HW Marinemix Reefer salt mix & potassium levels

[dragon99]

I was not offered a refund on my 2 boxes. They shipped me some potassium additive (which I'd already purchased from them 3-day prior). So now I have a lifetime supply of potassium and some salt that's probably destined for the garbage.

 

[Jeanette]

I'm concerned about trying the salt and just adding potassium. It doesn't give me any confidence that the other trace elements might be low also.

Initially they were going to have me ship back to them the 2 unopened boxes. But then they realized that their cost to ship it back was not worth the expense.

I'm also in a discussion with HW about the problem. I'd really like to try the salt, but I don't want to order from BRS, and then find out its bad again, and ask them to refund my money again. They might reach a point that they don't believe me.

 

[daelie]

@daelie - Did you get your new box of salt (the one that tested good on potassium) from BRS also? Did you talk to them about the problem? If not, it might be good to do so. Although they refunded my money w/o any problem, I couldn't get them to perform a test on the potassium level.

I didn't get the new box from them no, I got it from a LFS. Didn't really feel like ordering again with a chance of a bad batch as I needed to correct my potassium levels as it was showing on my SPS, since correcting that issue with a combination of small water changes and some KCl additive, things have been colouring back up by the day.

I didn't talk to BRS about the problem, I don't think there's really anything they're going to do with regards to an already opened box of salt even if it was bad. I'm using that salt to culture rotifers and copepods now, so I found a use for it either way.

 

[Jeanette]

Here's an update from HW regarding the potassium issue:

 

[Frop]

Looks like I'll be buying a potassium test kit. I use HW as well.

What's the main effects of potassium in the tank?

 

[hart24601]

It's really cool that you were able to get a response and admission that something was wrong!

That being said with so many good salts with similar price points I don't see why I would stick with something that had an issue. It's just salt, I don't have brand loyalty! Aquaforrest reef salt is my new one.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Both are potassium but with the only difference that the KCl has about the ½ of the potassium than
the same weight amount of K2SO4.

OMG, I lost interest in that ridiculous explanation when they uttered this total fabricated nonsense.

I mean, really, fess up to making a mistake. Don't compound it by saying things that are simply untrue.


Potassium has a molecular weight of 39.1 g/mole.
Potassium chloride has a molecular weight of 74.6 g/mole.

Consequently, KCl is 39.1/74.6 = 52.4% potassium by weight.


Potassium sulfate has a molecular weight of 174.3 g/mole.
Consequently, K2SO4 is (39.1 + 39.1)/174.3 = 44.9% potassium by weight.

Neither potassium chloride nor potassium sulfate typically form hydrates.

So there is just no sense to claiming that KCl has half the potassium of potassium sulfate, except that it seems to have 2 K ions in the formula.

Unbelievable.

 

[hart24601]

Wow Randy thank you for catching that!!!


Well this brand is dead to me!

 

[Jeanette]

Thanks Randy! I'm not a chemist, so I took at face value the response I received. For fun, I have sent them a follow-up email with your calculations. I will be interested to see their response.

 

[dunc101]

Did you ever get a response back by chance? I too bought HW Marinemix from BRS this past black friday and realized last night mine is also suffering from low potassium (makeup water is 240 and also my 80 gal reef). I crossed referenced my kit by verifying another vendors salt returned right at 390. Some of my sps are starting to stn from the base which led me testing everything. I have 2 unopened boxes of this stuff still and am about half way through this box... A google search regarding HW Marinemix and low potassium yielded this thread.

 

[daelie]

Did you ever get a response back by chance? I too bought HW Marinemix from BRS this past black friday and realized last night mine is also suffering from low potassium (makeup water is 240 and also my 80 gal reef). I crossed referenced my kit by verifying another vendors salt returned right at 390. Some of my sps are starting to stn from the base which led me testing everything. I have 2 unopened boxes of this stuff still and am about half way through this box... A google search regarding HW Marinemix and low potassium yielded this thread.

Exactly what happened in my tank! Lost PE on almost all sps and then stn. And I caught it decently early, so I only lost about 4 frags and two colonies still haven't recovered completely.

 

[dunc101]

Did you simply raise the potassium with a supplement or did you switch salts completely? I have some Brightwell aquatics Potassion on hand and was going to try using it slowly to get my levels back up. My concern is maybe potassium isn't the only "problem" with this batch...

 

[dragon99]

I've stopped using the HW salt and went back to IO. I have the same feeling as you that Potassium might not be the only problem.

 

[daelie]

I corrected the potassium in it with KCl and have been using it. Everything else is it tested as it usually does so I didn't see the need to worry about too much else.

 

[Jeanette]

Yes, I got a reply from HW. Based on the data I gave them, they were able to pinpoint a production problem that resulted in the lowered potassium - almost half of what it should be. I was very concerned as to whether other trace elements might be affected as well. They strongly responded that the other elements are added with different processes, so they should not be impacted. They sent me 250 g of HCI for each of the 2 boxes of salt mix that I have - so I am going to give it a try.

This was the first time I had tried HW. I had previously used RC for the last 10 years, and thought I should give something else a try - and I heard positive reviews from friends that were using it.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

They sent me 250 g of HCI for each of the 2 boxes of salt mix that I have - so I am going to give it a try.

They sent what?

 

[Jeanette]

Oops. Off by a letter. They sent KCI - Potassium Chloride.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Sounds good.

 

[rushbattle]

Turns out I got a bad batch as well. This is frustrating. I just now figured it out, and I bought the box last year.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/hw-and-potassium.307204/

 

[Spectre66]

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.