I just tested a new bucket that I bought about 1 month ago at J&L, luckily haven't used it yet. I screwed up a little on the salt mix so these levels should adjust to even lower at 35ppt. I tested salinity with a refractometer and Alk with a salifert test kit:

Old bucket of kent @ 38ppt:
10.9 dkh

New bucket of kent @ 39ppt:
3.6 dkh

:cry: Going to email J&L tommorow and buy a new bucket of Seachem.

i dont think they carry seachem.

I just send an email to J&L too.
They carry Crystal Sea Salt Mix. Is this mix any good?

Great.
I have a full bucket of the yellow logo Kent.
Man!:rolleyes:

Cheers,:smile:

Doesnt mean its bad! Some seems to have turned out alright.

I will test my yellow logo bucket tomorow. I bought it on boxing day from AI. I'll post results tomorow.

Chris

I have always used "Reef Crystals" and found it to be a very good and reliable product.

IPZ here does.

I was thinking about this this morning wondering why I got 3.6dkh, higher then everyone else. Then I remembered that I used about 3 cups of salt from the old bucket out of 14 total, which would explain my higher reading. :redface:

Anyone get a response from Kent on what they plan to do about this bad batch of salt? Also what is Kent telling their retailers and, what do the retailers of the kent products plan on doing for their customers, if anything, who bought the bad salt?

For information on what Kent has been doing regarding their bad batch of salt, refer to the RC link in the first post in this thread.

No offense.. but regardless of cost, since when was it ever acceptable for a company NOT to take back their defective product which results in disastrous results to their clients.

It's a facet of business.. and expense.

This behavior of Kent's is unacceptable

Just got responce from J&L:
----------------------------------------------------------
Two options since you are local:

1. Send sample to Kent, and they will replace bucket of salt
2. Bring in bucket and we'll replace.

If anyone orders Kent salt we are informing them before shipping. I was told
by Kent that it was one batch (70 buckets). If that is the case then not all
of ours is bad.

Allen
------------------------------------------------------------------

I love these guys.

slight underestimation
 

I wonder whats the likelihood that 70 buckets were distributed all over the US and Canada to have this defective batch of salt? I think they are either -
- in a damage control mode,
- have a severe underestimation of the problem
- a typo (700 instead of 70)

But regardless if JL is willing to replace, now THAT is customer service. Kuddos for them

Somehow I don't believe it was just 70 buckets. I mean, think about the assembly line process. If those 70 buckets came off the conveyer belt, they would have been loaded onto pallets of 24 buckets each. That would mean there would have been 3.916666 pallets (used my calculator :biggrin: ) of bad salt. So how did, say, 4 pallets of salt make it so far around Kent's distribution network?

From the RC thread here is a list, so far, of people and their locations that got the bad salt...

doccarbon, Tecumseh, MI
scyphozoa, no location listed
turbodiesel01, Berryville, AR
aquaconnect, Aurora (no state named)
E-A-G-L-E-S, Lehigh Valley, PA
jmicky41, Indiana

And then from this thread (both could be from one source) ....

Denis, Abbotsford,BC
Brennan, Duncan, BC

Methinks me smells a rat :evil:

I just tested my new bucket of Yellow label Kent salt that I received from Ocean Aquatics 2 weeks ago.

the water tested at 1.9 dkh at specific gravity of 1.025 (using a refractometer)

If you received any salt from Ocean Aquatics in the last while.... make sure you test it !!!


Jim

I read somewhere else that it was around 100 pails. But yeah, I agree with Bev and I think it's probably closer to 25 pallets.

oa in vancouver is still working off of the older buckets of kent salt. i have 1 bad pail and i have another so im not sure i want to open it.

I would be willing to bet that it is a lot more than that if the distribution is that wide. When they had the problem a few years ago with Instant Ocean it was restricted geographically to (for the most part) the West Coast and yet the damage that was done to peoples tanks was devastating.
This certainly does a lot of damage to Kent's reputation and does not say much for their quality control to let events like this happen twice in the last 5-6 years, to say nothing of how much it will cost them at the end of the day both in actual monitary costs as well as a loss of customers. They lost me as a customer for their salt products during their last 'event' and this only confirms my fears.

I just got my two buckets from J&L Frioday. I opened one and mixed a test batch today. Its one of the bad ones too; 1.3 dhk @ 1.026 SG. I will have to get hold of J&L to see about replacement or suppliments. I didn't get any warning when I ordered it, but I think it was before this problem became known.

after reading this thread I tested my salt yesterday and came up with:
Alk 1.9dKH
pH 8.2
Ca 620ppm
Temp 78F
SG 1.025

I've been wondering why my calcium and alk and PH readings seemed so out of whack. The more I did water changes the worse it got. Now it all makes sense.

I purchased mine from a small local independant LFS. They were unaware of it until I notified them yesterday. They are checking into it and I'm sure they will take care of me.

i dont want to read 3 pages.
but does this include the 50gal bags too?
i got a bag of kent salt during boxing day.

Seems to be specific to buckets, but I'd definately check it out before using.

Just wondering. Anybody bring their's back yet? Probably going in later this week.

