Oceanic SaltMix High CA values

[aromano]

I was wondering where my high calcium values were coming from, as I tested the water 24 hours after a 10 gallon water change and surprisingly the CA values increased significantly.

I decided then to test the water from a 5 gallon bucket with new water mixed with Oceanic Salt Mix and discovered that at specific gravity of 1.025 the CA value tested at 620ppm. I am going to stop using this salt brand, but now I am worried about precipitation and other side effects that the high calcium can do to my tank.

I tested the water today and my results were:

PH 7.9
Ammonia 0.0 mg/l
Nitrite 0.0 mg/l
Nitrate 5.0 mg/l
Calcium 700 ppm
Alkalinity 2.51 meq/L
KH 7.0
Salinity 1.023
Temperature 78.4 – 79.3

Most of my corals seem to be doing OK, but both of my brain corals and a large colony of ricordia mushrooms don't look good lately and have been very stressed. I am almost certain that is related to this issue. I am debating between experimenting either Kent or Instant Ocean Salt Mix, which have lower calcium levels. If anyone has any comments or suggestions about this topic or how to solve this issue, please let me know.

As far as my knowledge goes, the coral's skeleton is a result of waste deposit so it can multiply its cells. This process cannot be done with calcium in them, so corals have developed a means to deal with removing the calcium from their cells... But having exceedingly high levels puts the corals in a state of stress. So the more calcium values are over natural sea water, the harder the corals have to work, consuming the energy budget they have other need things.


Here is what Oceanic is telling people

"At a specific gravity of 1.021 – 1.023 Oceanic sea salt yields calcium concentrations of 420 – 480 ppm which are comparable to natural sea water.
Some reef tank aquarists prefer to maintain their tanks at a specific gravity of 1.025 or greater. With Oceanic salt, this high specific gravity results in calcium levels that can exceed 550 ppm which can disturb the delicate carbonate/bicarbonate equilibrium causing transient pH fluctuations. For reef tanks it is recommended that Oceanic salt be used at 1.024 specific gravity which should yield high calcium and magnesium levels without causing hardness and pH imbalance.

We have talked with the scientist who formulated our salt about this issue. He does not feel the formulation should be changed. Here are some suggestions that were given from him for aquarist who feel it is necessary to run their tanks and higher specific gravity.

1) Mix Oceanic salt to sg 1.023. To this slowly add and completely dissolve solid analytical reagent grade sodium chloride to desired sg. This procedure will increase sg without effecting calcium and magnesium levels.

2) Mix Oceanic salt to sg 1.023 – 1.025. Before adding to tank, treat with dKh hardness buffer to attain dKh of 5-7. Add gradually to tank after solution has equilibrated.





If I can be of further assistance, please let me know."

 

[aromano]

By doing some research on this topic, I have found a considerable amount of people using Oceanic SaltMix with the same high CA values.
Some people have found that by mixing Oceanic with other salt mix brands can bring the values closer to NSW.

Here is a comparison chart made by mixing different brands of salt mix... The results were tested w/ (salifert) each of these three salts Istant Ocean, Oceanic and Crystal Sea.

here are the results:

SG =1.025....Instant Ocean | Oceanic | Crystal Sea

Cal...................380..................500...........380
Alk...................11.5..................7.7............8.5
PH.....................8.0..................7.8............8.5
Mag.................1140.................1560.........1140



Sg = 1.025.........OI/Oc............CS/Oc
Cal.......................430................440
Alk.........................9.6................9.6
Ph..........................8.0................8.3
Mag.....................1260...............1350

"The Oceanic & Crystal Sea numbers were pretty near perfect.

The Oceanic & Instant Ocean numbers were close except the PH and Mag was still a bit low. but the PH can be raised by dripping Kalk and once you get Mag up to where you want it, it really doesn't flucuate much from water changes.

I have been using the 50/50 Oceanic & Crystal Sea, mainly because the numbers were better and Crystal sea was only about $18 per bucket.
so instead of adding additives that cost money i was actually saving money cause i wasn't adding anything, but was saving money cause of the low cost per 150 gal bucket of Crystal Sea.

i've never had a problem with anything in my tank which is mostly SPS and have had decent growth."

