The Seachem Aquavitro Salinity thread

[Gravityreefing]

Hello to all the reefers. I am new to reefing and I have read alot on this post regarding salts n mixing. I haven't tried any other salt rand but the one I have been using AquaVitro. I did research about salts quite a bit and found that seachem AquaVitro is one of the best salt IMO because it gives you ideal levels with calcium and the salinty is right on point. The mixing is easy from what I have experienced. I read that some of us says not to heat water while mixing the AquaVitro. I have heated my RODI water every time I mix the salt. My mixing temp is 78 degrees a few degrees higher than my DT. I do not get get the cloudiness that I have read. The salt mix well from what I have seen and it holds salinty well n calcium while being g heated n stored for use. I have a Brute 55 gallon n it has saltwater mixing in it for a week now n everything is still in order. I am happy with this salt.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

. I did research about salts quite a bit and found that seachem AquaVitro is one of the best salt IMO because it gives you ideal levels with calcium and the salinty is right on point. .

I'm sorry, but what does that salinity comment even mean? All salt mixes are mixed with an amount of water to reach any salinity you want. None can be any more perfect in that regard than others.

.The salt mix well from what I have seen and it holds salinty well n calcium while being g heated n stored for use..

Salinity never changes noticeably on storage of salt water.

Calcium is unlikely to drop much even with a lot of precipitation, but alkalinity might. That said, no salt mix ends up with less than natural levels of alkalinity due to precipitation when mixed properly, so it isn't much of a concern anyway. Those with calcium carbonate precipitates usually start very high in alkalinity.

 

[skim]

. I did research about salts quite a bit and found that seachem AquaVitro is one of the best salt IMO because it gives you ideal levels with calcium and the salinty is right on point. .

I believe what he means by this is that when dealing with other salts, when mixed at say 33 ppt you get a Cal reading of 400 and Mag of like 1280, figures close to sea water spec's and if you you bring the mix up to 35 ppt then all the other salts and elements tend to be increased to numbers exceeding the spec's of sea water. Aqua Vitro when mixed at 35 ppt will have numbers like 400 and 1280 basically it ratio's are pre planed for a 35 ppt mix and many salts are for 33 ppt.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

. I did research about salts quite a bit and found that seachem AquaVitro is one of the best salt IMO because it gives you ideal levels with calcium and the salinty is right on point. .

I believe what he means by this is that when dealing with other salts, when mixed at say 33 ppt you get a Cal reading of 400 and Mag of like 1280, figures close to sea water spec's and if you you bring the mix up to 35 ppt then all the other salts and elements tend to be increased to numbers exceeding the spec's of sea water. Aqua Vitro when mixed at 35 ppt will have numbers like 400 and 1280 basically it ratio's are pre planed for a 35 ppt mix and many salts are for 33 ppt.

That may be what was meant, but IMO, that seems a trivial reason to prefer it. It claims excess alkalinity and slightly elevated magneisum, so it is not balanced to natural seawater levels overall, and the calcium level is fairly well known to be relatively unimportant, assuming it is not too low.

 

[Gravityreefing]

Skim thanks for that follow up. My wording I see led to a misunderstanding.

 

[kush]

I love my salinity salt seen the best growth with this and beautiful colors from it

 

[Gravityreefing]

Nice looking tank Krush.hope to be there one day..

 

[JoshuaBrown]

