The only reason I have my receipt is because I just got the salt last week. This issue came to my attention between the time I order it and when I got it. Talk about poor timing.

My concern is that I have two buckets and I want to be sure they are aware of that fact when I send them two samples. Good to hear that they are not making it a requirement though.

well woopdeddoo bev all the local shops in vancouver are all working off of the same batches with the yellow labels. they problem is you cant tell if you have a good or bad bucket until you open it up, if its bad you can't return it!

I still have enough salt to last till end May. But at $36 for a bucket I figured a good idea to just stock up. So hopefully by the time I need more salt the problem will be resolved.

Doug

Again, UNTRUE!!!!

AND



:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

sigh, if anyone is keeping count, the bucket of salt my husband picked up for me is one of the low dkh ones :cry: . It's not like i can just run to the closest lfs to pick up some more either and I'm in the process of filling my 175g bowfront:twised:

Surely they'll be getting some good stuff in soon. Does it have to be replaced today? Just buy some good salt from somewhere local to tide you over, IMO.

This business of sending a pound of the stuff to Kent sounds ridiculous to me. A whole pound! I don't think so. They must have sophisticated labs where all they would need is a teaspoon of the stuff, at the most, to determine the alk. I don't know...I'm no chemist by any stretch....but I think there just hoping that most people will balk at shipping a whole pound and that reduces their loss, but still look good by makin' the offer. JMHO.

Cheers,:smile:

Earth to Bev... at the risk of sounding like I'm explaining the obvious to someone "extra special" he's trying to say that the dmg is so obviously wide spread that people who bought the salt on boxing day (me) are having the same poor salt problems as people who bought their salt a few days ago. In this, he is agreeing with you.

Ditto that. I was thinking that myself, but had no idea of why they might do it, definetly sounds like a feasable suggestion!

Chris

Its possible that Kent is trying to protect itself from being ripped off by clever aquarists who work in groups. One bad bucket...divided up among several hundred people one teaspoon each translates into a great big scam! By making people send in a substantial amount, it might reduce the scamming.

Not that I agree with their decision...I merely offer another explanation for what seems like an odd policy.

Or they are dumping all the 'pounds' together and adding the missing ingredient, then selling it back to us. lol

I recieved a call from John Groff at Kent yesterday and got the same request for a 1lb sample from each pail. He said that for their US customers they were prepaying the shipping through UPS, but that was not possible with international shippments. He said he "would look after me later", but did not provide any detail on that. I sent the two one pound samples off yesterday with UPS; total shipping cost was $21.54 for standard service plus a $1.80 for a packing box from Staples (great timing to have just taken all my cardboard boxes to recycling :rolleyes: ). I did check Canada post for shipping rates too. It would have been approximatly $12 to send it with them, but the delivery time would have been longer.

To be fair to Kent, John seemed genuinly concerned about this issue and was very quick at responding to my e-mail. He phoned me while I happened to be out, I called back and left a voicemail for him and he called again within 20 minutes. For a big company that is a very good response to a customers problem. I won't make any judgment on Kent until I get the final resolution on this, so far I am satisfied with the way they are dealing with it.

As for why they need a full pound of salt to test, I can only make assumptions. Probably they want to ensure that it is a large enough sample to allow for multiple tests. Also a very small sample may not accuratly represent the chemical mix in the salt.

I'm told that you can adjust the alk pretty easily with baking soda (sodium bicarb). It beats the heck out of a long drive and expensive shipping...

I too have gotten a bad bach of salt . I emailed Kent Tuesday and John Groff called me yesturday. He did try to set up UPS to pick up my salt sample from me at there cost but was unfortunatly unable to do it across the border. I was also contacted by a Chris (didn't get his last name) . I sent the email to a couple of there contact emails. I was impressed by the quick response. I too like BMW Rider was told that they would give me something extra for my hassle. he also came across genuily concerned about this matter. I am waiting to find out what happens with this to make my judgement. I would urge anyone who has questions or is unhappy about this to email Kent and let them now at kentmarine@verizon.net

I wouldn't recommend this as Kent has never said exactly what was wrong with that shipment. For all we know some mystery ingredient was added that dropped the ALK and is deadly to our aquatic friends. Be safe and replace the salt.

My thoughts exactly. I know the alkalinity is off, but what else is too? I will not use it at all until I here from them what the situation is.

Well I tested my bucket last night and unfortunately, my bucket is screweed as well.

