What do you know about Oceanic Natural Sea Salt Mix

[Illusion]

Hmm I wonder who paid them to do that Test.. Could it be Crystal Seas? LOL... Could it be Shimek to back his lousy testing last year LOL...

James

[Krux]

loverotties: i switched to oceanic when i set up my new tank. it has been running for about 3 months now.


previously i was using kent salt. the main thing i like about the oceanic is it dissolves nice and clean, the kent always left floating particles that looked like bits of styrofoam.

[Jimbo]

Just switched ran out of instant ocean. I would say oceanic is more instant in dissolving. Had to adjust alk after adding it, but that's easy. 15% water change. I followed the instruction on how much to add, but salinity was way low, so kept adding it to get to the proper level. But I think all the manufacter's due this.

[Pez Vela]

I use Oceanic too. Great for calcium, but as stated above, low on Alk. But hey, that's what baking soda is for!!!!!! I will contiue to use it until I am invited to live in Port Douglas, Aus. at which time I will go natural seawater.

Mike

[Loverotties]

Thanks Krux I mite try it but I love the natural sea water.Just sick a heater in the box then add.My coral has opened up a little more and less(protein?) scum on top first when put in before pumps are turned back on.I have used I.O. and coralive(liked better)which never left anyting on the bottom(mixed well) but both would have a film on top,before starting up the pumps.But not the natural sea water.

[Clownfishman]

I found a great article comparing different sythetic salts and I think I may switch to Bio-Sea Marinemix.. I worry about switching since my fish are used to IO salt... but it shows that the heavy metals in IO like copper is 6.04 ppm in one test..

In a test using sea urchin larvae putting the same samples in different sythetic salts found that only 7 survived in IO salt, compared to 54 in NSW and 45 in Bio Marine mix...

Casey what salt do you use, so we can put this to rest....

[Krux]

just be sure that the article wasnt sponsored by the parent company that makes marinemix, that is WAY more common than you could imagine

[goodfortune]

I've Kent Salt is really good on Mg; but then, so is Oceanic.

I've just switched over from Oceanic to IO. Whereas I had to constantly dose to keep my levels, especially dKH, high and level, I'm finding that I don't have to fight my Ca and dKH levels as much anymore. So far, I'm happy with the IO, and I didn't think I would be in the begining. Just my 2 cents.

- Michael

P.S. - Krux...a fellow Sienfeld fan I see!!! Did you get the new DVD boxed set?

Originally Posted by Krux

loverotties: i switched to oceanic when i set up my new tank. it has been running for about 3 months now.


previously i was using kent salt. the main thing i like about the oceanic is it dissolves nice and clean, the kent always left floating particles that looked like bits of styrofoam.

[tdwyatt]

I guess if we are going to raise sea urchin larvae that we all need to switch to brand X above. That study is the infamous Dr; Shimek study on seasalts (very biased/slanted/heavily spun study, not valid in most folks eyes). I haven't really seen much difference in the ASW mixes, IO has been consistant and relatively cheap and mixes well. I believe the issue on the ease of mixing with Oceanic, as their low alkalinity llows the mix to get "wetter" when exposed to atmospheric water before the reaction between CaCl2 and NaHCO3 produces large amounts of CaCO3, which would leave behind a considerable amount of insoluble residue.

On salts, IO is consistant, and evidently so far, so is Oceanic, although it will require you to add the bicarb that they leave out to attain suitable alkalinity for reef tanks. Keep in mind that when these groups are testing the salts, that folks outside the reefkeeping hobby also use these salts, and their goal may NOT BE KEEPING CORALS. There are reasons to run tanks with differing salt mixes and concentratiions of some of the trace elements, different mixes allow you t0 tailor your mix to your particular need. NONE of the salt mixes are really perfect for reefkeeping, but that is why we use calcium reactors to supplement both Ca and bicarb ions. A few of the profesional mixes don't have ANY sodium chloride in them (which makes up the bulk of the weight), but this is to cut costs on shipping, as you can usually buy salt cheaply in local high-quality resources.

