Mixing H2Ocean
 

Just getting back into reefing after an 18 month hiatus and a move to the coast. I always used this salt and thought i mixed it to the proportions the instructions said..1 lb per US gallon. Did the conversion and 1 us gallon is 11 litres. Mixed it with my RO water and it reads 1.030 on my vertex refractometer. I know you always need to check it before you actually do your water change, but this seems completely out of whack. Anyone else actually follow the instructions with any success or do you each just start low and gradually add until you find your ideal mix for the size of batches you mix?

i always mix mine a half cup at a time i'm still at the 5 gallon pail phase cuz i keep finding other things to buy instead of a mix bin but so far it works out to aprox. 2 and 7/8 cups per pail

It will depend how much you mix to what your elevation is.

Here I take a IO pail (6 gallons) and I add 2 cups of salt. Mixed to 1.026 at 78 degrees every time.

i guessi forgot to add that part bahh, any way my water is mixed at 77-78F and the gravity is 1.024

2 cups per 5 gallons has always got me really close....

h2ocean
 

i would stay away from h2ocean-i was using it and cyano grew everywhere-including in my phyto reactors-switched away from it and almost no cyano

so people that use other brands of salt dont get cyano?

lesson number one... NEVER follow the directions!

Follow your gut, or your heart, and 9 times outta 10 you are right. As long as you never doubt yourself, you will always be closer then if you really tried your best...

With that being said, I mix a cup and a half of h2ocean with 5 galons of water and always come out about 024 and that works good for me cause of evaporation... situation always dictates...

sorry about the spelling...

I second this

correct me if im wrong, but isnt it supposed to be measured out by weight, not quantity? the instructions on my pail of H2Ocean say 1kg/24.2L. thats 156.2g/agal of water, or 0.344 lbs/gal of water. This has always mixed up to be a little low, about 1.023, I target 1.026.

and koresample, 1 us gallon is 3.78L

is it bad that instant ocean salt takes 4 full cups to mix up 5 gallons of water?

I use a 30gal mixing tank with a pump and heater, I always use the same cup to add the salt which is about 500ml, I add one scoop for every 5 gal of water to start, so I fill the tank up to about 25gal and add five scoops, turn the pumb (ocean runner 3500) and heater (300W @ 80*F) on and leave it for about 3 or 4 hrs. When I come back I check the temp & salinity (1.026 target) and add salt or water to balance things out, I usually have to add a little more H2Ocean, maybe a scoop or less to get it where I want it then I let it mix for a few more days and re-check, it usually doesn't change.

Correct, that's why I said 1lb to 11 litres (10.962 to be exact) and it mixed to 1.030

cyano
 

i'm not saying that you won't get cyano,but other people and myself had a huge spike in cyano when we used h2ocean-and now that i switched away,my cyano is almost non existant

My apologies koresample, I misunderstood what you said in your original post. I'd be curious to see if other people report excessive cyano as well. So far all I've noticed is that it has a very high calcium level. Mine shows around 480ppm when mixed.

I use this salt without issues.

I used it for a year and a half without cyano. My tank si gorgeous. Happy, colorful corals - SPS, LPS, Zoas. I think it is a good quality salt. Not sure why some have problems, but it also depends on what else you are doing, ie: balling, dosing, supplementing, etc.

Funny, I switched from the H2Ocean to IO a while back when I couldn't find the H2O, I had a huge cyano bloom about a week after changing...I switched back to the H2O about a month later and no cyano since....

Also I had noticed that allot of people in my area were all experiencing cyano blooms around the same time...environmental, water source??? I don't know, I just thought that was a weird coincident.



I'm back on the H2Ocean diet again and am happy.

yup .....2 1/2 years and FTOTM on H2Ocean:wink:

Higher Phosphates in the water a few months back

Ken

Yeah, I guess I figured my RODI unit should catch that...? No water goes into my tanks before going through the RODI.

Higher Phosphates can be attributed to many things... as simple as feeding regimen. It is easy to blame a salt but nobody out there can confirm an individuals personal habits with maintenance.


As for H2Ocean... it is also supposed to mix for 24 hours prior to use. I find that I get false readings if I test the salinity right away.

+1. Every salt I have ever used, I always mix for 24hrs (sometimes longer if I forget about it in the basement the next day :biggrin:). I mix with powerhead, airstone and heater. Results always vary from when I first mix the salt to when I test it after 24hrs.

I posted a couple of weeks ago about experiencing a cyano outbreak using this salt. I think it actually was red turf algae and I DO NOT think it was from using H2Ocean. Don't know where it came from but my corals have never looked better and are really starting to color up. Good stuff.

good to hear. I recently switched to this salt and so far no problems.

h2ocean
 

i had the cyano break out in my phyto reactors-really can't overfeed them-at the same time as the breakout in all of my tanks.this started with the first pail of h2ocean and i mix at the min 4 days in advance to a water change.i stopped using it after two pails.used a pail of kent(only other salt i could get at the time) and then switched to reefers best-no more cyano-and same feedings

H20cean
 

I used 4 half cups to make basically 4 gallons, did that with 5 buckets of h20cean salt.

I use 366.0g per 10 Litres of water to yield a batch that is at 1.026 sg.
gl

i use 140.5g per gallon. i know its strange mixing units, but it works the best for me.