Alright, so I replaced my old test kits and got some new ones. Went with the typical API reef master kit and the Elos mg. I wanted to do salifert across the board, but that would have been over double to cost to piece those together. Anyways, I have been using primarily the seachem reef salt for the past year and I just got my hands on a bucket of the aquavitro salt from seachem. I checked both of my tanks and the alk is low in my display and the mg is high in both, other than that, things seem to be good. I am going to be testing more frequently to see if the salt makes a difference. I will update this next week:

Here are the tests I did today for my tanks

DISPLAY
dkh - 6
phos - 0
Nitrate - 0
Calcium - 480
Mg - 1400

FRAG
dkh - 9
phos - 0
nitrate - 0
Calcium - 480
Mg - 1450

any first impressions???
have been reading about it. starting a new tank soon and almost bought a bucket at my LFS yesterday (it's a pretty impressive price tag..)
saw your original thread asking if anyone's got any experience... didn't see any real replies.
keep us posted...
cheers...

none yet, I had a bag of reef crystals around and I just mixed up the last of that, so this week I am going to do try the aquavitro and see how it goes.

It was only about $75 out the door and for 225 gallons it is actually a better deal than most salts. They also put a batch specific label that has all of their lab testing results. I am going to compare and see once I mix some up.

Does their label list the specifications they mixed it at? If so, are you mixing the same way? I haven't seen this salt yet and am curious if they list how they tested it.

I believe it has the temp and the SG that they do the testing at.

Let me know how it does. The alk seems a little low though?

How did you like the seachem reef you were using?

Alk is low in the display, I don't know why. This is the testing before trying the new salt. I am going to do a 5 gallon water change tomorrow and see if that changes the alk reading at all, If it was my old salt that was causing the low alk I will see if I can correct it with new stuff. If not, I will have to start some dosing regimine.


Seachem reef was always nice for me, but the person at the LFS said they had a bad batch and people were having major problems, people were sending their water in supposedly and there was even copper detected. Not sure on the validity of this and I didn't check into it because I have been wanting to try the aquavitro since I read about it. It was just time for me to get it since it was finally in.

I have Seachem. Uh oh.

Sounds just like Oceanic salt my Alk runs low and I dose Bionic alk that is it. All the other levels are spot on.

I would like to try and avoid dosing, but if the new salt doesn't help bump me up to where I want to be, I will start dosing for in the future. Going to test the mixed water tonight to see how it compares to the printed label on the bucket.

anxiously awaiting test results...
what brand of tests?
how long are u gonna let it mix?
how long did it take to go into solution?
any white chalky stuff left over (a la... multiple complaints from Seachem Reef salt)?

yes, i ask a lot of questions.
yes, i living vicariously through you.
but...
you're the only one on here i know is using this stuff

thanks for the info. hope your experiment goes well...

Elos mag, API reef master, I also have a salifert Ca, but I will probably just use API.

It mixed overnight.

Dissolved super quick and the salt grains are very unique, absolutely no clumping, it is like sand sized grains.

No chalky stuff left over that I can see.

Seachem reef salt was good, but it did get clumpy (even in secured container) It also took a long time to dissolve.

We will see what happens. I have to eat dinner then put together a couple boxes for shipments tomorrow before I go ahead and test. I will probably only do Ca, Mg and DKH, no point to test the other stuff IMO.

Sorry about not getting back to the thread last night, the verdict is in...

So, the batch specific label on my bucket had these values:

ALK 3.8
Ca 420
Mg 1376
(remember, these are lab tests which are probably more accurate than we have access to)

My readings from salt at 1.025 @ 80 degrees and was allowed to mix for 36 hours:

ALK 3.57 DKH 10
Ca 440
Mg 1350

Overall I am pretty impressed with how accurate the readings were. Now I am going to be testing my display tanks water over the next month and see if these values will change my low DKH (currently around 6-7) and my high mg (around 1400). I am also going to see if my calcium stays in the zone of 440-480.

Which brand? This is the aquavitro?

