Has anyone had any problems with Tropic Marin Pro Salt Mix?

[pachi_boi86]

This will be kinda lengthly post but I believe is worth reading, especially if you're someone who have just got started in this hobby.

Last March I bought a 200G bucket of Tropic Marin Pro salt to prepare my own water at home. My first reaction was "WOW, this is the salt I should have been using all along!" My corals seem to really liked this salt mix. Calcium, magnesium, and akalinity levels were all great.

Ok, that was the "good time" I had with this salt....now I'm going to talk about the "bad time" I had with it.

By the end of May I have used up about 2/3 of the salt in this bucket. At the beginning of this month I started to notice that a few of my chalices were receding a little bit. Third day into the first week a lot more corals started to recede so I tested water parameters on three of my four tanks and got these readings:

dKH - 7.5 Great!
Ca - 550-580 Much higher than usual
Mg - 1860-1880 Holy ****!!! what the heck happen to my Mg level????

I stopped dosing everything immediately and did 25% water changes on my tanks. Yes, this happened to three of my four tanks....

Well, water changes suppose to help but noooo, my Mg level went up even higher!!! 1900-1940 for Mg????? That turned my attention immediately to the salt mix. I prepared 5 gallon of water with the salt mix again just so I can test the parameters. OMG...I could not believe my test result...

KH - 3.5 Yes, this is not a typo...I tested twice and got the exact same number
Ca - 560 Too high, I use to get about 380
Mg - 1980 You've got to be kidding....

Well, I wanted to see how much more salt was needed to bring KH up. I put in 3 more half cups and tested the water after about 16 hrs. These three extra cups only brought KH up to 4.5 in a 5 gallon water mix!!! I dumped about 8 more half cups of salt to the water, tested the KH level again next day and got 8. It took 16 half cups to get KH in 5 gallon up to 8!!!

I admit that perhaps I should have tested my saltwater mix every time but I have never thought that an expernsive salt mix such as Tropic Marin Pro would be like this. I did roll the bucket when it was half full too (as suggested by another hobbyist) but I guess that didn't help at all.

I have now switched to Brightwell and I was happy with my first mix. Unfortunately, I lost 20+ frags/mini colonies altogether within less than 2 weeks. Luckily, I have a quarantine tank so I was able to move some expensive chalices, acans, and favias over to this tank. Normally, this tank would only be for newly purchased corals but now I have to use it to save my expensive pieces. Also, the only reason this tank is not affected is because I only use saltwater from my LFS for water changes.


I'm sharing my experience with you so that other people can learn from my mistake. From now on I will test my saltwater mix every time. I have lost so much from this disaster, the three Vivid Pink ******* mini colonies alone were worth $1000+ at least, not to mention other pieces. To my surprise, all the high-end chalices took the hit. Other lps, zoas, and sps look perfectly healthy throughout this disaster. :squigglemouth:

Two of my tanks are back to normal as of yesterday but I won't be putting any corals in there for another week or two, just to be on the safe siad. My 90G main tank has gotten better from 2 recent water changes but I still don't have my desirable parameters.

So, has anyone else had any problems with this salt? Just wondering if I am the only one who got one bad bucket of salt....:sad:

 

[J&O'sdad]

My buddy almost lost all of his LPS corals and is using the same salt. I am showing him this.

 

[SPStoner]

Not to dispute your findings, but did you consider that perhaps the test kit(s) is/are bad? I notice that people are quick to blame the salt, but rarely seem to look at the test kits.... Also, it is best to mix the entire bucket when first getting it, rather than waiting until it is half gone. Simply pour half the salt into another bucket, then you mix both halves equally and thoroughly.

Some other thoughts:

You said you stopped dosing. What and how much were you dosing?

Why only 3 of your 4 tanks were affected?

What is your salinity? How are you measuring it?

I read many threads where people don't test their water until they start to notice a problem. This is a great example of why you should do regular water tests. You may have been able to catch before you lost any corals.

How big are your 4 tanks?


And just so you don't think I'm a shill for Tropic Marin, I am a long time employee for Instant Ocean.:bigsmile: We routinely test competing salts on the market in our lab, and TM is consistently one of the better salts out there. I am not saying there couldn't be a problem with a batch, but they have a long history of quality product.

 

[soccerbag]

I've been using TM Pro Reef for 2 years now and have had zero issues with it. Always mixes to specs everytime in my experiences (I mix my own salt water). I always triple check salinity before doing a water change. My parameters are stable and have not experienced any of the issues that you mention above. Not disputing your remarks, just saying that I have not experienced any of them.

 

[Paul_N]

I have just tired it for the first time and the params were spot on. Maybe it is a bad test kit. The other thing is if you have one parameter like alk off you should not compensate with more salt mix you should have just used baking soda or something to raise just the alk. By adding more salt mix, your ca and mag would have went up also.

 

[agent462]

I use TMP and the only "issue" I have is a lower dkh of around 7.5 and then I dose soda ash to bring it up. All my other levels are great. Having a dkh of around 3.5 is most likely a bad test kit.

