I want to share an rather bad experiences according to use Epsom salt (MgSO4 *xH2O)
In a large project there I was involved we use a technical grade commercial MgSO2 7H2O in our salt mix. It comes up with two disadvantages. It was high in manganese but that´s not normally an important problem if you use it as an additive - but this salt was also very high in NH4. Analysis we did afterwards show more than 10 g NH4/kg dry salt! We have - also afterwards - analyse two other commercial Epsom salts (for agriculture) for NH4 and found them more or less free from NH4. Maybe - it was only bad luck for us - but it shows that it may be necessary to do a simple test for NH4/NH3 before using unknown Epsom salt in reefing. We mix 10 grams of the actual salt in 250 ml of water and use JBL ammonia test. The salt we used - is the blue one.........
We end up with around 66 ppm NH3/NH4 in the aquarium! And that journey will be told another day....................
We also did a test of the other salts we used - no NH4 in them - that being said, it doesn't mean that all other salts can't have impurities of NH4 in them
Lesson learned - always test unknown salts for NH4
Sincerely Lasse
In a large project there I was involved we use a technical grade commercial MgSO2 7H2O in our salt mix. It comes up with two disadvantages. It was high in manganese but that´s not normally an important problem if you use it as an additive - but this salt was also very high in NH4. Analysis we did afterwards show more than 10 g NH4/kg dry salt! We have - also afterwards - analyse two other commercial Epsom salts (for agriculture) for NH4 and found them more or less free from NH4. Maybe - it was only bad luck for us - but it shows that it may be necessary to do a simple test for NH4/NH3 before using unknown Epsom salt in reefing. We mix 10 grams of the actual salt in 250 ml of water and use JBL ammonia test. The salt we used - is the blue one.........
We end up with around 66 ppm NH3/NH4 in the aquarium! And that journey will be told another day....................
We also did a test of the other salts we used - no NH4 in them - that being said, it doesn't mean that all other salts can't have impurities of NH4 in them
Lesson learned - always test unknown salts for NH4
Sincerely Lasse
