Aqua Forest Probiotic reef salt batch differences.

[Beats001]

Hi all,

I realise all batches of AF salt are all slightly different and I wandering how others manage this in conjunction with dosing equal amounts of Components 1,2,3?

Take the following as an example ...
I am in the process of balancing my ions, dosing equal of the 3 comps, with a little extra alk separately.

I then did a water change of 35 ppt salinity and now my Ca and Mag have jumped above where I want them. So now I have to stop dosing the 3 comps and let them drop a bit, but keep dosing alk on it own, then when back to where I want, start attempting to balance the ions again with comps dosing.

I am interested in what others would do in this situation.

Here are a few options I can think of, each with draw backs.

1) Mix my new salt to 34 ppt and add individual macro elements to where i want them. But is 34 a problem? Do I need to add actual pure salt to raise to 35ppt?

2) get the comps balanced and don't do water changes, prob could for a while, but will need to change now and again.

3) get components balanced and have the same issue everytime I do a water change. This way I can see me constantly having to play around.

Or some other suggestion?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Katrina71]

@Manose maybe you can suggest something

 

[SKYHIGGh]

I would go with option 3. You will definitely be more in tuned. But you might get tired of all that testing but then agian you might be into it.

Option 1 seems legit but could go wrong some how, but is the most realistic when trying to be perfect. Just a lot of work that could go wrong in at different moments of the dosing routine since life sometimes happens.

Option two is the dream for me but you know as they say play stupid games win stupid prizes... but I can argue life is about perspective I might like stupid prizes lol

I dose my equal amounts and just mix my probiotic salt to the correct salinity. And test.

Consistency is key.

 

[Beats001]

Thanks for the replies. I have been thinking about this a lot.
I mixed up a new batch of AF probiotic reef salt, here are the results at 35 ppt
Dkh 7.7
Ca 455
Mg 1500

The Mg seems very high and outside their expected range. Could be salifert margin of error too.

So what I have done is down the ppt to 32.5 or so. So the rough math would result in Dkh of 7.2, Ca at 425 and Mg at 1400, which is inline with where my tank is sitting at.

For me this makes a lot of sense and means I can get my components in balanced and maintain it going forward if I just adjust the ppt of the water change water. I will balance the ions to 3 equal amounts as soon as I can.

What do yous think of the ppt being lower? The magical 35 ppt is ideal, but just not practical given differences in salt mixes.

I think this is the more maintainable solution for me long term.

 

[Aquaforest]

Hello,
Can you please share with me information about your batch number?
The recipe is the same for years, we are testing each batch at ICP-OES before packing and results are available online straight from laboratory.
Here you can read more about "how do we test" and check results from your batch of salt: https://aquaforest.eu/en/icp-oes-results/

 

[Beats001]

Hi thanks for commenting.
The batch number is VE7GSX.

The test kits I used was AquaForest dkh
Salifert Ca and Salifert Mg.

According to the ICP results from you guys; at 34ppt:
Kh is 8
Ca is 438
Mg 1373

at 20 degrees Celsius.

I measured at 26 degrees Celsius, as this is obviously what reef tanks run at and the temp I measure my own tank at. So theres a difference there.

One other thing to note is that it was the tail end of the bucket, was a 20kg bucket so I cannot shake/ mix the salt.

I don't have a calibration liquid for my refractometer. I have been using RO water to set it at zero.

So its difficult to compare the results.
There are a lot of factors at play here which make it difficult.

What are your thoughts?

 

[Beats001]

What are your thoughts?

@Aquaforest

 

[Aquaforest]

Hello,
The best way is to mix dry salt and then dissolve it in RODI water and test it.
If your parameters will be still different than ours you can make an official complaint to [email protected].

Regards,
Aquaforest

 

[Beats001]

Hello,
The best way is to mix dry salt and then dissolve it in RODI water and test it.
If your parameters will be still different than ours you can make an official complaint to [email protected].

Regards,
Aquaforest

I'm not complaining, just stating a few facts, and saying there are too many variables at play.
I think Aquaforest products are excellent, i love them. They actually work, compared to a large percentage of other companies products that don't.

Maybe a question for the ICP guys in your company regarding the publishing of results at 20 degrees celcius. I don't understand the logic in that. No one runs their reef tanks at that temp.