 

[pachi_boi86]

Not to dispute your findings, but did you consider that perhaps the test kit(s) is/are bad? I notice that people are quick to blame the salt, but rarely seem to look at the test kits.... Also, it is best to mix the entire bucket when first getting it, rather than waiting until it is half gone. Simply pour half the salt into another bucket, then you mix both halves equally and thoroughly. ​

Some other thoughts:​

You said you stopped dosing. What and how much were you dosing? ​

Why only 3 of your 4 tanks were affected?​

What is your salinity? How are you measuring it? ​

I read many threads where people don't test their water until they start to notice a problem. This is a great example of why you should do regular water tests. You may have been able to catch before you lost any corals.​

How big are your 4 tanks? ​

And just so you don't think I'm a shill for Tropic Marin, I am a long time employee for Instant Ocean.:bigsmile: We routinely test competing salts on the market in our lab, and TM is consistently one of the better salts out there. I am not saying there couldn't be a problem with a batch, but they have a long history of quality product. ​

Read more: Has anyone had any problems with Tropic Marin Pro Salt Mix? ​

I use only salifert and ELOS for my test kit. I actually blamed my test kits at first so I ask two local stores to test my water. The results came out the same as what I got.

As stated in my post, I only saltwater from my LFS on the fourth tank. Since this tank is only for newly arrived corals and will be moved to the main tank I figure I should use LFS saltwater which uses instant ocean as their salt mix. For the main tank and my two 28G nanos I want to use quality salt only.

And, I have been using instant ocean during my first two years in the hobby, too. It was good but I didn't like how akalinity was always at 10-11 so I decided to switch over to TMP which always gave me 7-8 in akalinity.

While using the TMP I dosed my tank with Polyp Lab ONE, iodine, and trace elements and never had any issues. The issues arrived when my salt mix is down to 1/3 of the bucket.

I could conclude that it's the salt that caused all these issues because I use this salt to mix 5 gallon water and tested it for all the parameters. As I said, Mg was 1900+ while calcium was over 500.

I test my water once or twice weekly and found problem at the beginning of this month. I didn't think it was the salt mix so I made water changes, which made the problem worst. As I mentioned I didn't think it was the salt at first so I couldn't stop this from happening. The damage was done very quickly....this all happened in less than 2 weeks.


The four tanks are: 90G, two 28Gs, and 29G to hold new corals.

I may one day try TM again on one of my tank but for now I'm trying out brightwell, which was recommended by my local stores. May be I should have mix the whole bucket since the beginning. I just didn't think the salt would settle like this. I wish TM has 200G mix that contains four 50G bags like the instant ocean. Because of what I had experienced I purchased brightwell salt in 50G pouch just to be on the safe side. Oh, I mix the whole bag before using it this time around. LOL. I found that I need less salt to mix my water when I use brightwell salt, which is good for me economically. LOL

 

[pachi_boi86]

I have just tired it for the first time and the params were spot on. Maybe it is a bad test kit. The other thing is if you have one parameter like alk off you should not compensate with more salt mix you should have just used baking soda or something to raise just the alk. By adding more salt mix, your ca and mag would have went up also.

Read more: Has anyone had any problems with Tropic Marin Pro Salt Mix?
​

Yes, I wasn't adding more salt to the tank. When I found out the mix was 3.5 in akalinity I put in more salt just to see how much salt it would take to bring it up to proper level. I never had to use any buffer in the past 1 1/2 years for my tanks because parameters were always at the proper level

 

[pachi_boi86]

I was happy with TMP during the first 2 months of using it. Problems started when salt was low in the bucket. So, yes, I guess I should have mixed the whole bucket at first. I would still try TM out again because I think the bucket I got may be one of only few bad batches on the market. Judging from the positive reviews and very few negative ones on web sites I think TMP should be a quality salt. Thanks everyone for the comments I got so far.

 

[SPStoner]

Honestly, if it was good in the beginning, I would say it was not a bad batch, but one that needed to be mixed before use. Remember that Tropic Marin is made in Europe. It travels by boat to the US, goes through customs, then to a distributor, then to a retailer, then to you. Lots of travel time for mix to "settle".

I won't get in to how economical Brightwell, or any other salt is, because I am 100% biased, but keep in mind that many stores recommend brands that aren't as widely available online at the big online houses, because you are more likely to buy from them. Not saying that is the case here, but something to keep in mind..


Good luck!

 

[pachi_boi86]

Honestly, if it was good in the beginning, I would say it was not a bad batch, but one that needed to be mixed before use. Remember that Tropic Marin is made in Europe. It travels by boat to the US, goes through customs, then to a distributor, then to a retailer, then to you. Lots of travel time for mix to "settle".

I won't get in to how economical Brightwell, or any other salt is, because I am 100% biased, but keep in mind that many stores recommend brands that aren't as widely available online at the big online houses, because you are more likely to buy from them. Not saying that is the case here, but something to keep in mind..


Good luck!

Read more: Has anyone had any problems with Tropic Marin Pro Salt Mix?
​

I agree 100% with you, travelling through a long journey could cause the mix to settle.

I feel better about this now because I already got two nice size pink ******* from vivid to replace the ones I've lost. :wink:

 

[SPStoner]

That always brings a smile to my face:bigsmile::bigsmile::bigsmile:

 

[tampasnooker]

I think you guys just hit on the issue. Heavier elements would settle during the shipping, so the initial uses from the bucket may have been higher in KH and lower in Mg. I used TMP happily for years until recent supply issues got me to switch to reef crystals. Both are great products. I have a 165 gal tub so I would mix the whole bucket at once, eliminating issues from settling. I think that whatever the product, whenever buying bulk buckets or sacks it is best to either thoroughly mix the dry salt before use or else mix the whole enchilada if you have the means.