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Instant Ocean Salt has goodies in it!

redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Ignorance is what makes a man a man….or at least this is true for me. I can’t get much more ignorant than I already am, so I thought.

I’m in the process of switching over from Reef Crystals to Instant Ocean…or maybe a mix of the two. In this process I’ve been mixing up my new saltwater at 2/3’s RC to 1/3 IO. Have been doing this water mix for a while, and also took this opportunity to re-dial in my two part dosing. I’ve also tested this fresh made salt water and found the following:

Alk = 9.5 dKH
Calc = 430 ppm
Mg = 1300 ppm

So I figure I’m ready to continue this switch and make up a 50:50 batch of water with RC and IO. I’m expecting the above numbers to drop down a bit more. Well, here is what I found:

Alk = 9.8 dKH
Calc = 400 to 410 ppm
Mg = 1200 ppm

There was a slight drop in Calc and Mg, but Alk was higher. I repeated the tests 2 or 3 times; checked that I used the right salts; tripled check the salinity and even recalibrated the refractometer….with no change. I was so puzzled by this I eventually went and searched IO to see what it contains, and was surprised to find that it, in fact, has calc, alk and mag added……..To paraphrase what IO says….to match natural sea water. For some strange reason (ignorance), I thought IO was just salt, and nothing else!


I learned something today….and am even more comfortable switching from RC to IO.


Now let me go back to being a man!
 
redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
fsarmien said:
why the change?!?
Click to expand...

This is a multiple choice answer:

1. I’m cheap! (Ask my wife.)
2. I didn’t like my calc numbers from pure RC. They were high.
3. Dr. Randy Holmes Farley, the God of reef chemistry, uses IO. (Did I mention I’m a chemist.)
4. All of the above.
5. None of the above.
6. Who cares.



ahvrivera said:
Here i was expecting a prize like a cracker jack box goodie lol.
Click to expand...

Austin, stop by. I have a cheap whistle, made in China, that no matter how hard you blow, nothing comes out……it’s yours!
 
M

Mike S

I've been using IO since I set up the big tank. I was expecting for it to have much higher alkalinity and lower calcium but your numbers are consistent with what I've seen. My calcium was a little higher. I was thinking about going back to ESV eventually but I don't see any reason to at this point. I'll be curious how consistent IO is from box to box.
 
ahvrivera

ahvrivera

redfishbluefish said:
This is a multiple choice answer:

1. I’m cheap! (Ask my wife.)
2. I didn’t like my calc numbers from pure RC. They were high.
3. Dr. Randy Holmes Farley, the God of reef chemistry, uses IO. (Did I mention I’m a chemist.)
4. All of the above.
5. None of the above.
6. Who cares.





Austin, stop by. I have a cheap whistle, made in China, that no matter how hard you blow, nothing comes out……it’s yours!
Click to expand...
Lmao!!!!!
 
Tommyboynj

Tommyboynj

Administrator
Officer Emeritus
Mike S said:
I've been using IO since I set up the big tank. I was expecting for it to have much higher alkalinity and lower calcium but your numbers are consistent with what I've seen. My calcium was a little higher. I was thinking about going back to ESV eventually but I don't see any reason to at this point. I'll be curious how consistent IO is from box to box.
Click to expand...

I've found that alk and calc is pretty solid but I've had a couple of boxes with high mag. When I buy a box I mix the last bag from the old box with the first from the new.
 
Cdiggy

Cdiggy

I was going to switch from IO to RC but with my dosing pumps dialed in I didn't want to mess with a different salt. And the fact that it is cheaper and I am a cheapskate!
 
H

horseplay

NJRC Member
Tommyboynj said:
I've found that alk and calc is pretty solid but I've had a couple of boxes with high mag. When I buy a box I mix the last bag from the old box with the first from the new.
Click to expand...

Tom - my latest bag of IO from Trops has 1600 Mg, freshly mixed. My tank has 1540 Mg. I am interested if you bought it from Trops. I am questioning my Red Sea test kit but maybe it is indeed 1600.

I seriously want to bring down Mg in my tank and I attribute that as the reason for the lack of color from some of the SPS'.
 
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