Anyone know the story behind different instant ocean salts?

[chris_pull]

I am thinking about switching to IO or RC for the money saving benefits.

However, almost all the testing and reviews of Instant Ocean salt out there are based on the one produced in the US. I recently realised the stuff we get in the UK has the same name but it's manufactured in France by "Aquarium Systems" (see buckets below). I found a few Australian reefing videos from a few years ago implying the French stuff was very good, but I also came across a few ICP results from people in the UK showing high levels of zinc in the French version of the salt.

This has me wondering whether the Aquarium Systems version of the salt is just a "franchised" version of the US one with the same name, but is a different product. This would be a shame as all the BRS and user experience you guys have in the US with this salt might not be comparable to the version we can buy.

I'd be really keen to know more if anyone has this info!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I don’t have a specific answer for you, just a general observation that salt mix recipes are a lot more fluid than I had always thought.

A long time employee of Aquarium Systems (going back to the Mentor Ohio days with Ed Mowka and Tom Frakes) told me that the actual salts purchased was in part based on market pricing, and could be adjusted to reach a certain ionic goal - so if the mix needed, say, magnesium, it could be from mag chloride or mag sulfate, whichever price was better, as long as the chloride and sulfates could be balanced elsewhere. He worked for Omega Sea that used the original IO formula with some of the original mixing equipment in Mentor. We used that salt with very good results until the patent company of IO came back and bought them out.

Jay