DonW
R.I.P.
I'm going to change salt brands. Going from Oceanic to Instant Ocean. Knowing that all salt is lacking something. What needs to be added to the Instant Ocean? Any real problems with IO lately?
Thanks
Don
Thanks
Don
Changing salt mix
- Thread starter DonW
- Start date
Help Support Reef Aquarium & Tank Building Forum:
reedman
Well-known member
I think you'll find you need to supplement the calcium and alk with IO. Depends on your tank consumpsion, but you will definitely have less calcium in the IO than you do in the Oceanic. Alk should be higher relative to Oceanic. Magnesium, I'm not really sure.
WEll IO is lower in Mg by about 500ppm when I last tested it... Also Ca was low as well... I would check Mg atleast... Oceanic is about 1400-1500ppm for my and I believe IO was about 900-1000ppm
Ca was relatively 380-400 in IO where as its about 500 in Oceanic
HTH,
James
Ca was relatively 380-400 in IO where as its about 500 in Oceanic
HTH,
James
DonW
R.I.P.
Thanks, Do you know what an average alk reading would be. I'm looking for a lower Mg than Oceanic. From what I can gather the high Mg 1500 + is dropping the alk. Mike explained it to me once but I cant remember exactly.
Don
Don
DonW said:
Mike helped me with this problem on another site. Here was his response
Ahhhh old saint I got ya now. Here is your problem. The new oceanic salt is kind of wierd, they cal and mag level are way to skewed and are killing your alk level which is giving you a very weak buffer against acids.
Here is the run down. alkalinity ions want to bind up (pair) wit your calcium ions (thats how corals skelitons are formed. Magnesium is calciums big brother and it want to engulf the alk ions. So it basically surrounds the alk ion with magnesium ions and takes away from it ability to pair with calcium. The result you are seeing in your tank is that your mag ions are way above normal and are pushing the alk ions out of the mix. What is left over is being used up (or paired) with the high level of calcium ions. Put both together and the alk is outmatched and cant maintian. the more alk you put in the more the mag ions bind to it and also the same with the calcium. Your not going to wiin that battle, well you would be it would be expensive.
So the result is a lack of a buffer against ph hits (up or down) so when a fish pee's your ph will take a hit as thier is not enough of a alk buffer to absorb the hit for the ph.
Also calcium inhibits a corals growth (yes I know that will be the next thread lol) so running your tank at those high cal levels and not enough carbonate is going to stress out your corals big time.
How to fix???...find another salt that does not have the levels so skewed. Having a SW mix that has a little lower cal and alk and mag is always better and easier to work with then ones that have to much. Bring the levels up is a quick fix, reducing the levels is an ionic nightmare.
hope it helps
Mike
I hope he doesn't mind me copy and pasting this :|
DonW
R.I.P.
Yes, that is the same info. Thanks, I guess I should save that sort of stuff for future use but I'd just forget where I put it.
Thank you
Don
Thank you
Don
Scooterman
Well-known member
I like Salt threads, don't know why but I do 
I went through the switching process once & ended up talking to Mike to get me back to normal prams. I've been using IO for a long time now & don't think I can justify switching unless something major happens to it. I test with LaMotte & Saliflert CA test kits and they average around 330 to 350 for CA, MG was around
1,100ppm, I usually add 4 teaspoons of Turbo Cal. to 25g of water & two caps full of MG, I usually leave the ALK alone because after mixing overnight it comes close to normal prams but I may need to check it again next time. I always mix with a PH & heater overnight.
I went through the switching process once & ended up talking to Mike to get me back to normal prams. I've been using IO for a long time now & don't think I can justify switching unless something major happens to it. I test with LaMotte & Saliflert CA test kits and they average around 330 to 350 for CA, MG was around
1,100ppm, I usually add 4 teaspoons of Turbo Cal. to 25g of water & two caps full of MG, I usually leave the ALK alone because after mixing overnight it comes close to normal prams but I may need to check it again next time. I always mix with a PH & heater overnight.
DonW
R.I.P.
Scooterman said:
What do you raise you Mg up to?
Don
Scooterman
Well-known member
Sorry I raise it up to around 1,200ppm, I'll edit that.
mattseattle
Well-known member
why are you switching from Oceanic?
mattseattle
Well-known member
why 1200? how did you pick that level? i thought NSW was from 1275 - 1350 or so. With Oceanic salt my MG runs about 1400 or so so I don't consider that way out of line with NSW.
DonW
R.I.P.
My LFS quit selling it. But really its due to the High Mg.
Don
Don
Scooterman
Well-known member
Ok, I'll make another correction, I shoot for around 1200 or 1250, anywhere close I leave it alone, as long as CA & alk is also close I don't stress being a little off. lol, Like I said I love salt threads :d
mattseattle
Well-known member
I guess I should check my Mg levels again. It's been a few months!
Don - have you been having problems with keeping alk and calc up due to the Mg levels?
Don - have you been having problems with keeping alk and calc up due to the Mg levels?
DonW
R.I.P.
mattseattle said:
Just the Alk, the Ca stays to high.
Don
mattseattle
Well-known member
even with a reactor you are having issues? what type of issues? i'm curious as i am using the same salt and not having any issues with alk. at least since i added a reactor i haven't.DonW said:
DonW
R.I.P.
mattseattle said:
I think you have to look at systems on an individual basis. Please understand I'm not comming down on Oceanic.
I run my reactor at 60dkh. This is way to high and a waste of media and co2. Even at this I have to buffer the 7+ gallons of RO water top-off. At this I can maintain a constant 9dkh (out of balance).
So basicly the ca goes up and the alk goes down. Based on the high Mg 1500+ I say "+" because I stop the test at 1500 to save regents. This is exactly what should be happening. With the Oceanic and the ca reactor dumping so much mg there is no way to stabilize the alk. In return I get slow to no SPS coral growth.
Hope that makes sense, I'm no chemist.
Don
VINA DEL MAR
Active member
Scooterman said:I like Salt threads, don't know why but I do
He,he.he me too!I really dont like to add anything to the salt(any brand)while is mixing overnight.I find that adding any supplements in such small ammount of water could precipate Ca and skewed things up and way out of solution.
Any adjustments is better to do when the new salt is mix with the tank water after afew hours. You'll be surprise that it's very little to do or if any to add to your tank water.
I do prefer to use a salt brand that I can later add supplements instead of getting caught up that high as when I used Oceanic salt for a brief moment.
VINA
Similar threads
