Pro Reef salt from Turkey

[Lou Ekus]

Lou, you didn't come off the wrong way at all, I understand your point. They did contact you and you told them the salt was fine. I'm just forwarding on the share as they are not on the forums.

I guess it might be true, but I doubt that I just "dismissed" them by just saying the salt was fine. That's not really my MO. But maybe I was off that day!

If they are seeing these things, the best thing would be if they contact me back again and we can discuss things further. Also, if you can get them to fill out the Tropic Marin Salt Questionnaire it would be very helpful.

I have to say, I have been with Tropic Marin for over 25 years now. While I try really hard to "believe" things that are posted. Unless I am seeing things incorrectly, I find the first picture hard to swallow as a freshly mixed batch of Tropic Marin solution (from ANY of our manufacturing facilities). While I can't really see what is in the second picture properly, it doesn't look like the normal brown Mn or Fe residue that is sometimes seen.

I would really love to get more information from them in the questionnaire and even possibly an additional phone conversation. Something seems off!

 

[ReefOnTheBayou]

I guess it might be true, but I doubt that I just "dismissed" them by just saying the salt was fine. That's not really my MO. But maybe I was off that day!

If they are seeing these things, the best thing would be if they contact me back again and we can discuss things further. Also, if you can get them to fill out the Tropic Marin Salt Questionnaire it would be very helpful.

I have to say, I have been with Tropic Marin for over 25 years now. While I try really hard to "believe" things that are posted. Unless I am seeing things incorrectly, I find the first picture hard to swallow as a freshly mixed batch of Tropic Marin solution (from ANY of our manufacturing facilities). While I can't really see what is in the second picture properly, it doesn't look like the normal brown Mn or Fe residue that is sometimes seen.

I would really love to get more information from them in the questionnaire and even possibly an additional phone conversation. Something seems off!

Lou, I first want to thank you for interacting with us on this matter. I think it would be easy for some to dismiss the complaints.
Also I was thinking why wouldn't some of your big customers as in public aquariums, zoos and the like wouldn't see any differences. Could it be that their water volume is such greater that it would take many partial water changes or a massive water change to notice it? Makes sense us hobbyists with small water volume compared to them would in fact see issues first.

I know my issue was more and more noticeable as time and water changes went by. You know I may have seen something early on but it was dismissed as something else as in maybe the coral look mad and not as puffy because the temp was slightly off or I didn't buffer up much alk to the point my test said I did or they didn't like something in my water change process.

On to the pictures above...
Looks like the first picture was during the scrubbing with a cleaning agent at play. Second picture as he mentions looks like after cleaning barrel he squeezed out the rag which would of had that cleaning agent in it too so I'm sure that's making it look milky.

I don't think the worse reef salt manufacture could let something that bad through the doors, at least I hope not.

It makes more sense now.

All my tropic marin pro salts have mixed crystal clear and I haven't noticed a smell either, however i did have covid a little while back and haven't regained 100% smell and taste yet.

 

[Kingston]

I don't want this to come off the wrong way. I hope you all read this in the tone I intend to post it in...

While I appreciate getting as much information as possible from all of you on R2R, a post like this, in my opinion, is not all that "helpful". @poidog If you friend is having issues, then I encourage them, as I have done MANY times on this forum, to contact me directly. Once again, my email address is [email protected] and my direct phone number is 413-367-0101. But to post a pictures like this, with no specifics, that are not even yours, and target our brand, does NOTHING to help anyone. I can't defend the brand against these pictures, because there is no explanation of what the pictures are. Please have your friend contact me directly.

I apologize if this came of offensive in any way. It is NOT meant to be. We continue to do our best to diagnose the foundation of these comments.

@Lou Ekus, I think when its posted here, we may all be able to chip in and help each other try to figure out the problem. Afterall that is what we do here regarding other issues we have with reefing. Anyway I am planning on giving you a call soon.

 

[poidog]

I guess it might be true, but I doubt that I just "dismissed" them by just saying the salt was fine. That's not really my MO. But maybe I was off that day!

If they are seeing these things, the best thing would be if they contact me back again and we can discuss things further. Also, if you can get them to fill out the Tropic Marin Salt Questionnaire it would be very helpful.

I have to say, I have been with Tropic Marin for over 25 years now. While I try really hard to "believe" things that are posted. Unless I am seeing things incorrectly, I find the first picture hard to swallow as a freshly mixed batch of Tropic Marin solution (from ANY of our manufacturing facilities). While I can't really see what is in the second picture properly, it doesn't look like the normal brown Mn or Fe residue that is sometimes seen.

I would really love to get more information from them in the questionnaire and even possibly an additional phone conversation. Something seems off!

The first picture was from him after washing washing his vat, but you can see the brown color of the water. The second picture is the towel rung out after wiping the brown sludge off the side of a different mixing bucket.

