Any HW salt users having problems?

[Reefing.with.Rich]

Just ordered 4 boxes of HW reefer salt(used for the last 3 years) and upon mixing up my first box in my mixing station the element levels were wildly off. Contacted HW themselves and BRS and haven’t heard a peep from either. Is anyone else having this problem with their HW salt?
BTW iv ran through a good 20 boxes at least over the years so it can’t be the way I mix my salt if that is what you’re thinkin


Per HW-
calcium- 450
Alk- 9dkh
Mag- 1380

My levels-
Calcium- 500+
Alk- 7.7dkh
Mag- 1500+

 

[JoJosReef]

Just ordered 4 boxes of HW reefer salt(used for the last 3 years) and upon mixing up my first box in my mixing station the element levels were wildly off. Contacted HW themselves and BRS and haven’t heard a peep from either. Is anyone else having this problem with their HW salt?
BTW iv ran through a good 20 boxes at least over the years so it can’t be the way I mix my salt if that is what you’re thinkin


Per HW-
calcium- 450
Alk- 9dkh
Mag- 1380

My levels-
Calcium- 500+
Alk- 7.7dkh
Mag- 1500+

I have a box of HW that mixes at 6.0-6.5dkh (Salifert and Red Sea tests). It is now just a backup box of salt in case of emergencies. I don't remember the Ca/Mg being so high though.

 

[JoJosReef]

I suppose if this is an emergency situation, you can just add baking soda to bring the ALK up to expected levels. I don't think the corals will mind the elevated Ca/Mg. There are online calculators for how much baking soda or other supplements to add (BRS has one, I think).

 

[Reefing.with.Rich]

Yeah I’m going to bring the alk up with my ESV ALK since I already have my 75g mixing station filled up. but I very well may just use the rest of the box as a back up once I fill the mixing station back up

 

[bcmiller16]

I have noticed the same problem with my HW-Marine Reefer salt batches purchased around the same time - high mag and calcium, low alk (6.7 dKh) in freshly made up salt. It actually killed a bunch of my more sensitive corals before I caught the problem in the fresh salt - I'm very frustrated. Did you ever hear back from the companies about this?

 

[Reefing.with.Rich]

Nope never heard back
They pretty much said it was because of elements settling to the bottom of the bucket/bag
So they just suggested mixing up the salt

 

[bcmiller16]

frustrating ...

 

[mfollen]

Hello

I have had problems with acros and a few other corals.. whether it was high magnesium (1500-1550), improved redox/doc from a sump cleanup (not too likely), or it was the salt.

Since switching the salt away from hw marine reefer to a different brand, I’ve noticed strong improvement in struggling acros barely holding on. PE has improved greatly since then.

I haven’t tested parameters of freshly mixed salt but am considering it.

Is there anyone else that’s having problems with their coral and use hw marine reefer salt?

 

[get-salty]

Man, i had to search what "hw" salt is.. lol
Not something i see a lot i guess.