My results: Red Sea Coral Pro Salt - fresh mix parameters

Chriscrna · Aug 25, 2016

Fresh salt mix parameters were brought up on a thread somewhere in the ETRC forums, but for the life of me, I cannot find it. So here is a new thread......

I've been using Coral Pro for years with great success. However, I've always assumed the Red Sea parameter chart and never actually tested the parameters myself.

I use RODI with 0 TDS, do not heat my water, and mix based on Red Sea's "how to" video:

Here are my results:
Mix time - 1.5 hours
Water temp - 74
Salinity - 35 ppt
pH - 8.6
Alk - 11.4
Ca - 491
Mg - not measured
K - not measured

Tank parameters before and after water change:
Temp - 78.5 to 78.2
Salinity remained at 35 ppt
pH - 8.17 to 8.27
Alk - 9.4 to 9.6
Ca - Multiple conflicted readings from Hanna checker

Only thing that really surprised me was the pH. Was not expecting it to be quite so high. Perhaps it's temperature or mix time related, I'm not sure.

I plan to repeat this test in 2 weeks with the next water change. I've ordered both Salifert and Red Sea calcium checkers, and will add Mg to the results as well.

Kungpaoshizi · Aug 25, 2016

Save yourself some money and send a sample to Triton.

Thanks for posting though, always love to see parameters posted since it seems salts change a little bit from time to time.

BlueDevil · Aug 25, 2016

That's interesting! I really would have expected the alk to increase by more than just 0.2 dkh. You obviously have it working very well for you, but just in case you ever need to do a really large water change (say 30%), I wonder what kind of an impact it would have on the alk/pH then?

Mark75 · Aug 25, 2016

I think you may have a testing error on the 8.6 pH,...that is very, very high pH. [emoji50]

You sure you didn't accidentally test your kalk container? [emoji12]

Chriscrna · Aug 25, 2016

Kungpaoshizi said:
Save yourself some money and send a sample to Triton.

Thanks for posting though, always love to see parameters posted since it seems salts change a little bit from time to time.

Interesting you say that, because I was looking at Triton kits today while doing this.

But I ran 3 tests: one on the fresh salt mix, one on my tank before the change, and one on my tank after the change. I don't think I'd be saving money at $50 a pop

Chriscrna · Aug 25, 2016

Mark75 said:
I think you may have a testing error on the 8.6 pH,...that is very, very high pH. [emoji50]

You sure you didn't accidentally test your kalk container? [emoji12]

pH was tested via lab grade probe on my apex.