I use IO, and I have had no qualms with the product, but to me, the ideal ASW mix would be one that comes in a multicontainer pack of the individual groups of salts needed to make the ASW, then buy your sodium chloride salt locally. When I first got into the hobby, making ASW was usually a real PITA, as you had to measure many of the substances needed to make decent ASW in bulk, and you bought distilled water in 5 gal carbouys. Living near the Ocean made reefkeeping a bit more easy (Charleston), but you still had to treat the water in the dark for a few weeks to kill off any hitch hikers. That really made water changes a chore.

So long as you maintain cnstant salinity, perform regular water changes, employ ro.di or distilled water for the vehicle, and supplement consumed calcium and bicarb, IO or Oceanic are both more than adequate, and will allow rapid stony coral growth when conditions controlled by the aquarist are optimized.

[Rob_Reef_Keeper]

I have switched a few months ago from IO. I have noticed increased levels of CA in my tank. My Alk is a lttle low. The SPS frags that were showing NO growth have started to grow now. It is allot cheaper too at my LFS.

IO
CA 260
Alk 10 DKH
Mag 880

Oceanic
CA 450
Alk 7.5 dkh
Mag 1250

[tdwyatt]

Rob, I would be suspect of the conditions of your storage of the IO (either in the container or at the store) as these values are way off for 35 ppt salinity values when mixing IO. IO mixes at the same values for NSW when mixed at 35 ppt for all the conservative elements.

I will post Craig Bingman's Aquarium Frontiers article for seawater mixes, it is no longer available through AF.

(this post and the following few posts were edited/deleted due to difficulties in posting the actual Bingman original Aquarium Frontiers article--TDWyatt)

hth

[tdwyatt]

Well, this will just not work, the files are too big to upload as data from this point, I will post the info in text format.

The following link is to a copy of the article, the AF article at the fancy pets site no longer exists:

http://web.archive.org/web/200103032.../1/default.asp

[tdwyatt]

sorry for the waste of web space

[trussmandave]

Guess I got a bad bucket of Oceanic. Mine appears to have a calcium value over 600 ppm! Noticed the calcium in the tank way high after a few water changes and quit that **** immediately. A lot of those around here seem to prefer Kent Marine.

[tdwyatt]

Problems experienced with differing values for different aquarists in mixing the same brand of ASW can be traced back to differing salinities of the final mix, different storage conditions, differing periods of open container time, and atmospheric conditions during the periods the storage container is open. If you buy your salt in anything but totally tight containers ("tight" in this context means impervious to external factors like humidity, etc.), you will see changes in the final product as well as the stored salt itself. Water from the atmosphere is easily attracted to ASW mixes, which must remain ABSOLUTELY DRY to prevent reactions between components of the salt. Water in a mixture of sodium bicarbonate and calcium chloride will result in the formation of CaCO3 (calcium carbonate), which is very insoluble in water, fresh (mixing water) or salt (final product). This reacted CaCO3 not only will remain behind as an insoluble precipitate at the end of mixing, but in its formation, will reduce available Calcium and alkalinity and several other carbonate/metal salts.


The calcium and magnesium carbonate salts formed during exposure to damp atmosphere form the bulk of the "crust" that some folks find in their salt mix. It can be so bad that the salt forms hard clumps that cannot be broken. ASW in this form will not make synthetic seawater in the proportions that corals require, and will not mix anywhere near what NSW proportions would be. Salt that has formed such clumps CAN be used in the winter, when your sidewalk or driveway needs deicing , but that is about the limit to which it can be trusted.

When mixing ASW, know ahead how much you're going to need, measure your water ahead of time, place the heaters and circulation pumps in, then measure your ASW mix from the storage container and quickly reseal the lid. Mix by gradually pouring in the dry mix into moving water so that it will dissolve by the time it reaches the bottom (a Mag 5 or so works great for up to 50 gallons per mixing). Do NOT pour any left over salt back into the storage container, if anything, mix your ASW a little on the high side and add RO/DI until you get your final salinity.

IO mixed to 35 PPT will have correct proportionality of conservative elements (Mg in particular) and Ca at around 350 or so.