marine salts

[BCOrchidGuy]

I use Prime also, and starting to use Chemi Pure, I did use it with Discus and I thought it was pretty good. Hoping for the best....

[Samw]

Funny thing...As I entered an LFS today, the first thing that I saw when I entered the store was a young lady bringing up a bag of Aquacraft Marine Environment salt to the cashier and nearly dropping the bag accidentally right in front of me as I was going towards the fishroom.

[fredfish]

As far as the heavy metals goes, I wonder if using a water conditioner in your tank that binds heavy metals so they can be removed with carbon

I asked several people about that and no-one seems to know for sure.

From a rather long discussion between Dr. Ron and Randy Holmes-Farley I gather that heavy metals are not particularly soluble at high pH, and bind rather quickly to a number of organics renering it less bio-available.

I wish I had the $ to run some additional tests.

It would be interestint to take some samples from one bag of salt and run half of them through carbon for a while and then test for heavy metals to see if there is a significant reduction.

Fred.

[BCOrchidGuy]

It just strikes me as odd that no one has tested for this, I mean... it could really make a difference in the way salts are manufactured, and used.

[mutabaruka]

I would like to see if anyone has any input on a question ron raised earlier. Has anyone used and locally harvested sea water? If so what was there experience. I know when I set up my 90 gallon tank, half of the water I used was collected from the Georgia Straight. I ran it through carbon for a week with a heater before adding the sand and live rock. When I added the rest of the water I was able to adjust for the chemistry I wanted. I was amazed at the lifeforms from the very beginning. (I also scooped a few pounds of ocean mud for the sand bed)

I live in White Rock, but I collected the water from the West Coast of Vancouver Island on a trip to Sooke.

[BCOrchidGuy]

I think that is a marvelous idea, bad thing could be some harmful micro organisms... but you run some risk with live rock too don't you. I have thought about going to some of the local marine parks and getting some sand I just can't figure out which would be really clean. I guess getting it from the mouth of the Capilano when the tide is coming in would be pretty clean water, I wonder about the rock and sand there.... LR??? FREE??... illegal to take though I imagine.

[Samw]

I think mutabaruka only collects water and mud from the ocean, not rock and sand. Rock here would be too dense.

[christyf5]

I used NSW for a short time. The large amount of phosphates in the water kept my algae happy and that was about it. I switched back to making my own. I'm sure NSW without phosphates is fabulous if you can get it. I don't have a boat though.

Christy

[saltcreep]

The Vancouver Aquarium uses water from Burrard Inlet that is pumped in. I believe that the water comes from 200m from shore and I forget the depth. They use primary treatment that is all underneath the exhibits to filter the water before use. It's used in all their displays except the coral tank which they use synthetic. The salinity of the water is a little low for the corals.

Walt Smith also uses NSW in his Fiji station. He gets his water 2 miles from shore and still filters with UV and RK2 skimmers.

The amount of work required with trying to collect and filter NSW seems to be more trouble than it's worth for the average hobbiest.

[BCOrchidGuy]

I sent off an email to Kent and asked them about it, if anyone wants a copy of the email please PM me, basically the scientists at Kent dont believe trace elements of metals will be an issue as long as regular partial water changes are done and the tank is well maintained.