Seachem Reef Salt

[Steven Pro]

Can you give me the skinny on why people are nervous about this salt? I know it has 2.8 times the NSW level of borate, but borate is a common ingredient in most every commercial buffer I have seen. Has anyone ever looked into the borate levels in aquaria? I would guess it could accumulate easily enough with heavy handed use of a buffer.

 

[Curtswearing]

It can throw off your alk measurements but it is easily adjusted. See this thread. http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9144&highlight=seachem+reef+salt

 

[Boomer]

It is not really not that much of an issue anymore as their new salt is now down even more to 2,8 or even lower. It use to be much, much higher than that, on the order of 10-12 x. One issue with high borate is that it skews the Alk readings. Some testing done by SeaChem has produced a skew chart one can use, so you know what the offset is for Alk. The real issue is there is not a sound reason to have elevated Borate or that such levels do anything.

but borate is a common ingredient in most every commercial buffer I have seen.

Yes, but they are more at NSW levels. There are many discussions on this on RC by RHF with fellow reefers and SeaChem.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showt...6622&perpage=25&highlight=borate&pagenumber=1

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=629765&highlight=borate

Boron and Borate (and pH buffering)

Boron in a Reef Tank (and its effect on pH buffering)
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/dec2002/chem.htm


The Seachem Borate Alkalinity Test Kit
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/june2003/chem.htm

The Salifert Boron Test Kit
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/sept2003/chem.htm