Reef Crystal IO salt
 

Yesterday, I mixed my Ro/di fresh water with Instant Ocean Reef Crystal. Got the salanity to 35ppt (1.026) and temp is 79F and did some water testing. I found the parameter is not what it claims on the bucket

The claim:
Cal : 455ppm
Mg: 1345ppm

Well the result i am getting from my Salifer Test kit is

Cal: 400 ppm
Mg: 1230 ppm

Anyone knows why?

Thanks

Personally I am thinking it can be that buckets of salt can have some variance, but also the test kit may not be accurate.

Try another test kit if you have one, or have someone you can borrow another brand of testing.

Did you give the salt in the bucket a good mixing before you mixed up your batch of salt water? This can greatly help to get the parameters closer to normal as some settling of individual minerals always occurs during transport.

I mixed an entire bucket of Instant Ocean Reef Crystals with fresh RO/DI for my new tank and my Calcium was only 370ppm. (API test kit)

I found a thread on Reef Central about some suspect or bad batches:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1298050

I think it is time for me to switch salt as my Mg is almost no existant & it will cost me a fortune in additive to get it back up and stay there. Not to mention everything else that is required to maintain a reef tank.

What is a good salt to buy and who has the best price.

I switched to H2o as their numbers are a bit better but it is a lot more. It will still be cheaper to run IO even with supplements if cost is you prime reason.

Well the cost of supp's is high just to get levels up. But a better salt brand would reduce the amount of supp's needed. I have only been into SW for about 8 month & was told IO was the right choice of salt. It is not the Reef Crystals IO just IO. The only parameter I am having an issue with is Mg.

little silver max is the best place to get some supplements. He is closer to you than to me.:wink:

That is for sure. I was doing a little research and Red Sea Coral Salt sounds like a good brand to.

There have been many articles and posts pointing out that different test kits provide different values for the same chemicals. Even within the same brand I have received different readings between test kits. For instance I had a 'new' Salifert Alkalinity kit that claimed my alkalinity was 2 dkh higher than what my 'old' Salifert Alkalinity kit stated (neither had expired yet btw). It doesnt necessarily mean that the manufacturers lied on their bucket of salt or that it was a bad batch. Hobby grade test kits are all crap. Some crappier than others. But as long as they're close to your target range it really doesnt matter.

I've also found Magnesium to be one of the least expensive trace elements to supplement. I just buy my own non-pharmaceutical grade 100% Magnesium Chloride Hexahydrate de-icing salt and mix it with Magnesium Sulfate epson salts (7:1 ratio by weight). It costs less than $1/lbs and I've been using it for over a year now with no adverse side effects on three tanks.