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Anyone know anything about kent marine reef salt?


ReeferBrian

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ReeferBrian

I'm not getting the performance from what kent marine claims their reef salt will bring.I know it's probably not going to hit the exact numbers advertised but my dkh is at 7 just below the 8-12 advertised.my calcium is around 380.I'm using the api saltwater test kit.I tested both my best 10 gallon and my new 14 gallon,and both reef the same on calcium,and dkh after a 20%water change on both,and they say that it's a half a cup of salt to each gallon and I constantly have to add morethan that,any ideas? I'm thinking of switching to a different reef salt like instant ocean but open to suggestions

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What specific gravity do you keep your tanks at? Do you use a hydrometer or a calibrated refractometer? The more diluted the saltwater is, the lower the calcium and alkalinity numbers will be. Also test the freshly mixed saltwater to see what those values are. IDK, maybe you'll still decide to switch, but you should decide based on what the salt mixes to at a specific gravity of 1.025, and not what your display tank is currently at.

 

I'd also confirm the test results with another brand, or have your LFS test it for you (to compare against).

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Scallywags

well nutrients get used so depending on when you are testing (API has questionable and inconsistent results) it may just have been consumed... or readings may be off. Not sure of live stock but you could also just be consuming a lot of nutrients and need to supplement more than you salt provides which like 90% of people are required to do.

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I'm not getting the performance from what kent marine claims their reef salt will bring.I know it's probably not going to hit the exact numbers advertised but my dkh is at 7 just below the 8-12 advertised.my calcium is around 380.I'm using the api saltwater test kit.I tested both my best 10 gallon and my new 14 gallon,and both reef the same on calcium,and dkh after a 20%water change on both,and they say that it's a half a cup of salt to each gallon and I constantly have to add morethan that,any ideas? I'm thinking of switching to a different reef salt like instant ocean but open to suggestions

Kent Salt is huge here in Oregon, and has been for years. Most LFS in the area carry that over Reef Crystals or Red Sea etc. I used it for many years, as of last year I finally switched after 2 mishaps with my tank in which my Alk went to almost nothing forcing me to check my mixed parameters every time. It was rumored there was some bad batches that went out, but after 2 separate times months apart I simply lost trust and moved to Red Sea and have never had a problem since. I also noticed Kent has a ridiculous level of Calcium in it, I was unable to ever bring my levels lower than 475 using it.

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I'm not getting the performance from what kent marine claims their reef salt will bring.I know it's probably not going to hit the exact numbers advertised but my dkh is at 7 just below the 8-12 advertised.my calcium is around 380.I'm using the api saltwater test kit.I tested both my best 10 gallon and my new 14 gallon,and both reef the same on calcium,and dkh after a 20%water change on both,and they say that it's a half a cup of salt to each gallon and I constantly have to add morethan that,any ideas? I'm thinking of switching to a different reef salt like instant ocean but open to suggestions

You have to test the newly mixed salt - not your tanks. if your calcium and alk are low to begin with because the elements are getting used by the inhabitants of your tank, a 20% water change won't bring them up to what you're expecting.

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ReeferBrian

Kent Salt is huge here in Oregon, and has been for years. Most LFS in the area carry that over Reef Crystals or Red Sea etc. I used it for many years, as of last year I finally switched after 2 mishaps with my tank in which my Alk went to almost nothing forcing me to check my mixed parameters every time. It was rumored there was some bad batches that went out, but after 2 separate times months apart I simply lost trust and moved to Red Sea and have never had a problem since. I also noticed Kent has a ridiculous level of Calcium in it, I was unable to ever bring my levels lower than 475 using it.

that is very helpful thank you,ill be switching soon

What specific gravity do you keep your tanks at? Do you use a hydrometer or a calibrated refractometer? The more diluted the saltwater is, the lower the calcium and alkalinity numbers will be. Also test the freshly mixed saltwater to see what those values are. IDK, maybe you'll still decide to switch, but you should decide based on what the salt mixes to at a specific gravity of 1.025, and not what your display tank is currently at. I keep it at 1.026 but haven't tried checking the freshly mixed water,great suggestion

I'd also confirm the test results with another brand, or have your LFS test it for you (to compare against).

