My LFS sells me saltwater at 14 dKh

[Stigigemla]

I understand You are in England and I beleive its not that many LFS there so I guess You cant choose another LFS.
But You can take over the responsibility and make Your own water. You can by a small R/O for less than 50£ and try out which salt is best for You.
Red Sea sea salt (blue bucket) has better values but now I use Instant Ocean myself just as Mike Paletta and Sanjay Joshi (I´m even older then them)

 

[elic173]

I understand You are in England and I beleive its not that many LFS there so I guess You cant choose another LFS.
But You can take over the responsibility and make Your own water. You can by a small R/O for less than 50£ and try out which salt is best for You.
Red Sea sea salt (blue bucket) has better values but now I use Instant Ocean myself just as Mike Paletta and Sanjay Joshi (I´m even older then them)

Thanks! I spent last night doing loads of homework on salt.

I to finally narrowed it down to IO and RS (blue) for my beginners nano 50l.

You are right, amazingly we don't have a lot of choice in London when it comes to a LFS.

On today's agenda, is to research the RO/DI unit.

Do you recall the name of the system you recommend for £50?

Thanks for your reply!

 

[Rakie]

Red Sea Coral Pro is often like 13 dkh at 1.0265

Reef Crystals is like 14-15 dkh at 1.0265

These are the salts noobs use, because they aren't dosing. I'm sure experienced users use them and blah blah, but that's how I see these high alk salts -- for people who don't dose.

 

[kirstyflash]

Yes! I wondered why my GSP had lost all green colour and turned brown. Thanks for the tips

Dang, that’s got to be bad to make gsp sick

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Dang, that’s got to be bad to make gsp sick

FWIW, I'm not convinced the alk is the issue for them. They wouldn't even use alk, although they may use bicarbonate as a source of CO2 for photosynthesis (leaving the alk in the water).

 

[elic173]

I was thinking... London tap water has a very high ph and is know as "hard" as it is full of calcium carbonate. I bet they just used tap and a salt mix high in alk. Just a thought

 

[Billldg]

I keep my Alk at 9, so when my Tunze go's crazy and dumps Kalk in my DT and raises it up to 10 my frags hate it, so I can only imagine raising it to 14 dkh. Talk about stressing corals frags.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I keep my Alk at 9, so when my Tunze go's crazy and dumps Kalk in my DT and raises it up to 10 my frags hate it, so I can only imagine raising it to 14 dkh. Talk about stressing corals frags.

Dumping kalk also spikes pH, which might be more of the issue than an alk rise from 9 to 10 dKH.

FWIW, corals can do great at 11-12 dKH. Red Sea recommends it for fastest growth. You just need to make sure there are enough nutrients available for them to use to make tissue.

 

[elic173]

Problem solved!!!
I bought the salifert test kit and it shows my alk at 7.5 not 14!

It has got to be the Red Sea test kit is at fault.

I've sent the alk reagent and a water sample to redsea for analysis.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Problem solved!!!
I bought the salifert test kit and it shows my alk at 7.5 not 14!

It has got to be the Red Sea test kit is at fault.

I've sent the alk reagent and a water sample to redsea for analysis.

FWIW, it's remarkable how many "chemistry" issues that folks report here are really testing issues.

 

[hart24601]

Red Sea Coral Pro is often like 13 dkh at 1.0265

Reef Crystals is like 14-15 dkh at 1.0265

These are the salts noobs use, because they aren't dosing. I'm sure experienced users use them and blah blah, but that's how I see these high alk salts -- for people who don't dose.

Lol. Blah blah RC tank here!