I'll forward him your comments so he can take it up again with you.

 

[1ocean]

yep understand.. I may return mine to BRS....I got enough TM Pro reef for my 300, I also plan not to do water charges often...as from what I read with TM Pro, alot of people have great results doing less water changes.
I have been using this salt since the mid 1980 and it seems this last year or so, the seems to be a small glitch with some of the TM salt from turkey. I totally trust TM will fix it, but I am also scared to use this 27.5 box from turkey...which has not batch numbers that I can find on the box, or it is covered by a stupid shipping label from BRS.

 

[DHill6]

yep understand.. I may return mine to BRS....I got enough TM Pro reef for my 300, I also plan not to do water charges often...as from what I read with TM Pro, alot of people have great results doing less water changes.
I have been using this salt since the mid 1980 and it seems this last year or so, the seems to be a small glitch with some of the TM salt from turkey. I totally trust TM will fix it, but I am also scared to use this 27.5 box from turkey...which has not batch numbers that I can find on the box, or it is covered by a stupid shipping label from BRS.

Good luck returning the salt to BRS. I was told if it mixes brown and return shipping to be paid by me. Not worth it shipping 44 lbs. back, it went into the trash. CA to Mn shipping would probably be what I paid for it.

 

[1ocean]

oh..I did not open the box..so I do not know if it mixes brown... I just know it is from Turkey..it is s 27.5 pound box

 

[pharazon]

Not sure to be honest, But SBB corals made a big post about how all of his tanks were crashing and months of ICP testing all his water sources in and out and his tanks he narrowed it down to believe its the salt, swapped salts to RS BB like I did and saw instant results.

Can you link to this?

All I can find is this post and it doesn’t point the blame at TM Pro at all: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...osing-ultimately-lead-to-a-tank-crash.854655/

 

[SaracensRugby]

I spoke with BRS last night about my one box from Turkey. Basically they have been assured it is fine, by Lou, and so I am stuck with it. They did say they are only getting German made salt going forward sooo........
That being said it is mixing clean and no smell, so hoping it is good for me and cycling my rock for the next few months.

 

[1ocean]

I spoke with BRS last night about my one box from Turkey. Basically they have been assured it is fine, by Lou, and so I am stuck with it. They did say they are only getting German made salt going forward sooo........
That being said it is mixing clean and no smell, so hoping it is good for me and cycling my rock for the next few months.

thanks for sharing the info, saves me time with calling brs, but I am still holding off using the small box I have...I am pretty much done buying from BRS....I so miss Marine Depot...I been getting stuff from Saltwater AQ for a while now

 

[ceaver]

Ok here the ph by Hannah checker 8.6 1.026 salinity water temp when I checked was 67 degrees. Some observations the salt mix clear. The salt water has a chemical detergent smell. Which I've never encountered before when mixing tm

I thought I would do a similar test here to contribute to the knowledge base we are accumulating. I have a 100g box obtained from BRS in late Oct 2021. Tossed the box back then so no batch info available. Haven't really used it yet...

It definitely has a strange smell, similar to what others have described and which I've never smelled with prior TMP (been using for a couple years now). The freshly mixed water still had the same smell. It seemed to mix fairly clearly in the bucket; I'm letting it sit to see what happens in terms of residue.

I measured pH using a legit, quality, recently calibrated Milwaukee pH meter and it came in at 8.25 at 35ppt salinity. Room temp and the meter has good auto temp correction as well. FWIW, I recently sold my Hanna pH checker because shortly after opening the reagent bottle, you eventually start to get 8.6 every time you use the checker no matter what (there's a thread on here about this). I think Hanna pH checkers are not one of the useful checkers to keep.

So what I can confirm from this is that whatever is causing the strange smell doesn't seem to produce an overly acidic pH in freshly mixed saltwater. Having said that, there is still no way I'm putting this stuff in my tank, as I have way too many acros to risk it...

Hope this helps!

 

[DWill]

I spoke with BRS last night about my one box from Turkey. Basically they have been assured it is fine, by Lou, and so I am stuck with it. They did say they are only getting German made salt going forward sooo........
That being said it is mixing clean and no smell, so hoping it is good for me and cycling my rock for the next few months.

I’ve been pretty much laying low on this issue other than a couple posts early on describing same problems. I trust that Tropic Marin is truly looking into this.

That’s said IF Lou is in fact telling BRS that there’s no problem with the salt that doesn’t sit well. If that’s actually happening it reflects poorly on Lou, Tropic Marin and BRS. The message that sends is we trust and value our products more than our customers. It makes it feel as if Tropic Marin’s plan is to just patronize their customers and weather the storm. I hope, and believe that’s not the case.