I fired off another letter to Kent, I was thinking this morning, if they send us a new bucket through UPS, we would have to pay a 30 - 50$ brokrage fee. I wonder if they could just send a pallet of replacement buckets to one place so we can all just pick it up from there. Of course I am talking about all the local LOWER mainlanders that are affected by this.

FYI I took my bad bucket into J&L and was given full credit for the bucket with no hassles what-so-ever. They simply subtracted the cost of one bucket of Kent salt from my total purchases.

Thanks Allen.

Allen told me that as long as we bring in our receipt, we will get the credit.

I don't usualy keep a receipt from that long ago.. I may be lucky and find it but I doubt it.

Have anybody got replacement buckets from KENT? Any updates? I sent an email a week ago and i haven't received a reply so I'm wondering if something else is going on......

i was at j&l the other day, all their kent salt was bad. they said it's all going back and they have no replacments yet. i also noticed that all the king eds salt was from the bad batch.

I got a call from John at Kent Marine, they confirmed I had a bad batch, he is sending me an email on my options. Apparently I might even be able to get some lighting products? who knows. Anyways.. he told me the old salt is still good, just needs to be buffered.

He told me my Alk was 0.913 and my Cal was 600 something.

You can buffer alk up, but how do you get calcium down to 400 from 600?

Hmm, well if your doing change water, it shouldn't be an issue, your replacing some calcium is all.

Perhaps what happened was they added extra calcium instead of the alkalinity. I have not had a reply yet from them, but that is good to find out that the salt is at least usable. I'll have to wait for a reply to see if they are offering to supply the needed buffer.

Finally got around to testing my bucket today. 2.3 dKH @ 1.022.
Dang! Well I'm gonna use it anyway. Can't be bother with goin' through the return process. I'm gonna mix 2 cups of the Kent with 8 to 9 cups of Instant Ocean until the Kent is all gone. My tank is low on Ca right now so the high Ca is a good thing. I'm interested in checking out SeaChem salt also.

That 0.913 measurement...is that meq?

Cheers:smile:,

use it for your fowlr, fish dont need alk.

I heard from Kent yesterday. They are going to send me some new salt to replace the two pails I have. He told me they reccomend to just toss the bad stuff and not use it. I think I'll heed that advice. Perhaps I'll use it to melt the ice in my alley so I can get my motorcycle out :mrgreen:

I believe is was dkh. But I might be wrong.

Good idea. Just watch that the pH doesn't drop, right?

Thanx much and cheers:smile:,

I dunno know about that, low alk in my trigger tank has always caused problems, usually "dust ball gross algae rock breakdown detritus syndrome"...

salt
 

Hi Mark,
Check this out:
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=23514
I am going to see him on Saturday if you want me to trade for you.
Cheers,
Phil

PM sent....9, 10.

The RC thread on the low alk Kent salt has been interesting, to say the least.

For anyone who hasn't been following it to its sixth page, here it is from the beginning...

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showth...5&pagenumber=1

It has been a while since this has been brought up. I'll admit, I've been a lazy reefer lately. For the past few while, our CA and Alk/KH kits have been out of commission, and I"ve been lazy about replacing them. I still tested PH and SG regularly.

Our reefs have been doing poorly lately. Low SPS growth, nuisance algae, general malaise. Nothing drastic, just not thriving. I attributed some of this to an aging MH bulb, and some to the temperature fluctuations through the summer (it got HOT sometimes this summer). I ordered a replacement bulb last week, and some new kits at the same time.

When I went through the whole test regimen, I got some surprising values for CA and Alk! CA over 500 and Alk below 5dKh. That was suprising, but consistent across both tanks, so I tested the water we had mixed this week for the weekend water change. Also low - even lower - dKh around 3.

I had tested this bucket when we opened it, and it was fine. There must have been stratification in the bucket. I hope we caught everything in time. I'm slowly increasing the Alk in the tanks, and will pitch the remaining 1/3 bucket of Kent.

A reminder to myself (and perhaps others) to maintain vigilance!

I am still using Kent, I have not noticed anything recently. It does have a higher Calcium then is used to. But Alk is still on the money at 8dkh.

As for the bad salt, I actualy kept mine and use it when cooking rock or QT.. I simply adjust the Alk.

Have been keeping an eye on our salt as well. Alk seems to be about 8 dKH here for the pails I've used so far. But I've got 4 more pails go. Thanks for the additional heads up :)