Wild Turkey Tropic Marin Salt.

takoarm8 · Aug 9, 2023

Just booted up my new 200 and on day 4 of the cycle I decided to text more than ammonia nitrite and salinity.

DKH is at .9

Magnesium and Calcium are all completely off the rails as well. The company I had set the tank up and plumb it brought in 240 gallons of RO water and we mixed the salt in the tank.

The salt mixed salinity to spec per norms. But that was it!

What should I do?

50% water change and then just slowly get it back to normal ranges thru water changes or just drain it and start over?

I’m going to be switching to instant ocean salt.

bluemon · Aug 9, 2023

I'm thinking the test kit / process is off.

I think it's nearly impossible for saltwater from a mix to have less than 1 dKH.

I would test once again with a different kit. What is the pH?

takoarm8 · Aug 9, 2023

bluemon said:
I'm thinking the test kit / process is off.

I think it's nearly impossible for saltwater from a mix to have less than 1 dKH.

I would test once again with a different kit. What is the pH?

Used 2 different test kits

takoarm8 · Aug 9, 2023

Then used the same test kit to measure my original tank and the original tank is where it should be

bluemon · Aug 9, 2023

takoarm8 said:
Used 2 different test kits

What test kits did you use? And what salt mix did you use?

vetteguy53081 · Aug 9, 2023

takoarm8 said:
Just booted up my new 200 and on day 4 of the cycle I decided to text more than ammonia nitrite and salinity.

DKH is at .9

Magnesium and Calcium are all completely off the rails as well. The company I had set the tank up and plumb it brought in 240 gallons of RO water and we mixed the salt in the tank.

The salt mixed salinity to spec per norms. But that was it!

What should I do?

50% water change and then just slowly get it back to normal ranges thru water changes or just drain it and start over?

I’m going to be switching to instant ocean salt.

I would start with taking a water sample to a trusted LFS and see what readings they come up with. If true, yes on water change and also calibrate your testers to assure you are not removing good water

takoarm8 · Aug 9, 2023

bluemon said:
I'm thinking the test kit / process is off.

I think it's nearly impossible for saltwater from a mix to have less than 1 dKH.

I would test once again with a different kit. What is the pH?PH is 7.6

takoarm8 · Aug 9, 2023

bluemon said:
What test kits did you use? And what salt mix did you use?

Hanna
And
Tropic Marin pro

areefer01 · Aug 9, 2023

takoarm8 said:
Hanna
And
Tropic Marin pro

Whelp below are the parameters the salt reports by the manufacture. I'm not clear on what you are saying the parameters are. But you can make a gallon up using the guidelines below and remove the tank, and company who brought in the water. That is assuming your testing properly and the kits are not expired.

takoarm8 · Aug 9, 2023

areefer01 said:
Whelp below are the parameters the salt reports by the manufacture. I'm not clear on what you are saying the parameters are. But you can make a gallon up using the guidelines below and remove the tank, and company who brought in the water. That is assuming your testing properly and the kits are not expired.

Used two different Hana test kits. I’ll take a sample into LFS as well.

Pod_01 · Aug 10, 2023

Correct salinity would indicate that parameters are ok an unlikely have 0.9alk and

takoarm8 said:
Magnesium and Calcium are all completely off the rails as well.

All of these contribute to salinity.

Mix one gallon or one L of new salt mix and re-test. Try different test kits (different manufacturer), Hanna can have its issues.

Also before any drastic water changes contact TM for support.

Good luck,

rtparty · Aug 10, 2023

What were the actual numbers for everything? “Off the rails” doesn’t help anyone help you.

How much salt was added and how much water?

Story doesn’t add up at all here. Missing way too many facts. .9dkh is impossible. Assuming you added close to 240 gallons of water, you should have used almost 2 full buckets of salt.

jda · Aug 10, 2023

Without knowing numbers, this feels like too little salt was added.

TM salt can settle and you really do need to dry mix it, but in this case where more than a whole bucket needed to be used, this should not have been too big of a deal.