Yeah, aquavitro. They put their values from each specific batch on each bucket. I was curious to see how big of a difference there would be. It is close enough for me to be satisfied and now I am going to do my first WC and see if it changes any values I have in my display.

call me impressed...
may have found a new salt to try.
thanks!

All around I am happy, but it is time to see if those levels can be sustained by water changes alone. I have 4 different kinds of acros a birdsnest and 5 different montis in my tank. Nothing huge as far as sps but we will track this and see if the salt will help me avoid dosing for ca, mg or alk.

I'll definitely be standing by waiting for long term results, I've yet to find a salt that will hold good levels across the board with weekly water changes and I've tried quite a few salts, dosing always seems inevitable to me.

I picked up a bucket of this stuff too today and I'm going to try it as well. I've had low magnesium with Marine Environment salt.

They charged me 100 bucks plus tax though meh still cheaper than what I was using and if it works better then it'll last quite a while for my pico lol.

Wow, seems pricey, but I guess each vendor chooses what they will sell it for. Maybe I need to pick up another bucket at the 69.99 in case they increase it over time.


Feel free to jump on board and post the results...

I dunno about the pricing, I thought I was going to have to have one of my LFSs order me a bucket and when I went in and saw it sitting there I figured I might as well just get it.

I just got a 5g bucket of SW mixing and I'll try to post some tests. I just have (nearly empty) API calcium and alk and red sea Magnesium for now though so they won't be super accurate.

I guess now is when I'll find out if my old salt was actually low in Mg or if my test kit just sucks...

I havn't forgot about this thread, I am going to do some quick tests tonight.

Is it even possible for levels to be maintained with only the typical 10 - 30% water changes, regardless of what salt you use? If you start with new salt water in the whole tank, at 450 ppm CA, your corals and such use some over the week and lets say it drops to 400 ppm CA, I don't think a 25% water change, with more water at 450 ppm, would bring the whole tank back up to 450 ppm...unless I'm thinking about this wrong? It seems like you'd always be faced with slowly dropping levels of anything your corals consume unless you dose, right?

And sorry, don't mean to hijack the thread. Still interested and what you think of the salt!

It is not hijacking, this is a discussion forum and discussion is welcome. I think it is possible to maintain levels, but you have to be religious w/your water changes.

I have 5 different kinds of montis, 3 acros, 1 stylo and 1 good sized mille colony and I have never dosed any ca supplement and my levels have stayed spot on. The only thing I do dose is brightwells coral amino and DT's phyto occasionally. My colonies are not huge, but they are decent sized for the tank and have been growing like crazy since I introduced them to the system.

Results from the latest test after 2 WC's at about 15%. I just tested the big three (mg,dkh,ca)

Mg 1250 (dropped a bit from the 1400 I had previously, which is fine IMO)
DKH 8 (raised up from 6 and is closer to where I want to be)
Ca 500 (don't know how it went up, but it did, I even compensated an extra drop)

Looks to be doing the job so far. I am hoping that the mg can stay at this level along with Ca and the DKH get up another one or two points. I will post more results after 2 more waterchanges

Definitely caught my interest. Will be following thread and thanks for posting the testing results. A bit early in the testing process for me to run out and make a switch, but time will tell. So, thus far you are just testing from your Main tank right? I assume you also made the switch and WC on your frag tank too? I would assume that is where you highest demand for elements is, so I would be curious to see a future test there to compare to the original stats you posted. Thanks again.

this is definitely the saltiest salt i've seen!
they're not kiddin' when they say it mixes more salt per bucket.
my standard 1/2 cup per gal of RO/DI yielded a salinity of almost 45 ppt.
looks like this bucket's gonna go a long way.
cheers...

your original test on the fresh mix doesnt match the lab test because the salt settles. i was told you need to either make one huge batch of water or roll the bucket to mix the salt. i had a a difference of 100mg from the top to the bottom of a bucket of oceanic.

following along since im looking to switch salts.

Carlton do you have an update on your salt test? I am interested int he finding as well. It looked promising before. Hope all is well still