This is a response I recieved from Kent

Good morning Chad,
Thank you for contacting us on this matter. We are aware of a batch of salt that was released with sub-par alkalinity; the cause of the problem has been addressed and rectified. This is the first time in the history of Kent Marine that there has ever been an issue with the salt, and we would like to offer our sincerest apologies for the inconvenience it has caused. If you can send us a 1-lb. sample of the salt for verification, we will test it immediately and then, pending the test results, replace the bucket you have on hand with new ones.

Please send the salt sample to the following address:

Kent Marine
c/o John Groff
1100 Northpoint Parkway
Acworth, GA 30102

The buckets were in the process of being lot numbered at the time that the issue occurred, and of course Murphy’s Law dictates that any problems will happen when it’s the least convenient, so a recall on buckets is unfeasible, and also unnecessary due to the small batch size that the issue was limited to. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at the phone number listed below.

multiple buckets
 

does anybody know what if i've got 4 buckets of this stuff? should I send in 4 x 1 lb sample?

Chad can you provide the email address?

Do they cover shipping because sending that much salt is going to cost a lot.

CR Brightwell <kentmarine@verizon.net>

They did not mention paying the costs of shipping, I assume they do not.

I have not tested my bucket from J&L yet. I got this one on boxing day. Anyone get theirs on boxing day with this issue?

Testing
 

Just wanted to put in my 2 cents worth.
When ever I start a new bucket of salt, I test the Alk,Ca,Mg,pH at 1.025.
Doing this solves 2 common problems :
1) Is my test kit accurate and/or getting old....IO/Kent and many other salt mixes have their parameters published to compare to. If you do this for every bucket/box after a while you can see the variability in the salt QC and your testing....with good records this makes a measured salt mix a good standard for comparing test kits etc.
2) Find out about a bad bucket of salt before killing your reef!.....find out about that mixing screw-up ....before killing your reef.....find out about that bad electrode/test kit/uncalibrated refractometer....before!:mrgreen:

This is a standard lab practice...I didn't realize it wasn't common with reefers.......esp after the IO high alk event! We use about 4 200gal buckets per year...making the extra test costs less than $10 GOOD insurance IMHO. and I highly recomend it.

Cheers John

Boy I agree with John and is something that I always do as well. The IO event definately taught me the importance of doing this but it is also just good practice because if you have to adjust any of these levels it is far easier to do in your change water than to start mucking (sorry Ryan) with your display and chance getting everything out of whack there.

Kent Salt

If you have purchased Kent Salt from us.

Return the bucket to us for exchange or send the sample back to Kent.

If you send the sample back to kent keep the receipt for the cost of the shipping and i'll give you a store credit for that amount.

Please feel free to call or email me with any questions you might have.

wendell@oceanaquatics.com

604-940-1988 or 1-800-605-0914


Wendell

Hello All.

Although my company was not affected by the recent Kent salt problems, I would like to offer the following to anyone on Vancouver Island who recived defective Kent salt.

Regardless of where your Kent salt was purchased from , I will exchange your defective bucket with a bucket of the New Seachem Reef Salt.

If you have a bucket or buckets that you wish to exchange, please feel free to PM me or call me at the store to make arrangements.

For those looking to try the new Seachem Reef Salt, please have a look at the vendors forum. I will be posting prices as well as bulk pallet prices for those of you who wish to take advantage of a group buy.

Cheers...

Scott
Island Pet Zone

Scott,

You rock buddy! :mrgreen:

I read that as J&L got one bad batch of 70 rather than Kent only shipped 70, which would make more sense.

I spoke with J&L yesterday about my two buckets. He said that's what they had - 70 buckets of the bad stuff, none of the good stuff, so they had none to ship to me as replacements. They gave me the contact info for Kent and said that it is best for me to deal directly with them, but if I had any trouble, they would look after things for me. I sent an e-mail to Kent yesterday afternoon, and am waiting for their reply. I will be getting my two 1lb samples ready to ship off as soon as I get the full instructions from them. I expect they'll want to see proof of purchase for the two buckets, so I'll include a copy of my receipt. I don't want them to think I'm sending two samples from one bucket or something and delay the replacement.

I am also going to have to find some salt here in town now since I have only about two weeks supply left. Thats the reason I ordered these two buckets, I didn't want to run short. I don't expect I'll see the new buckets of salt for at least a month with shipping and such. What a PITA :rolleyes: Anyone know who in Calgary currently has Kent salt (50 gallon bags) in stock?

Proof of purchase
 

Ed
can you verify with Kent what to do if you don't have a receipt? I don't know about most people but unlike electronics, its not a common practice for me to keep receipts for salt that I buy from a store.

They never asked for proof of receipt when I talked to Kent. Just that I sent the sample.

Gee!!!

I don't feel so bad missing out on the big salt boxing day sale now! Looks like it saved me from lots of headache.

Doug

Scott,

You are awesome!

Thank you!

i don't think it mattered if you bought salt on boxing day or last week, it's all bad.

Untrue and totally annoying :rolleyes: (Thanks, Harvey, for the use of your amazingly accurate graph for this post!)

http://members.shaw.ca/harvwong/smartchart.jpg



The pallet of 200g Kent salt we ordered from IPZ earlier this month tested at 8.5 - 9 dKH. See my and Matt's previous posts a few pages back for more detailed info on our test results.