Calcium Chloride - Oxychem 90% Pellets

[5Bucks]

So my first post since joining - so don't beat me up if I posted in wrong topic - this certainly seems like a DIY question.

Looking to start dosing Calcium and Alkalinty. Found a great article on do it yourself option from Reefkeeping Magazine with recipes for solutions to dose with. For the calcium part it mentions Dowflake, Dow Mini-Pellets, Ken't Turbo Calcium, Prestone Driveway Heat and Peladow as Calcium Chloride sources. Some of these mentioned as being available at Home Depot. I'm not sure when the article was written, but think it was a few years ago. I believe Dow has since sold off their Calcium Chloride biz to OxyChem. So, I'm not finding products like DowFlake Or the Prestone Driveway Heat available anywhere.

So the question is does anyone have any experience using Oxychem's Calcium Chloride for making a Calcium solution for dosing? Specifically their Calcium Chloride Pellets 90. I'm guessing it's the same product as one of the old Dow products. I did find this data on the product. It shows it as 90% Calcium Chloride, 6% Alkali Chlorides as NaCl, 0.5% Magnesium as MgCl2 and 0.2% Calcium Hydroxide.

The Reefkeeping article suggest some substitutes for Dowflake. Specifically Peladow and I'm guessing the Oxychem 90 pellets are in fact the same product as the old Peladow product which was listed at 90% Calcium Chloride.

 

[Mike O'Brien]

Not sure about that brand. Years ago the brand mentioned in the article was safe to use, but it no longer is. Since then I started getting my CaCl from Bulk Reef Supply. You can't go wrong with that.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Calcium Chloride Flake Dowflake 2 5 Lb | eBay
50 lb Bag Peladow C50CALCIUM Chloride Ice Snow Melter Melting Pellets | eBay
Prestone 50 lb Driveway Heat Concentrated Calcium Chloride Ice Melter Pellets | eBay

 

[Reefing Madness]

Here is the other Randal read:
Aquarium Chemistry: A Homemade Two-Part Calcium And Alkalinity Additive System ? Advanced Aquarist | Aquarist Magazine and Blog

 

[5Bucks]

Thanks for all the eBay links! Shipping is crazy: $11 for the $5 of Dowflake, $23 for $22 of Peladow. Was hoping for a local brick and mortar source. When I said not available anywhere in my original post guess I should have defined anywhere as other than internet. Kinda figured shipping would kill.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Yea, I hear ya. But still, for that cost, in the long run, its cheaper than using the Reef made stuff.

 

[5Bucks]

So I did some more research…
Here's a link to the sales spec sheet for Oxychem's 90% CaCl pellets - the stuff I paid less than a $1/lb for off the shelf at Home Depot:
OxyChem 90% Calcium Chloride Pellets

And here's the link to the same for Peladow Premier Snow and Ice Melter

According to the links they are one and the same and both made, sold or distributed by OxyChem.

 

[Reefing Madness]

There ya go. Nice job on the research. Now I gotta remember to tell peeps that.

 

[5Bucks]

Thanks. So are people using the Peladow Premier Snow and Ice Melter? I have not and I'm hesitant to use before hearing someone else has with good results. I've come across threads here and there saying certain products no longer safe to use (see response #2 above).

 

[cdness]

Is this the product you are talking about:

50 lb. Concentrated Ice Melt
Model # 50B-HEAT Store SKU # 763432
50 lb. Concentrated Ice Melt-50B-HEAT at The Home Depot

If yes, check out the MSDS sheet:

http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pdfImages/a2/a29c7260-8ed9-47fa-a85b-642f2efc9ea8.pdf

It brings up the MSDS for Prestone Driveway Heat. 90 - 92% Calcium Chloride

 

[5Bucks]

No, this stuff which brings up this spec sheet. Distributed by American Rock Salt Co., packaged/manufactured by Oxychem

 

[billrob71]

I have used a lot of different suppliers for calcium chloride and was told by another reef keeper to watch some of them
Even if it states only calcium chloride some of them have ammonia in them and have tested a couple different brands and some had a little and some had a lot.

I saw recently dr fosters smith has a 5 gallon bucket of there mix of calcium chloride for $69 is a little more pricey but probably more pure form of powder.

 

[5Bucks]

I've done some more research and contacted Vaporizer Ice Melt (American Rock Salt) directly.

Here's what Chris Quesnelle of the company wrote back:
"All our Calcium Chloride is supplied by Oxy/Dow Chemicals. Please see attached MSDS to see if the CaCl will suit your needs.

Here's the link Chris provided to the product's MSDS.

I'm no chemist so looking for opinions on the other stuff beyond the 90-92% CaCl. Assuming the less than 2% NaCl is not a problem. Not sure about the >1% Calcium Bromide or >3% Potassium Chloride.

If I find the other stuff is okay, I'm going to give it a try. Again, I purchased the Vaporizer Calcium Chloride Pellets off the shelf at my local Home Depot for about $0.75/lb. in a 9lb. container. The product comes in 50lb. bags as well. Given that my previous research showed a 100% match to the MSDS of Peladow and the company states their CaCl is supplied by Oxy/Dow I'm 99% certain this product and Peladow are one and the same.

For easy reference the composition of the product from that MSDS:

 

[Mike O'Brien]

Dow Calcium Chloride is no longer reef safe ! It's the Bromine that's the problem.

 

[5Bucks]

Has the jury settled the case on Bromide? Just spent some time reading a bunch of threads on the "other" forum. Randy Holmes-Farley who I believe developed the 2 part DIY commented there a lot. What I got out of his comments: The higher Bromide content in Dow's newer (6-8 yrs ago) CaCl formulation was probably okay for some uses like increasing CaCl level for water changes. He seemed to not recommend it for heavy daily dosing as the Bromide would eventually exceed the level found in NSW. But from what I read nobody has come up with what an unsafe level is - or if there is one at all. Depending on amount dosed and water changes one may never exceed the levels in NSW.

With all that, I'm thinking better safe than sorry and just pay the extra money (I hate paying shipping!) for the stuff from BRS.

 

[Mike O'Brien]

Basically that's it. But compared to the stuff from bulk reef supply that mixes clear, just like Dow used to. The current stuff mixes with a brown tint. I've got a 50 pound bag and only use it for salting the walk

 

[5Bucks]

I've read many threads with the opinion if it's called food grade CaCl2 it's okay for our tanks. Just came across the data for OxyChem food grade and it list 0.9% Bromide.
Here's link: OxyChem Food grade data

I'm not convinced Bromide is an issue.