 1000 ppm. Either your test kits ****, or you’re not testing correctly. With my DT, 180, I buy enough salt for 6 months, hence, its not the salt!!!
Are you using R/O?
Clean mixing container?
Are you heating water before adding salt?
Randy is the expert on chemistry, please trust his judgement!

 

[Luna]

How long do I mix coralife salt, I’m trying it out since it’s way cheaper than Red Sea. I used to mix that for 2 hrs & it was good to go

 

[newreef0415]

How long do I mix coralife salt, I’m trying it out since it’s way cheaper than Red Sea. I used to mix that for 2 hrs & it was good to go

how is it working out for you