I guess this stuff used to be good. I bought a 6 gal bucket of this salt and have had nothing but problems with it.
Today was the final straw despite only being 1/8 of the way through the bucket.
I did my regular 12.5% water change, got my fresh to 1.025, waited a couple hour to see if the cloudiness was going to go away. It did not.
Went ahead and did the water change. Noticed a couple corals that never close, closing.
Kicked the skimmer back on and holy ****, it would not stop overreacting for anything, I let it dump over two gallons out before shutting it off, that was 6 hours ago.
Just tried turning it back on and it is still doing it. Imma have to figure out a way to oxygenate this tank overnight because the skimmer is useless now.
This salt is wayy to expensive and boasted about to have any problems whatsoever. And it got major problems.
I just don't get how people can suggest it with the know issues it has like cloudiness, that magnesium smell, and the random totally bad batches making it like russian roulette to use.
I have finally over the last 6 months started to take my tank very seriously including daily monitoring of PH, ALK, and Cal, and have implemented kalkwasser top- off system to keep everything stable.
Thought I was making a good choice getting a "premium" salt, turns out this **** is the biggest wildcard I have ever put in my tank.
I will never use this crap again and advise everyone to avoid it.
Why deal with **** problems you KNOW it's gonna have, when there are plenty of products out there without these issues?
Wish people had included these "Known Problems with Salinity" in their glowing reviews of this crap that I'm now going to use exclusively to melt ice & snow.

To prove the company has no idea what the heck they are selling, there are 2 separate instructions for "best/suggested" methods for mixing the salt that contradict each other on their website.

Product instructions:
"2. Stir well to ensure a good mix. Although the salinity™ solution may be used immediately, we suggest mixing for approximately 24 hours to achieve oxygen/carbon dioxide equilibrium."
vs. FAQ
"For best results, make salinity™ up at room temperature (22 to 25 degrees Centigrade). Stir well until thoroughly dissolved. salinity™ is then ready for immediate use. Excessive mixing may result in cloudiness, due to carbon dioxide absorption. "

Which is it?? Mix and use or wait 24hours??? Cloudy regardless. Companies do stuff like this so regardless of how you do it, they can say the other way would have been better.

I've never been ok with dumping cloudy as hell "fresh water" into my tank, and now it's wrecking my corals.

 

[Piranhapat]

I was a big user a few years ago. It was cheap always had a sale on it. Than price went up and was hard to get. I always had film left in bucket when I made a batch. And was also cloudy. I switch to they other brand reef salt. Which was cheap and easy to get. I left seachem all together and using Aquaforest. Which mixes clear and quicker to use. Seachem will be releasing Vibrant salt wonder how that will turn out.

 

[JoshuaBrown]

Just talked to tech support, as predicted they are blaming the mixing method, like I said, regardless of how you do it, they suggest the other way. They are wanting me to do as bunch of leg work so they can compare it to the batch they have, excuse me? I thought I paid extra to ensure they checked it first? I recorded the call, and will be posting a video in the coming days about Salinity, it'll be titled something like "Aquavitro Salinity Toxic To Tanks?"

 

[JoshuaBrown]

Ok, last time i'll bump this archived post.
Here is my admittedly critical review:

Changing gears to recovery..
Any suggestions on how to get the skimmer over reacting under control? How do I safely reduce the foam to where it should be?
Thanks in advance.

 

[LostInTheDark]

I used to use Salinity also and it was spot on consistent. The last few buckets I bought the parameters were all over the place. I thought it might be a settling problem from shipping so I rolled half empty buckets, combined them and rolled again and go the same results. That with the price going up every time I bought a bucket made me move on. I am now using Fritz and so far so good. Mixes clear and parameters match the specs. I guess we'll see how long that lasts.
As for your skimmer just remove the top and let it flow over right into the sump. It will keep the tank oxygenated and you'll be ble to see when it calms down.

 

[Jo dy]

Can I use Salinity over a period of one week? I mix my salt in a 25 gal container and use it with an Apex DOS for a continuous water change. I understand it should be mixed for less than 24 hours but does it have to be used within 24 hours of mixing?

 

[quickreefer]

Ever think of putting a power head in the water for a couple hours... iv used it for years and never once had a problem with cloudiness unless I was making and emergency water change

 

[Jo dy]

I actually have an Apex PMUP I use in my reservoir to keep the salt mixed up. I use it to mix up my salt then I use my Apex to ramdomly turn it on and off to keep the mixture mixed. I guess this is kinda overkill and I wonder if it is causing me more harm than good.

 

[salty150]

So it looks like the results with this salt are a mixed bag...