IF this is accurate it’s truly disheartening. Has anyone else had the same or similar conversation with BRS or another of Tropic Marin’s retailers?

 

[ReefOnTheBayou]

Can you link to this?

All I can find is this post and it doesn’t point the blame at TM Pro at all: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...osing-ultimately-lead-to-a-tank-crash.854655/

SBB definitely had some issues. They switched salts due to the issues and had a total turnaround. When he was using TMP his iron keep increasing... could it have been something else? Sure... but you have to run with makes the most sense at the time and go by what information you have in front of you and try to make the best call. In his case I say it paid off because his sps stopped peeling and started bouncing back. I hoping for the same. I know one thing there is definitely something going on. Someone will figure this out, rather its Tropic Marin or a private party. I can assure you that there is testing being done on both sides.

 

[ReefOnTheBayou]

I’ve been pretty much laying low on this issue other than a couple posts early on describing same problems. I trust that Tropic Marin is truly looking into this.

That’s said IF Lou is in fact telling BRS that there’s no problem with the salt that doesn’t sit well. If that’s actually happening it reflects poorly on Lou, Tropic Marin and BRS. The message that sends is we trust and value our products more than our customers. It makes it feel as if Tropic Marin’s plan is to just patronize their customers and weather the storm. I hope, and believe that’s not the case.

IF this is accurate it’s truly disheartening. Has anyone else had the same or similar conversation with BRS or another of Tropic Marin’s retailers?

I contacted BRS to see my options on returning 2 of my 3 boxes. 2 are still unused. They told me the same thing that they are being told nothing is wrong and the salt is good to use. I was offered to return them but at my expense, which I'm sure is not going to make sense for me to ship 2-44lbs boxes and I'm sure they know this and know they won't be getting many back. I'll just hang on to them with the hopes that someone figures something out and they offer sometype of buy back or at least a swap out plan. At least that way I won't feel bad for selling them. I can't sell what I have in fear of putting this voodoo on someone else. I don't wish this on my worse enemy.

 

[Lou Ekus]

I’ve been pretty much laying low on this issue other than a couple posts early on describing same problems. I trust that Tropic Marin is truly looking into this.

That’s said IF Lou is in fact telling BRS that there’s no problem with the salt that doesn’t sit well. If that’s actually happening it reflects poorly on Lou, Tropic Marin and BRS. The message that sends is we trust and value our products more than our customers. It makes it feel as if Tropic Marin’s plan is to just patronize their customers and weather the storm. I hope, and believe that’s not the case.

IF this is accurate it’s truly disheartening. Has anyone else had the same or similar conversation with BRS or another of Tropic Marin’s retailers?

Just to set the record straight and be clear... we are working non-stop on trying to figure this out. The fact that we do not have any new information at the current time, is because these things take time to test and track down. Please do not think we are sitting back, saying that there is just no chance that there is any issue. We just don't have specifics just yet.

 

[ceaver]

Can you link to this?

All I can find is this post and it doesn’t point the blame at TM Pro at all: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...osing-ultimately-lead-to-a-tank-crash.854655/

Check the most recent posts in the High end Tenuis Hoarder thread by SBB

 

[ReefOnTheBayou]

Update!!!!
I couldn't stand to sit and watch more coral die. New salt will not be here until Friday.

I did a 10% waterchange yesterday with salt from a Germany box and added metasorb to the tank. Got home about 30mins ago and very very noticeable difference! Alot more polyp extension from sps and lps looks alot happier so I did another 10% change!

In the last month I lost a mini red goni, octo, candy can, purple stylo, green birdnest, 2 anemones, and several cuc. I had a pile of dead cuc and the anemones one morning after a partial water change the night before. I just hope i caught it in time to save the rest. I haven't had death like this ever in my reefing career. Things were going great, you know they say they can't go good forever.

Anyway I wanted to report that this box of Germany salt seems to be making a turnaround.

I will report back tomorrow on this second water change. Fingers crossed!

 

[FishyFishFish]

All of TM salts show out of stock on brs currently, could it be that TM is looking into the issue and halting all sales on their salt?

And if/when issue is found, will salts be recalled?

Back in stock.

 

[pharazon]

SBB definitely had some issues. They switched salts due to the issues and had a total turnaround. When he was using TMP his iron keep increasing... could it have been something else? Sure... but you have to run with makes the most sense at the time and go by what information you have in front of you and try to make the best call. In his case I say it paid off because his sps stopped peeling and started bouncing back. I hoping for the same. I know one thing there is definitely something going on. Someone will figure this out, rather its Tropic Marin or a private party. I can assure you that there is testing being done on both sides.

I’m just asking to be pointed in the direction or get a link so I can read the posts people keep referring to.

 

[pharazon]

Check the most recent posts in the High end Tenuis Hoarder thread by SBB

This was a big help - thank you!