Quote:
Originally Posted by Jason McK
Uncontaminated mix
Just did a water change Very over due
CA 400
ALK 7.0 Dkh
MG 1500
K 350-400
J
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how big was the batch and what was the salinity?
I mixed up about 40 gallons of the stuff the other night and it mixed up to the following at 1.025 salinity:
Calcium 360 (salifert kit)
alk 9.0 dkh (elos kit)
mg 1350 (salifert kit)
potassium untested. i hate the potassium kit. I just assume reefer's best has better levels than any other salt I can get and leave it at that.
I keep the salt in a bucket and I tossed the bucket around to mix it up for about 3 minutes before adding it to the water. The water was warmed to 80F before hand because stuff precipitates from saltwater when heated quickly I find.
the RB salt sometimes preciptates a white powder. I had it happen once on a little 4g batch at home and it's happened a few times at the store. I haven't been able to put 2 and 2 together. At home it was a small batch. at work once was with tap water the other time with RO/DI. In the batch at home the water was heated before hand. at work the water's never heated before mixing the salt.
the zeo guide recommends adding carbonated water when mixing salt to aid in the mixing process. haven't tried that yet but i'm contemplating it.
here's what I notice about reefer's best when mixed at home:
every time I heat the water before hand. usually the batches are 4 gallons a time (except for this one time for the new tank). It's allways done with RO/DI water. I add some calcium chloride solution every time to the new saltwater before putting it in the tank so that it's around 425 going in (closer ballanced to the 9dkh)
Every time I mix it up I get slightly low calcium (round 350-375) pretty good kH (round 9 dkh) and around 1300 mg. I never test potassium because the test kit's so hard to read anyways.