 

[skipm]

It sounds like the biggest problem is that Oceanic salt is formulated to be mixed only up to 1.023, when ever it is mixed to a higher salinity is when you will run into problems with too high calcium levels.
Pretty good idea about mixing salts to get the levels where you want them but I think I'll stick to a single brand so I don't have to worry about compatibility problems. Skip

 

[aromano]

Thx for the reply skipm,

I got a bucket of Instant Ocean today and mixed 15 gallons for a 25% water change tomorrow. It's being hard to keep PH and alkalinity levels with calcium at 680ppm... My sand bed is starting to turn into a cement block.

The new water has been heated to 79.0 degrees, the same temperature as the tank. I am hoping to get the CA levels significantly lower with this water change and hopefully everything will go well.

 

[sadielynn]

Andre
do you think that there could be another cause to your hi calcium levels ?
I use Instant Ocean and my calcium in in the 420 range ?

 

[aromano]

Hi Sadielynn,

Once I detected the high calcium values in my tank, I decided to test the water from a 5 gallon bucket with new water mixed with Oceanic Salt Mix and discovered that at specific gravity of 1.025 the CA value tested at 620ppm. I think the problem is that Oceanic formulated the salt to be mixed only up to 1.023 and when mixed at a higher specific gravity calcium and magnesium values can get out of control.
I am hoping it's the salt mix other wise I would be clueless of what else could be keeping the calcium values so high.

Here is some useful info I found by doing some research of other people who have been having the same problem with Oceanic SaltMix.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... did=407011

 

[sadielynn]

Wow that is intresting ,
I am thinking that this is something in the tank that is causing the spikes . I have tested again that it is showing that the ca is holding steady @ 425 I will have to test the mag levels in our tank .............but what I find intresting is that it is running at 1.025 and has been for 4 months or greater and has not done any thing to our substrate (the substrate we use is live ag sand packaged in water ) if you are dosing anything that could move the mag out of control perhaps . I mix our by the 5 gallon boxes and use a distilled water for mixing ,and here is how I do so ......I place the h20 into a bucket plug in power heads airate for 24 hours , then on the 24 hour mark add in the salt , again continue to mix for an addtional 24 hours (I use no heater and the mixing is done in a dark basement ) then I test the water for spg consitantally @ 1.025 I bottle the water and airate for 1 - 2 hours before a water change , I use this in the 2.5 gallon as well as the 7 gallon and have had no problems . I have used oceanic and had terrible algae blooms others have said they too have had these problems with that particular salt brand . So I went back to IO and have been happy with it .

 

[aromano]

Nice info Sadielynn, thanks for sharing.
I also switched to IO now and want to gradually bring my tank back to normal levels, since this past month hasn't been fun with my parameters out of wack.
I normaly use ESV Bionic Calcium & Alkalinity Buffer to maintain proper levels of CA and Alk, but I haven't used for weeks and now since the alkalinity has reached 2.40 I started dosing just part 1 to try to bring the alkalinity back to normal.

Even though all brands of saltmix seem to have minor issues here and there, IO has been around for years and I never really heard anything bad about it.
I also connect a powerhead to the RO water leave it running for 24hrs and then add salt and let it run for another 24hrs before testing and adding it to the tank. I only use a heater if a more significant water change has to be made to keep the temperature stable.
I used to buy water, but now with a large tank I got an RODI unit (100gpd) to get rid of the water runs every week.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

You're going to find tha trying to balance your alk and calc is more of a chore than you initially thought it would be. I went through this a couple years ago. Here's a article for you to read through about that - http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

Another problem IO has is it's low magnesium level. I buy premixed IO and it tests out at 1110 ppm when it should be up in the 1250-1300 ppm range. I dose mg to keep my level up.

 

[aromano]

Very cool, I have read this article before and it has exelent information. I actually have this one saved along with a collection of a many others about reef keeping.

Here is another one about "Aquaria Salt Study Part II" with some interesting charts.
Don't know how accurate they really are. The only way to find out is to keep testing our water and try to correct the values.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/12/aafeature1/view