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that is very helpful thank you,ill be switching soon

I don't blame you, I keep a hanna alk checker that I use Daily for testing, I dose with BRS 2 part and maintain an alk of ~9. When I was using Kent I had a 12G Nano, and luckily I figured it out very quickly when I checked my alk after a water change it had also dropped below 7 (5 Gallon Weekly Water Change) I immediately mixed another bucket and did an API Test and got a reading of 6, I had to slowly dose the tank with Soda ash till I brought it up to 9 (on top of my nightly auto dosing's).. Not fun. I then saw a couple posts on my local forum of people discussing the same issue, so I was out. Though I would have thought they might have fixed it as that was some time ago. Also keep in mind there are other factors, if your Alk disapears quickly it could be the corals are using it up if your not dosing, precipitation could also be at play as well so you want to isolate the problem by testing a freshly mixed bucket before it goes into the tank to ensure the salt is the issue.

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I'm not getting the performance from what kent marine claims their reef salt will bring.I know it's probably not going to hit the exact numbers advertised but my dkh is at 7 just below the 8-12 advertised.my calcium is around 380.I'm using the api saltwater test kit.I tested both my best 10 gallon and my new 14 gallon,and both reef the same on calcium,and dkh after a 20%water change on both,and they say that it's a half a cup of salt to each gallon and I constantly have to add morethan that,any ideas? I'm thinking of switching to a different reef salt like instant ocean but open to suggestions

My experiences with Kent were similar in that my alk and calcium was always low, usually around 7 dkh and 380ppm, and that was from a fresh batch before I did a wc. I had to dose alk and calcium and drip kalk to keep my levels up. Also, magnesium was off the chart! 1500-1600 when measured with Red Sea test kits. I have since switched to Reef Crystals and my parameters are stable at 9dkh 450 cal and 1400mag. Still dosing kalk

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Red_Blenny

I've been using Kent for about 2+ years and I've noticed that Alk is generally low (between 7-8dKH) and Calcium is high (500+ ppm); tested with Red Sea test kits.

 

For me, I don't mind since I like to keep my alk low (around 8-8.5dKH) and I don't think there's anything bad about having super high Ca. If anything, high Ca generally means low alk.

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ReeferBrian

You have to test the newly mixed salt - not your tanks. if your calcium and alk are low to begin with because the elements are getting used by the inhabitants of your tank, a 20% water change won't bring them up to what you're expecting.

might be time to start doseing
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ReeferBrian

I don't blame you, I keep a hanna alk checker that I use Daily for testing, I dose with BRS 2 part and maintain an alk of ~9. When I was using Kent I had a 12G Nano, and luckily I figured it out very quickly when I checked my alk after a water change it had also dropped below 7 (5 Gallon Weekly Water Change) I immediately mixed another bucket and did an API Test and got a reading of 6, I had to slowly dose the tank with Soda ash till I brought it up to 9 (on top of my nightly auto dosing's).. Not fun. I then saw a couple posts on my local forum of people discussing the same issue, so I was out. Though I would have thought they might have fixed it as that was some time ago. Also keep in mind there are other factors, if your Alk disapears quickly it could be the corals are using it up if your not dosing, precipitation could also be at play as well so you want to isolate the problem by testing a freshly mixed bucket before it goes into the tank to ensure the salt is the issue.

thank you for the info,I'm going to test a newly mixed batch and see,I'm probably going to switch to instant ocean anyway,all the corals I have are polyps,xenias,and one small torch coral,but I thank you for the info anymore advice would be great,did you switch ?
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If you switch to Instant Ocean be sure you get the "Reef Crystals" That is their reef brand, just standard IO is primarily for Fish only tanks. I personally went with Red Sea Coral Pro and have no issues with holding parameters stable.

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Thanks everyone,I started dosing kent marine part a and b and everything is ok now,I'm not dosing every day as it's not needed,ill keep doing that for now corals look great now and parameters are calcium 420ppm,alk 9,I do test more which isn't a bad thing but just glad it's working out!I'm not switching brands just yet

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