I'm kind of apprehensive about the future of IO with the chapter-11/receivership/whatever of Aquarium Systems/Spectrum Brands/whatever-they're-called. From all I've been able to read though, for now and the foreseeable future, they intend to keep operating. Hope that they are able to resolve and continue, because it would truly suck if IO went away. :(

I ran with IO for many years early on in the hobby and yeah, never had a problem with it. Only switched because I wanted to see why there were so many other options but at the end of the day, any lesson I've learned is that a salt is just a salt. It is a commodity item.

Let's face it, you have to dose stuff anyhow, and you have to test stuff anyhow, no matter what. Maybe with one salt or another you may have to dose more of this or less of that but you're not doing any less testing, ultimately if you do you're taking a risk (this is a lesson I seem to need to relearn every 6 months or so :redface: ).

I'm pretty sure I'm "coming home" to IO for the next little while...

For IO, anyone know what the average Mag level is? Roughly.

Usually it is around 1270-90, but my new bucket is 1170. Usually the Calcium is 360-370, but my new bucket is 400. Alk is always around 11-12 dKH. This is the first "off" bucket I ever had. I don't care...I test every new bucket anyway. :)

Sorry, I bolded my mistake. When I test IO it's usually 360-370. I just looked at my recordings. My quote was wrong.

Where do you get that number from? Randy Holmes Farley always writes that NSW around the world averages 410 ppm.

It is known that calcium levels of 360 and under start to inhibit growth of stony corals. I don't have a calcium reactor, so I rely on dosing. It is easy for my tank to drop 20 ppm calcium between dosing (mostly because my tank sitter isn't very good at dosing often enough, which is annoying, but at least she does it), so it's too risky for me to be at 380 ppm. I dose my tank to be 415-425 ppm, but as long as it's at or over 400 I'm happy.

WOW, Mg at 1100(ish)... LOL. It's so nice and high! :lol: I'd only need to add a LITTLE Mg as opposed to .. the entire $#@$#@! bottle!

I know what you're talking about with respect to the "dirt". However, IO isn't alone on this problem - I've seen black sediment and particulate in Kent, Instant Ocean, Reef Crystals, and Seachem Reef Salt over the last year or so of switching between salt brands.

BTW have you guys herd that as per SeaChem, all liquid additives are contaminated with ammonia(!)?
i wonder if that is true?
quote: Reef Advantage Magnesium contains no ammonia! This is a common contaminant in every liquid magnesium supplement on the market.end quote
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/sc...+600+Gram.html

I have heard this as well as nitrates. I'm not sure if it's true though.

So, just updating this thread with additional observations:

1) (And just to echo what's already been said in a couple other threads lately) I can't beleive how much Mg it takes to raise Mg in the tank. I ordered 20 lbs from Chemmaster and I've used up 4 lbs in the last TWO WEEKS. :eek: (Over 3 tanks and in new water change water mind you.)

2) I've used up my Elos test kit and am now finishing up my Salifert. One thing I am finding with the Salifert .. and I'm not sure if this is an artifact of: 1) the age of the test kit (about 1 year or so), or 2) the Salifert Mg test kit in general, or 3) normal day to day fluctuations of Mg in solution,or 4) maybe I suck at using test kits ... but I can't beleive how inconsistently my tanks' Mg levels are from day to day. For example, I was targetting 1400 and I was adding Mg at certain amounts and testing each day. So say I wanted to raise Mg by 50 per day, I would try to find the amount that would do this. But the same amount of additive would never raise the levels by the same amount. And off by factors of 3 or 4 in some cases. Ie., one day, 15ml would raise a tank 15, but another day, 15ml would raise a tank by 45..or 135. :eek: HUH?? ... Also noted that the amount from tank to tank was not directly proportional to water volume (ie., my 40g took an amount that was not anywhere near twice that what was for the 20g, and the 115g took even more proportionally. It's like it's by "water volume squared" maybe?) Weird??? Even weirder, my 110g was the first to hit 1400. So I stopped adding Mg because now I'm shifting from "raise Mg" into "maintain Mg" (and for that I want to determine what the consumption rate is on, say, a weekly basis, then I'd find out how much it takes to replenish that amount, divide by 7 and hey presto, there's the amount to dose each day). But the next day, without adding any Mg, the Mg level had jumped 30 on its own.

Me confoozled by this. :redface:

I find the test kits resolution is very low as well.

I just aim for 1300 to 1450 (maybe even 1500), as long as it is in that range I am happy.