WTB: bucket of salt

[skunkmere]

anyone selling salt?

[kramer51]

If you go to petco's website and print out the online price and bring it to a local store, they will honor the price for cheaper than I ever seen.

[skunkmere]

i know petsmart has this does petco?

[ostrow]

Petcos prices are higher and I am not sure they do this. Petsmart does. You won't find cheaper.

[Pufferpunk]

How cheap is it?

[kimoy]

36

[derrikd]

i copied DF&S it was like 26.00 one day on sale. the petco in schaumberg did it for me. was under 60.o0 with tax for two IO 160 gallon buckets.

[Pufferpunk]

Wow, what luck! I'd still rather have it delivered to my house for the same $35 for RC.

[skunkmere]

i spoke to petsmart and they only honor thier web site's prices. im gonna show up with a drfs price then if they dont let me ill pop out theirs. my local petsmart only got oceanic. anyone have any experience with oceanic?

[ostrow]

Avoid Oceanic in a reef tank if you mix over 1.023. At 1.026 your levels will go nutso unbalanced. Many petsmarts carry IO buckets, though.

[amaya]

i use oceanic and its fine for me, all parameters good

[mm949]

Originally posted by amaya
i use oceanic and its fine for me, all parameters good

....same here..

[Pufferpunk]

How high is your SG though?

[Shift_9k]

I have almost half a bucket of Red Sea left that you can have for 10 bucks.

[skunkmere]

i keep my sg at 1.025.

[Pufferpunk]

How are your other parameters?

[skunkmere]

well my tank is in the process of being resetup but i try my best to keep my parameters at :

calcium: 440
alk: 4.0 mg/l
sg: 1.025
temp 78F
Mag.: i got a kit and test and dose once in a blue moon

[mksalt]

Originally posted by ostrow
Avoid Oceanic in a reef tank if you mix over 1.023. At 1.026 your levels will go nutso unbalanced. Many petsmarts carry IO buckets, though.

What do you base this on? Personal experience? A broader base of information? How so “nutso unbalanced.”?

[Pufferpunk]

Here's a salt comparison by Steven Pro:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume...mpressions.htm

[ostrow]

Originally posted by mksalt
What do you base this on? Personal experience? A broader base of information? How so “nutso unbalanced.”?

Personal experience: yes

Broader base of information: yes. Just search on RC for threads on Oceanic, and give yourself lots of time.

But you did not ask the most important question: Oceanic representatives themselves. I was one of the people who called and talked to a VP who was in charge of the overseeing the development of the salt. It was manufactured to give, IIRC, 425 Calcium and dKh of around 8.5 at a SG of 1.021. They said it is not stable at above 1.024 and that precipitation and wild imbalances of alkalinity and pH can be expected at 1.025 and above.

Again: read the threads, it is all there, including my cut and paste from Oceanic rep emails and transcriptions of follow-up phone calls.

So, yes, personal experience, my own research, and research of the experiences and findings of others.

Um, is that enough for you?

[ostrow]

Read this:
This thread is starting to get long, but Shawn from Oceanic called me back yesterday. I had called because last Saturday I measured CA and Alk at 440 and 11.2 respectively before a 10G water change on a 75G tank with 20G sump.

Sunday Ca measured 580 and dKh 7.6. I keep s.g. at 1.025.

However, on the phone with Premium Aquatics I learned they had fully switched to Oceanic and over a month had no such problems so I called to see if my batch (and presumably others having similar problems) might be bad and replaceable.

Shawn said the following:

1) Reef tanks should have s.g. at 1.023 and no higher, and that he was unaware of any tanks for which 1.025 or 1.026 would be appropriate.

2) Oceanic salt mixed at 1.025 or higher will have calcium over 550 (we already knew that), and that it may well lead to precipitation (which I did not know as I thought alk would remain high enough).

3) Anyone mixing at levels above 1.023 should not use Oceanic.

4) He would check with the "designers" after I told him RC consensus on reef tank s.g. was 1.025 or so.

None of this explains though why some are having no problems at all with the salt.

I am going to abandon it and go back to good old IO unless I can find Tropic Marin locally.

here:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...5&pagenumber=2


Sorry for my tone, but there is a "search" feature on Reef Central, and you could read the same in many, many threads.

[mksalt]

This is good info. I will doing some reading.

I’m new to salt and some things that happen still confuse me.

The reason this peaked my interest is that I have never heard of this before and I am using Oceanic and have been struggling with PH, Alk, Calc…… As of this morning, before lights, my SG is at 1.0245, Alk at 3.0, I add KH buffer almost every day, calc I did not check but usually off the charts, PH at 8.0, I’m happy with that, usually lower. Iodine I did not check but these days it’s usually off my chart. So a pretty good morning.

I need to get back to work now and I will do some reading later. Sounds like Instant Ocean is a favorite? Any other quick recommendation?

I think I will bring down my SG a bit. Planning a water change today. Been doing about 10% every week.

Thanks for the help.

[ostrow]

If you have a reef, I wouldn't bring the salinity down. I'd switch salts to keep alkalinity up. I used up my last Oceanic by mixing with Instant Ocean at a ratio of 2/3 IO to 1/3 Oceanic.

[skunkmere]

wow thats crazy, should we all drop our sg to 1.023? i though 1.025 was the sweet spot for reef. and shouldnt oceanic being experts at salt know what their doing or is it just a limitation on their product. Also what is Perciptation. i never seen it "rain" in my tank.

[ostrow]

Originally posted by skunkmere
Also what is Perciptation. i never seen it "rain" in my tank.

there is a "search" feature on Reef Central, and you could read the same in many, many threads.