Sam I understand your concerns and thoughts, really I do. Aquacraft did pay for the tests to be done, they did not do the tests themselves, They DID mix some of the samples with water before they shipped them and they did do the packaging.
The worst salts I have used have been bio sea and Marine Environment, the pH alk and Ca swings made it VERY difficult to do water changes.
IO may not be the best salt out there, but it is a good salt, if you want to try Bio Sea, king Ed pets sells it by the 50 gallon bag, they also have marine environment. I've tried both and would rather pay the extra and get my Kent salt, thats what I have had the best experience with.
I like simplicity, I add 4 cups of Kent salt to my 10 gallon make up tank, I run a power head for 24 hours and keep the water heated. When I test it it has a pH of 8.2-8.3 a Ca level of 440-460 and an Alk level of 11dKH, always, I've been through 2 200 gallon buckets now. Don't forget Kent is IO salt with extra Ca and trace elements added so if the kent salt is that stable IO is probably too.
Just for a thought, I'm willing to bet aquacraft didn't just take a random sampling of salts, I bet they looked for discrepancies in the salts before they packaged them up, OBVISOUSLY I can't prove that, but I have my suspicions, I just figured they must have had a lot of salt laying around .. what did they do with it all?
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