I seem to be having unusual problems with salt water this year. I had some mixed up, looked fine, but the last three gallons in the bucket suddenly turned cloudy. There was a small pump in the tank. Can't think of any reason - perhaps something precipitated out of the solution.

Anyway, someone gave a reference to an earlier and more recent article on salt mixes with actual measurements. I can't seem to find hte thread. The articles may have been on RC. Does anyone know where I can find this reference?

Thanks,
Nancy

Here's one of them...

http://www.tonmo.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6692

Nancy, what salt mix did you use?

BTW,

No one is happy with any of the salt studies so far. They all seem to be lacking and they get out of date quickly. There is a new study that is supposed to bear preliminary results in September.

Out of curiosity, how is the Tropic Marin brand? The Europeans seem to be ahead of the curve on almost everything else. The description of the product reads like it's the new Centrum vitamin for tanks.

The description of just about every salt makes them all seem like they are perfect. Thats the reason so many people are interested in salt studies.
Tropic Marin gets decent anecdotal reviews. The biggest thing about salt seems to be consistency, and people sometimes have issues when switching brands. If you have to switch, do several water changes mixing the salts in increasing amounts of the new salt.
I thought about changing, but didn't want to risk it. I think the most important thing about salt is getting one you will be able to get in the future. :smile:

Might you be able to point me to one of the salt studies. I'm curious now.

Thanks!

I used Kent Marine. I've used that for a long time because it's available locally and because it has a relatively low copper content.

I got a bad batch some months ago that had a very low pH. Since one of the local LFSs uses it too, I was able to confirm that they sometimes got a bad batch, too. I wonder whether this happens with most salt mixes.

Obviously they all leave something to be desired. I guess there are some new ones coming on the market, too.

Chris and others interested in the salt studies, follow the link on cuttlegirl's thread below to Dan's post, which has links to the studies.

Nancy

The main reason I use Instant Ocean is because they are huge and almost never make bad batches. The salt is very consistent. I is low in Ca and Mg, but I compensate.
I am not a fan of new salts. Let someone else use it for a couple of years! :smile:

Do you find that IO mixes to a very high pH, as shown in the studies?
KM mixes to a lower pH than I would like.

Nancy

Beats me. I don't test it anymore. :smile:

i work at the lfs that nancy mentioned above, and we use kent for our premaid salt water. we have noticed the following:
Some buckets have very low ph's
Some contain excess amounts of po4
some have actualy been found to contain nitrates in small amounts.

all seem to have realativly high ca and mg levels,
they also seem to work very well

we also carry hawian tropic as our salt water mix from time to time, and i personaly like it much better.

Btw nancy it was nice to meet you today

No wonder I've been having trouble! Thanks, Will, and it was nice to meet you in person, too.

Now I wonder whether it's just Kent Sea Salt, or all of them are not nearly as consistent as the manufacturers suggest. But as Will notes, even with the problems, the salt seems to work well.

However, I think I may slowly change to Tropic Marin or Instant Ocean.

Nancy

From what I can tell, IO seems to be the most consistent salt around. A lot of the big aquariums use it. All the others, including TM, seem to have reports of inconsistency.

Who's doing the salt study coming out in September?

If you see it when it comes out, maybe you could post about it and where to find it.

Nancy

Do you have any pH problems with IO - the study Dan refers us to found that IO mixed to a pH of 8.7.

I find Kent's too low (around 8.0)

Nancy

The Huston reef club is doing the study. I will post when it is published.

No pH problems for me.

I use Instant Ocean and mine is 8.2 with no additives.

OK, I'm definitely never using Kent again!!

Nancy

Kent salt is the cheapest one over here and I have used it from time to time but in the last 10 years or so I have always specifically bought and used Tropic Marin from TMC.

I find that it is fairly consistent in the pH readings after a day or so and that is even with my local water which is so soft it barely shows up any hardness in a test kit, so its buffering capacity is non existent.

Will be interesting to see how you get on with it, Nancy

I've never ever had a problem with instant ocean....very consistant

i use instant ocean. it works extremely well. have pretty much always had a reading of at least 8.0. then it usually bounces up to 8.2ish. i would never change companies or mixes!

One thing I noticed about the Tropic Marin salt is that it holds its pH much better than Kent.

And for some unknown reason, my burgundy mushrooms seem to like the TM salt much better - they have deeper color.

Nancy