Some observations from salt mixing....
 

Hey guys,

Last week i was making some make-up water to do a water change. The salt brand i use is seachem reef. This week i made another batch for yet another water change, and noticed my calcium, and mag levels were quite lower. Alk did not change..

1st method:

I use a 20 gallon, so i filled it with 5 gallons of R/O water. I then took a cup of salt, and added water to the cups and shoke till it dissolved somewhat in the cup. I then added it to the tank right where the pump was blowing out. Added 4-5 cups to get salinity up to 1.024. Levels i got when using this method....

400 Calcium
1290 Magnesium
3.5 Mg/l Alk

2nd method:

This week i did it differently. I added 10 gallons of water to tank first. Then i added four cups of salt directly to the tank in a high flow area slowly. Again, 4-5 cups to get salinity to 1.024. Levels i got when using this method.....

300 Calcium
990 Magnesium
3.5 Alk


I found this really, really strange. Is it possible that a lot of the mag and calcium percipitated using method 2???

Am i crazy? lol.

I plan on doing the first method again to see what i get next week or the week after......

#1 You never add water to salt, you add salt to water. You should have added the salt slowly to the 20 gals of RO/DI

# 2 You always let a mix sit under aeration for about 24 hrs to make sure all is dissolved and allow it to equilibrate with atm CO2. However, there is a special method for mixing in 5 min, using a stirring blade on a drill for example.

Dumping all that salt in the tank pulled things out of solution, why the lower readings

So your saying that salt should be added slowly right?? But how slowly. Like 1 cup per hour??

Should i fill tank completely before adding any salt???

Man, the stuf you learn in this hobby......

Thanks!!

The calcium and magnesium difference is either inhomogeneity in the bag, or testing errors. The mixing differences cannot have resulted in a 100 ppm difference in calcium and 300 ppm in magnesium.

Slowly means not adding it all at once. You could add salt at a rate, if making say 50 gal salt mix, in a few min. It should then circulate for 24 hrs.

What do you mean by filling the whole tank with water. first ?. NO, of course not.

You are doing a 20 gal water change and you are using a 20 gal container. You fill it with water first and then add the salt over a few min to about the right salinity, let it sit for 24 hrs under aeration/circulation. You recheck the salinity the next day and adjust if needed, then do the 20 gal water change. You take out 20 gals from the tank and then add this 20 gals.

You DOD NOT dump salt or mix salt in your tank EVER. You mix the salt in a container first, unless it is a new tank with no life..

No thats what i meant. I have a tank for water make-up, so i said "tank"

haha. Not main tank.......

Thanks guys.

:thumbsup:

Happy reefing. :)