Mixing salt?

[jhampton_wsu]

So a few months ago I was being lazy and not testing as regularly as I normally do and I started losing a couple of sps. I tested and my Alk was low and my mag was high. I had just started into the second of two boxes of tunze salt that I picked up on the same day. I mixed up some new saltwater and tested it. The alk was very low and the Mag was high. I dosed my tank to get the alk back up and things leveled out. I also stopped using that box and since then I've been buying bags of the Tunze salt. Anyways, I just emailed Roger from Tunze and he said "As a general rule all salts should be purchased in a size that can be mixed all at once as this is the only way to guarantee you get the analysis stated by the manufacturer" What do you guys think. The smallest bags I'm aware of mix 63 gallons. That seems unreasonable to have to make 63 gallons at a time. He also said he hadn't heard of any bad buckets of salt and he was surprised to hear of my problem.

Jason

 

[Chichas01]

yeah, I've heard this about mixing the whole batch as well. I think the reason may be that the different parts of salt mix sepraate and settle between manufacturing, shipping and then when you finnaly bring it home to mix up. Now I just need to find a 160 gallon water storage tank to fit in my garage. :lol:

 

[snailcrazy]

Seems to me every bucket of salt I get has slightly different readings.

 

[snailcrazy]

I wonder if the last bucket I got was old cause I had to add a lot more salt then usual to reach the salinity I wanted.

 

[ReefMadness]

I wonder if the last bucket I got was old cause I had to add a lot more salt then usual to reach the salinity I wanted.

either that or your refractometer or whatever gauge your using is broken.

 

[jhampton_wsu]

I thought my refractometer was broken for the longest time. I didn't know what to believe; refractometer, hydrometer, test kits...finally I took water, hydrometer and refractometer to Barrier where we determined that both my hydrometer and my refractometer were both right. The problem is that meant my test kit levels were correct.

 

[maysorum]

So a few months ago I was being lazy and not testing as regularly as I normally do and I started losing a couple of sps. I tested and my Alk was low and my mag was high. I had just started into the second of two boxes of tunze salt that I picked up on the same day. I mixed up some new saltwater and tested it. The alk was very low and the Mag was high. I dosed my tank to get the alk back up and things leveled out. I also stopped using that box and since then I've been buying bags of the Tunze salt. Anyways, I just emailed Roger from Tunze and he said "As a general rule all salts should be purchased in a size that can be mixed all at once as this is the only way to guarantee you get the analysis stated by the manufacturer" What do you guys think. The smallest bags I'm aware of mix 63 gallons. That seems unreasonable to have to make 63 gallons at a time. He also said he hadn't heard of any bad buckets of salt and he was surprised to hear of my problem.

Jason

The same exact thing happened to me, my ALK was super low and my MAG was extremely high. I thought all of my test kits were bad and my refractometer was broken so I took my water into Barrier and they tested and got the same whacked-out parameters as I did.

Barrier called Tunze and they said to mix the salt by rolling the bag on the floor. Tunze did not mention that the only way to get the "gauranteed analysis" is to make the whole bag. If that's true, I'm not sure what to think.

Chris @ Barrier did mention that's why Tunze is moving to 4 small bags instead of 1 big bag in the 254g box so Tunze must have known this was a problem.

I also, stopped using the old box for fear that it would be unbalanced. Since, I've been using the 63g bags and rolling/mixing it everytime I make a batch of salt. I haven't lost any corals (thankfully), but my snails were paralyzed for a few days before I figured everything out (due to high MAG).

I wonder if we had the same batch?

 

[tamarindthai]

even mixing the salt in to the water need instruction to do it,to be save i better stay with the salt brand i had,.
,wow!! this hobby is getting complicated ,,/02C

 

[FeedMyJones]

So a few months ago I was being lazy and not testing as regularly as I normally do and I started losing a couple of sps. I tested and my Alk was low and my mag was high. I had just started into the second of two boxes of tunze salt that I picked up on the same day. I mixed up some new saltwater and tested it. The alk was very low and the Mag was high. I dosed my tank to get the alk back up and things leveled out. I also stopped using that box and since then I've been buying bags of the Tunze salt. Anyways, I just emailed Roger from Tunze and he said "As a general rule all salts should be purchased in a size that can be mixed all at once as this is the only way to guarantee you get the analysis stated by the manufacturer" What do you guys think. The smallest bags I'm aware of mix 63 gallons. That seems unreasonable to have to make 63 gallons at a time. He also said he hadn't heard of any bad buckets of salt and he was surprised to hear of my problem.

Jason

I've had similar probs with Kent salt so I went back to Inst Ocean. No problems since then.

 

[iroll253]

Theres no way i'm mixing 160g's

I just add salt or rodi to my bin depending on the salinity..

 

[johnpeezy]

The dudes at barrier forwarned me about salt mixing issues when I was inquiring about purchasing a 5 gallon bucket of IO from them during there anniversary sale they basically told me that buying a bucket of salt = bad unless you use the entire contents of it at once, they reccomended that I bought IO by the bag instead, because you can massage the the bag to stir up the salt mix. I have done that since then and have had no issues what so ever.

 

[spllbnd2]

I've never had any issues with my salt mixing up poorly or not correct. When I mix my salt mix up I do so when I plan on using it all within a day of mixing. I don't think you should mix up your saltwater and just leave it indefinatly as the salt evaporation will cause all sorts of problmes with irregular readings.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[jhampton_wsu]

I'm not trying to mix up more than I want to use at the time. I just think it is ridiculous for a salt manufacturer to reccomend mixing an entire packagae at a time after their product demonstrated problems. I am more upset that he made these claims in defense of his product when I questioned him about it. If it was user error then why did they feel it necessary to pull two sizes of mix from the market while developing new packaging standards at the same time I was having problems. No where on the package does it recomend to mix the entire contents at once.

 

[spllbnd2]

*lol* Yes it does seem a little rediculous for them to tell you to mix all the salt at once. Crazy as I only use about 20 gallons of mixed salt in a weeks time.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[MrGone]

Interesting, I've never heard of having to mix it all at once before. I was running into issues with IO having high alk early this year.

 

[Hersey]

Once you've mixed your salt. How long do you guys think it can last? Provided it is in a covered container out of the light?

 

[spllbnd2]

Once you've mixed your salt. How long do you guys think it can last? Provided it is in a covered container out of the light?

I try to use mine within 48 hours of mixing. I've heard it is a good idea to let it mix for 24 hours before you use it. But I have used it in as little as 4 hours too.

Cheers,
Alex

 

[eLNunn]

A lot of people don't realise that freshly mixed salt has traces of ammonia in it. It's best to aerate or circulate all mixes for 24 hours just to allow the ammonia to gas off.

As far as the elements separating during shipping, I suppose they would, but I would imagine that once you've remixed your dry salt, it would remain that way unless the container was exposed to the same sort of vibrations that it was during shipping.

 

[MrGone]

Once you've mixed your salt. How long do you guys think it can last? Provided it is in a covered container out of the light?

I don't think it would be an issue, I had salt in gallon containers for 4-6 weeks when I was in the dorms at college and I've had 20 gallons or so mixed in a 30 gallon trashcan for a week or two now. Normally I mix it a day or two before I need it but I've been messing with setting up aquariums and needing a temporary tank this last week.

 

[cali_reef]

I typically mix up 35 gallons and it sits in a covered drum in the garage for at least a week, sometime up to 20 days. I always roll the IO or Reef Crystal bucket around on the floor before I use the salt, this is to break up the clumps in the bucket. I don't do more than a 20% water change at a time and always check and add supplements after each water change.