If I had to bet some cash on guessing what one thing could do that, I'd guess copper.
Is it possible to tamper with a bucket and add copper somehow?

If I had lost that much and I thought the salt was to blame, you can be SURE the manufacturer would be hearing from me.

Ya, me too. But not everyone is the same.

And IO will examine a sample if sent to them, they require a couple cups in a zip lock for testing.

It just seems the whole thread just got a lot of people all excited without any kind of conclusive proof of the salt being the problem is all I'm trying say. I agree with you Brad at the end of the day we've learned nothing. :mrgreen:

Agreed, we know nothing, other than Tyler lost a ****eload of stuff. Could be from salt, or something that was in the salt bucket.
Yes, IO is a cheaper salt, but they've been doing a lot of it for a long time with a pretty good track record, so I still maintain that if it's the salt, others will have the same issue eventually.
Not sure if the purchase location of the salt has been disclosed, but I bet other CR members also bought some from the same batch.

I bought this new unopened bucket @ King Ed, Opp's did I type that out loud. :tape:

Where did he buy his bucket?

I think that question was asked but I don't remember seeing an answer.

Could be metal contamination, excess lvls of copper, that would wipe out inverts yet leave fish healthy.

if you were to mix some of it up and put a small frag in it, one of the same kind as one that was lost by the OP, It's survival or demise would at least tell you if it was the salt or not.

From there, testing would be needed to see if there is something in it there that is not supposed to be or if something in it is more concentrated than it should be.

A pretty simple test as above (and has already been suggested) would definitely add some important information to the issue and at least indicate if the salt needs to be tested or if other potential causes need to be considered more seriously.

thats because i do not know the answer, it could have come from one of 5 places that i get salt from, no idea, i grab a bucket from my stash, never kept track of what buckets came from where

IO would do the testing with their lab. All it would cost you is a few minutes of time. I even made an offer to minimize that time for you. :)

Plus, if it was something like copper, your tank (rock/sand) could now be permanently toxic to invertebrates.

Why are you taking this so personally? I made it pretty clear that I have no interest in getting it tested. The only thing beneficial thing that would ever come out of it is maybe a free bucket of io that I'd use to de-ice driveways with.... Its not worth the effort it would take to put it in a zip lock bag. The damage is done, I've accepted that there is no fixing it, so I'm moving on, as should you.

why make a thread about it then ?

I believe the word is venting
So why not make a thread about it

You must have seen "blame the salt" posts in the past and known exactly how it would pan out....

The only difference here is that it's usually not someone with so much know how and experience posting it.

I think that fact just makes people more curious as most others who make a statement like this are uniformly dismissed.

Also, many of us use io.

You scare people with this kind of a claim.

You may feel there is no point, but the rest of us who use io and know you know your **** would sure like to know for sure if it was the salt we all use or not.

I use IO....

:laluot_08: Good god people he said it was the salt... There is no onus to proof, it's an opinion the can take it or ignore it. If people are so worried send your own salt away to get tested. As someone else said it doesn't seem to be a widespread epidemic so go on living your lives.

I'm thinking you don't understand what a forum is used for ? If you come on a forum claiming salt nuked your tank , people are going to be curious why . If it was indeed the salt would you not want to find out what in the salt caused it? If you want to forget about it and move on why make a thread about it and not expect anybody to wonder why ?
I would send my own salt away for testing if it nuked my tank if not for me but all the other people that use this salt. Never had any issues using reef crystals so I have no need to get it tested. Is salt even safe to use after 4 hours of mixing? Was always under the impression to let it mix for 24 hours. Either way its obvious nothing is going to come from this original poster is not going to send any samples in , it sucks for the rest of us . Will continue to use IO until there is actual proof the salt caused this.

Because of this:

Pretty much. :)

Only for the reason that most reef related debates end in a spiraling school yard I'm right and you're wrong abiss I will end this with. You're right. You win skimmer juice. I will look further into the proper understanding and use of on line forum

My take
 

A few years ago I was the rep of an accused product (not salt though)... I've offered credits to retailers whom purchased the product, so they could refund their consumers as it cost less than the testing of said product . In the end it was not the product and another product was found to be at fault, but the forums had done their dirty work and the product had a bad rep. I don't even think it was made public what caused all the trouble but it was a member here who had the issues. Those credits were still issued and the product was not to blame. The internet , and forums can be nuts sometimes and turn things into a witchhunt.

Anyone reading this realizes that it is not conclusive, but might make sure to do an extra test or two of their salt before water changes which I would suspect is what the op is was trying to establish.

I too would have sent some to upg, to have tested. But would have probably declined there free bucket had it been offered whatever the results may have been .

I got a lot invested in my tank so if there is bad salt circulating I would like to know....I am too chicken poop to be playing reindeer games with my tank.

Agreed. I am mixing a batch right now, albeit and older bucket I've already used. I bought 3 buckets during the sale, so that's got me a little concerned.

Spit.fire , did you not even record the batch # for us?

Anyone here selling IO for cheap??:pp

You should all be weary of your salt and brands don't matter I've had customers return every type of salt for all sorys of reasons and even once salt had no salt measured with a refract... it had nothing so prob a bucket of chemicals , sure sucks to be on the end of that I use to think then it happened so often that I just assume salt QC is crap and take each bucket with caution :) most of us are very lucky but I'll say that bad salt is not uncommon at all:)

This was my thinking from the beginning but doesn't look like an answer will come. I've given up waiting anyway...

I have a new question that hasn't been brought up

"How does someone dispose of 48lbs of salt?" Well subtract what was used for the water change

In my garbage can?
In my backyard?
Down the drain?
In the ocean?
In the river?
Take it to the dump?
Save it for de-icing the driveway?

There's only one question above that I could answer yes to. So what's the best way to dispose of that much salt, minus the bucket I hope cause that thing's recyclable

I will also be keeping and using my buckets, just merely wondering what others would do

Go slug hunting lol

Oooh good one :) too bad I only see about 5 of those a year

Haha yeah that's about 1000 yrs worth of slugs ....back to the drawing board lol

I got rid of a bucket via the de-icing method.

I will keep using my IO, even with the last bucket I had reading #s too high for my liking. Batch # 14267
Rolled and tested for weeks - Alk 11.5+, Ca 410(good for us who dose), Mag 1650+(not good if you perform large WCs)
Salt was very dusty instead of powdery/grainy. Had to hold my breath while taking it from the bucket and adding it to the mixing tank - dust everywhere.
It also needed 7 cups instead of 6 cups to mix 12g of water. Obviously the salt was messed up. But it still never killed anything.

I turned off my Mag pump 6 weeks ago and have just turned it back on this week as it took 2 weeks for it to drop enough to start dosing again.

I test my new salt water before each WC to keep an eye on things and adjust it accordingly

So where on the bucket do you find a batch #, there's a bunch numbers around the sque but it's the same # on all my empty buckets :noidea:

It's the price tag looking sticker on the top of the lid. should be 14xxx or 15xxx depending on how long you've had it I guess

Thanks, there is a mostly wrecked unreadable sticker on the lid that ends with 61, that's all I can see. Not that it matters I guess, it is what it is I'm still using it.

Sorry Laurie, ya the little white stickers on top.
If you bought it from KE and it ends in 61 it's probably 14261. I bought that # somewhere before Jan.
Come to think of it, I don't even know if that tag is from IO or KE.