I am blamming Oceanic Salt for coral loss.......

[The R/C Man]

A couple months ago my tank started having algae problems. Not a big deal, I did a water change and added some more herbivores. A couple weeks go by and no change. Another water change and checked parameters. Holy cow my alk was over 16 DKH! Turned off the kalk reactor and did another water change. Now my corals are starting to RTN. Ahhhhhh, panic set in... My tank has been doing great for two years and if you have seen some pics, my corals always look great and have good polyp extension. Anyway, my Xenia stop pumping and more RTNing, more algae and some cynobacteria growing in the tank..... One more water change and replace the carbon again. The RTN seemed to stop. I did two more water changes 5 gallon each and a few days later the corals that have been holding there own start to loose their tissue. Ok now I am confused..... I stopped in and talked to Kevin who mentioned that there has been talk on the boards of problem with Oceanic. So I purchase a bag Instant Ocean and did two 5 gallon water changes yesterday. As of this morning a couple of my corals are showing their polyps again (they were completely retracted) and the Xenia are starting to pump. I am planning two more water changes with Instant Ocean today and two more tomorrow all 5 gallons each. Since my system volume is only about 30 gallons this should do a good job replacing the water (diluting it) without as of a much shock as there would be by doing a larger change. After months of trouble shooting the problem I believe it was the salt. Of course the next week or so will tell all. So far I have lost a Luisette and a pocillipora. I took my blue Blue Acro (tort?) to Kevin's and it is recovering from the RTNing..... I am hoping this post will help others who my be having a similar problem. It may just be a bad batch of salt..... The problem is that it happens over time by monthly water changes.....

Has anyone else experienced this???

 

[bigdave]

I had some of the same problems. My calcium was high and Alk low and crazy algae blooms after switching salt back to IO and Reef Crystals no problems. Thanks Dave

 

[big t]

you're welcome dave

 

[bigdave]

Oh by the way Tom put me on the right track. Thanks Tom

 

[forsaken541]

I too think that oceanic has caused my problems. The cyano problem I have been fighting for the last 6 months magically went away after changing to OceanPure salt mix. Since it is the only change I have made I can only assume it was the salt.
Erik

 

[reedman]

I tried Oceanic and tossed the container before it was empty. I'm not sure that it is really a product issue though. The salt is designed to be mixed at a salinity of 1.023 and we reef keepers usually mix at 1.025-1.026. This skews the Ca and Alk up. I would imagine there are other trace elements that are in different levels too. With that in mind, think of that drastic change when you do a water change. I watch my skimmer act up when I put my hand in the tank occasionally. I think the salt is probably fine for some if they start with it and maintain with it. JMO

All that said, I am still getting hair algae out of my tank from a time period correlating to my switch to Oceanic.

 

[reefaddict]

oceanic

I have used oceanic in my tanks since it first came out. I have had a hair algae problem in my 125 since the beginning. i have tried all kinds of remedys from shorter photoperiod, reduced feeding to three times a week, change 25% of the water every two weeks, i had three tangs in the tank and finally manual removal. that works best but it is temporary and it becomes tedious after awhile. maybe i should switch salt? on the positive side, my corals are doing great, i have an acro that has grown significantly since i bought it. my fish are very healthy and overall the tank is doing great except for the hair.
i would hate to trade one problem for another.

 

[jlehigh]

Oceanic has shown to have a calcium imbalance at higher salinity levels and cause algae blooms (namely cyno) which I experienced first hand, however elevated DKH is a new one for me especially given Oceanic drives CA up usually causing a decrease in DKH.

As you know performing water changes is the best way to combat imbalances given the salt used is balanced (none are perfect) but my only point being you may want to take a look at the other elements comprising your system too.

 

[bradreef]

yes like john said alk shouldn't be high because of oceanic.. It is usually low and IO has a dkh of like 11-12.

 

[bc_slc]

wow - all of the above for me too. Horrible algae problem. I am about to finish my oceanic tub and have an Instant ocean tub waiting to be used (thanks Ron). Hope to god it will help.

 

[Elmo18]

Instant Ocean from the beginning Such a nice....steady blend...though I do add a bit of baking soda to it before each water change.

Mat, good call on the switch to IO.

- Elmo

 

[The R/C Man]

Hey Everyone!

The high alk was due to my overdosing. Although after a month of not of not dosing and multiple water changes the corals health declined rapidly. Especially fast after three back to back water changes over the coarse of three days using Oceanic. Now I am having the opposite effect with back to back changes with IO. The corals are respondng for the better...... This leads me to believe the salt is bad.... Maybe contaminated?

 

[big t]

Dave, I just had to throw a "you're welcome" in there, since you always sign off as "thanks dave"

 

[MikeS]

I mixed up a bucket of Oceanic a week ago...good RO/DI from my Pinnacle...guess what? The week old Oceanic salt water is green...never had that happen...checked the RO/DI...0 phosphates, 0 nitrates...going to test the Oceanic water tonight and see what's in it...

Mike

 

[mojoreef]

Rc man you probibly had a ph spike with your alk going up that high, as you have said its not the oceanic salt that did that (as it is hurting for alk). I also have experened first hand the cyano and element problems associated with this salt and thus dont reccomend it to anyone. Once a coral takes a big hit it can be a matter of some time before it will either recover from the hit or crap out. I would say in your case some of them tried but ultimately failed to recover from the original hit. An example just happened in my tank, after a 12 hour power outage all in the tank looked well, for several days, no signs what so ever, well yesterday one coral cooked and rtned.


Mike

 

[ribbetribbet]

hi i have a 800L /210 gallons of water in my full tank system and i do a water chage ever 5 to 6 months because of the way i set up my bio filtre and samps which i have 3,the salt i use is Seachem Reef Salt. This is what my lable reads as.
(seachem's Reef salt is a chemically sound blend of salts designed to replicate natural reef waters. it is ideal for both reef aquaria and fish only aquaria. it is specifically formulated to maintain idel and stable seawater concentrations ofmagnesium, calcium, and strontrum with proper alkalinity and ph for closed aquarium systems. it contains all essential major, minor, and trace components found in natural reef waters, but contains no toxic or non-es-sentail components such as nitrate, phosphate, silicate, arsenic, cadmium, or beryllium. Biological components, such as vitamins and amino acids, are unstable in concentrated salt. Since they are depleted from the aquarium more rapidly than they can be replenished by routine water chages, these components are best supplied by regular addition of seachem's reef Plus and Reef Trace)

 

[MikeS]

I have to agree with mojo...while Oceanic's salt may be questionable as to its content, it's hard to link its use to coral loss. I tried it for several months, and suffered no coral loss. I did see increased algae, but this could be due to many things, ie a heater failure in December, an aged sand bed, ect...impossible to pinpoint the exact casue...

MikeS

 

[wrightme43]

Only thing I can add is, I sure do like me some Instant Ocean. I do have to say, I dont like it on french fries though.

 

[Elmo18]

Only thing I can add is, I sure do like me some Instant Ocean. I do have to say, I dont like it on french fries though.

Did you run out of Morton's ?

- Ilham

 

[middletonmark]

Sadly, we didn't run Oceanic, or Seachem [next time ] ... but a couple locals and I ran tests of IO, RC, and TM Pro Reef a few weeks back - posted here:
http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8607#post82281

Seems like a pH spike from Alk ... which also affects the CO2 level in the tank if I'm remembering right. Probably messes with a lot in the aquaria and adds imbalance. Run your skimmer, keep things stable.

I too didn't like Oceanic, though I tried it a while. Why did I even consider that bandwagon?