Holy Cow! I was one of the unfortunate ones a few years ago that got in on the bad batch of Instant Ocean that had way too high of ALK. The reason that to this day I will not use Instant Ocean or Kent (because they were made by the same people) although that does not appear to be the case with this batch. There was such an outcry with the IO that they ended up sending out checks to people that had used this salt. I know that I got a check for around $1800 but it still did not compensate the pain and frustration of completely crashing my system. I actually got out of the hobby for over a year because of this.

what brand of salt are you using now ruth?

I use the new Seachem reef salt in my 190g that I am using the zeovit method on and Tropic Marin pro on all my other tanks. I have tested newly mixed batches of both salts and posted the results on other links. So far very happy with both.

do you mind me asking where i can ever buy the seachem reef salt? it looks pretty good.

Let's see I bought 3 boxes from AI in Edmonton as I was desparate for salt - that is one store I try my best not to support. I got my buckets from BlkHawk (Joshua). I know that Island Aquatics in Duncan was talking about carrying it but not sure if they have gotten it in yet. FWIW I am also very happy with the Tropic Marin pro salt and that I have been getting from reef perfections out of Ontario because he just has his sister bring it out to Abbotsford. He charged me $50 to ship 8 buckets at Christmas and I have just ordered another 8 buckets which I will pick up at Easter.

Whew!!!!!

Just mixed up 2g of RO/DI water (heated and aerated since Sunday, Feb 12) with the Kent salt from one pail from our recent Edmonton group order. All of our pails have a yellow Kent logo. Salt in pails is in a sealed bag, which I have never seen before with any salt I've used (IO and Kent) since I started reefkeeping back in the mid-90s.

Results:

dKH - 8.5 (using Aquarium Pharmaceuticals test kit)
Temp - 79 F (using Hagen stick on tank temp gauge)
SG - 1.026 (using refractometer)
pH - 8.26 (using a Pinpoint pH probe and Hanna Instrument pH controller digital readout)

Am not going to worry about the rest of the five pails, though I am certainly going to wait awhile before ordering more salt, just in case.

Dang, I just ordered two pails of Kent salt. I will see when they get here what batch they are by testing the mix. I hope they are ok, if not I'll be contacting Kent for a suppliment or replacement pails. Thanks for the heads up on this issue.

Thanks for the test results Bev.

Do you have anyway of testing Calcium & Magnesium? I'm curious to see what they are at. If not, that's fine. It'll be a few days but I'll be able to test these eventually.

Did the tests shortly after getting out of bed this morning and didn't have time to test Mg or Ca.

Bev was the salt mixing in the water for 24hrs heated and aireated? I know that I have gotten different readings after the salt has been in the water for 24 or 48 hours.