I'd like to preface this by stating I took a break from the hobby for about 5 years. In the past I used three different salt mixes and as long as I thoroughly mixed the dry ingredients I would get very close to the same parameters after mixing.
My go to in the past was HW Marinemix Reefer because I liked the parameters. I would always test before doing a water change and it was spot on.
Starting my current system I used the same HW reefer salt and no only have the parameters varied, they are well below what they should be according to the box and Ca and Mg are often below acceptable ranges.
After considerable differences in alk, ranging from 6.5 to 8.2, I decided to toss the HW Reefer salt in the dumpster and switched to Fauna Marine since it is also a pharmaceutical grade, fast-mixing salt that has parameters close to natural sea water.
For reference the HW Reefer salt also had these ranges across multiple batches (5+)
Ca- 320-420
Mg- 1000-1440
I bought two boxes since this seems to only be available from saltwater aquarium.com. I am upset to find that this salt also mixes well below the advertised levels.
Sad to see low levels again...
Advertised on box
Alk - 8.5
Ca - 440
Mg - 1300
After thoroughly mixing dry then making a 3.5g batch at 1.025
Alk - 7.0
Ca- 330
Mg- 1100
Before opening a new bag of salt I will thoroughly mix it within the bag for 20-30 minutes. It's a work out, and I'm in shape. Then I pour it into 4 5 gallon buckets, stirring around with a clean (used o ly for this purpose) paint mixer on a drill. Then I shuffle the salt between buckets like ten times, repeat the mixer and shuffle salts one more time before combining into a single bucket with a bag liner. This to me is compulsive and insane, but i figured if i can at least get consistent results on my salt mix, then buffering it would be easy. Easy meaning if im mixing the same volume of water and the need to buffer is the same, I can record those values and just add it in saving me a round of before and after testing.
My questions
Is this just the norm for salt parameters to be way different with every batch?
Am I too enticed by the pharma grade label and levels advertised on these obscure German salts? Would it be more advantageous to switch to a domestic product or something more readily available, with more turn over sales in the US?
I intend to buffer each Bach individually until these two bags are used up, although I'm not looking forward to it since I am only changing 3.5g a week lol.
Any insight is appreciated!
System 25 gallon lagoon, 20 lbs rock, sand, no skimmer, occasional mechanical filtration using socks or floss. Feeding mixed frozen and pellets on an auto feeder.
My go to in the past was HW Marinemix Reefer because I liked the parameters. I would always test before doing a water change and it was spot on.
Starting my current system I used the same HW reefer salt and no only have the parameters varied, they are well below what they should be according to the box and Ca and Mg are often below acceptable ranges.
After considerable differences in alk, ranging from 6.5 to 8.2, I decided to toss the HW Reefer salt in the dumpster and switched to Fauna Marine since it is also a pharmaceutical grade, fast-mixing salt that has parameters close to natural sea water.
For reference the HW Reefer salt also had these ranges across multiple batches (5+)
Ca- 320-420
Mg- 1000-1440
I bought two boxes since this seems to only be available from saltwater aquarium.com. I am upset to find that this salt also mixes well below the advertised levels.
Sad to see low levels again...
Advertised on box
Alk - 8.5
Ca - 440
Mg - 1300
After thoroughly mixing dry then making a 3.5g batch at 1.025
Alk - 7.0
Ca- 330
Mg- 1100
Before opening a new bag of salt I will thoroughly mix it within the bag for 20-30 minutes. It's a work out, and I'm in shape. Then I pour it into 4 5 gallon buckets, stirring around with a clean (used o ly for this purpose) paint mixer on a drill. Then I shuffle the salt between buckets like ten times, repeat the mixer and shuffle salts one more time before combining into a single bucket with a bag liner. This to me is compulsive and insane, but i figured if i can at least get consistent results on my salt mix, then buffering it would be easy. Easy meaning if im mixing the same volume of water and the need to buffer is the same, I can record those values and just add it in saving me a round of before and after testing.
My questions
Is this just the norm for salt parameters to be way different with every batch?
Am I too enticed by the pharma grade label and levels advertised on these obscure German salts? Would it be more advantageous to switch to a domestic product or something more readily available, with more turn over sales in the US?
I intend to buffer each Bach individually until these two bags are used up, although I'm not looking forward to it since I am only changing 3.5g a week lol.
Any insight is appreciated!
System 25 gallon lagoon, 20 lbs rock, sand, no skimmer, occasional mechanical filtration using socks or floss. Feeding mixed frozen and pellets on an auto feeder.
