HW Marinemix Reefer salt mix & potassium levels

[rushbattle]

I also got a bad batch. Bought it during the black friday sale last year. I had an extra Triton test kit and was curious how HW Reefer freshly mixed looked. Sure enough, Triton reported 200ppm.

That's when I bought my bad box as well. I have another new box that's unopened, hoping it isn't bad also. So discouraging. I had been chasing all kinds of wild hares trying to figure out what was going on. I thought I could trust HW. The cost to QC the salt mix must be minuscule compared to what they get in revenue for the very expensive salt mix. I was under the impression I was paying for quality control and purity. I guess I was mistaken.

@randyBRS @Ryanbrs Have you guys spoken with HW about this? Any comments either from BRS or HW? Some encouraging comments would be well received.

 

[Jeanette]

If your other new box was bought around the same time there is a very high likelyhood (IMO) that it has the same problem. I got 3 boxes during the Black Friday sale and they all had the same problem. HW did respond to my emails and based on the details I provided, confirmed that there was a production issue around that time that resulted in only approximately 1/2 of the needed amount of potassium being added to the salt mix. They also responded that none of the other elements should be affected and that if one adds in an appropriate amt of potassium that the mix should be good.

 

[chgoblknazn]

I bought 6 boxes from that sale and I slowly lost all of my SPS in my tank. The tank was doing great for so long and I couldn't figure out what was happening. I thought it was something that I had done or not done. I've never tested for potassium, and had no idea there were test kits for it. I got so discouraged that toward the end I just gave up. Two weeks ago I rebooted the tank, vinegared the entire system, bought new rock and rescaped the tank. Tomorrow I will be buying a potassium test for the tank.

 

[Tyler D]

I seem to be the latest victim of this bad batch of HW marine w/ low potassium. Arghhhhh cya later SPS

 

[cincyreef]

I haven't been on the forums much lately, due to being busy with work, and I just found this thread searching for answers to my sps issues over the last 2-3 months. I lost a huge colony of red setosa to STN, and have lost a few frags also. I test my parameters (alk,cal,mag) regularly so I knew it wasn't that. I blamed BRS rox, as that was the only new thing I've put in the tank recently. This is a bummer, cuz I've liked HW salt since I switched over a year ago. I have never tested for Potassium since I've been into reefing, but I guess I'll buy a test kit asap. I really don't want to use what I have left of it now. Is anyone switching salts after this? If so, what are you using now?

 

[Tyler D]

Yes, I first dosed potassium to get my display tank levels back to the norm. Then I switched to Fritz RPM. The few new SPS frags I've added are extremely happy and it is a relief to see. I learned two things, 1) always test a new box of salt once mixed. And 2) I'm not using HW anymore.

 

[Ty Hamatake]

Just tested my potassium after using a box of HW... 310

 

[BigJohnny]

Just tested my tank with HW-Marinemix reefer, 260ppm!! ARGH! I love so much about this salt but this is unacceptable. May switch to Fritz RPM, but am sending in a Triton so well see how that compares to my salifert K test kit.

 

[cincyreef]

I finally got around to getting the Salifert test kit, and my potassium was at 260ppm. Smh, guess I'll be going back to IO for now.

 

[BigJohnny]

Anyone have any issues in consistency of the salifert test kit? My first test was 260 but then when i dosed what i thought was 20ppm potassium to my tank (brightwell potassion-P, most confusing/contradicting instructions ever so I dosed the lowest recommendation) over the course of 2 days and testing today it was at 340. So 20ppm = 80ppm apparently......luckily no symptoms so far. I tested again to make sure and it came back at 340 again. SO, either the first test with the kit was off or Brightwells potassium P is way more concentrated in the dose that I used. I hate a lot of brightwell products but this was easily accessible so i used it. I would be interested to hear if anyone had a bad first test or something similar to me. Luckily I sent in trition right after the first test so ill know for sure soon.

 

[dragon99]

My salifert results were consistent with ICP results (ICP-analysis.com and Triton) and also close with Red Sea.

Are you using the Brightwell powder or liquid form? I got consistent dosing when I used the liquid K supplement, but I ran out of that and last time I used the powder form. I mixed it up per the directions and ended up about dosing about double what I thought I would.

 

[7hogwarts]

I switched to HW Marine salt after a friend gave me some to try. I liked the response from the corals. I went in with a friend and bought several boxes from BRS late last summer. I finished up what I had from my previous brand(Novemer 2017). About a month ago, I noticed some of my corals were declining and I lost a few. I couldn't figure out why so I gave it the gamit of testing and found I had potassium levels that were really low. I was surprised by the reading, I came across this thread and decided to test my batch of water change water. Salinity- 1.026 (checked by several methods), Calc. 390 (Red Sea) Alk 8.1dKH (Red Sea) Mg 1000 (Red Sea) Potassium 250 (Salifert). So the only really acceptable level for me was Alk! AND BRS kept selling the ridiculously low Potassium salt after they knew of the problem. IMO, This is very disappointing for 2 reasons. 1 for HW not checking levels. 2 for BRS to continue selling a known bad batch of salt. They should have contacted each buyer of the HW Marine salt to inform them of the issue. I'm sure they keep records of purchases. If they did, then I never knew about it.

Was there a recall?

Which potassium supplement calculator do you suggest?

 

[Spectre66]

That was my experience exactly. There was no recall. If you contact BRS HW was supplying a supplement to correct. I contacted HW directly and they basically were unapologetic and had no plans on changing anything about their process to fix the issue in the future. I ended up throwing away what I had left and switching to Red Sea because they at least provide an analysis report for each salt batch.

 

[Spectre66]

Double post

 

[Simplyorange]

Is this still an issue?

 

[beckerj3]

I didn't use HW salt again after my experience in 2017 so don't know if it is a problem or not. I would hope that it has been corrected and all the salt with low potassium out of the system.

 

[Simplyorange]

Just wierd vendors were selling it knowing there were issues with the salt. I'm going to pass on it also. Dont really know what to get now. Might as well stay with reef Crystal's.....

 

[rushbattle]

I didn't use HW salt again after my experience in 2017 so don't know if it is a problem or not. I would hope that it has been corrected and all the salt with low potassium out of the system.

Same here. After they acted like I was unreasonable for wanting them to remedy the situation, and refusing to do anything after killing most of my coral I wrote HW off forever.

 

[7hogwarts]

Me too. I gave away my box full. I told the fellow reefer that it tested low for potassium. He still likes the salt, so....

 

[wilsonline]

researching what salt to get next, I was told HW was great. but looks like it's not lol
Thanks for letting us know. I will also test my water made with IO, things are not doing that good and I have no idea why.