janky jameson Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 so i'm not usually one to just get on here and trash products, and i'm also not sure this is even in the right section. i guess i hope that maybe a few new reefheads who haven't quite selected their first salt mix yet will see this first. i started using oceanic salt about 4 water changes ago, and started noticing a slow and general decline in my tank around the same time. nothing is really dying, but nothing is really open all the way except for a few of my sps, which i found strange. i started testing my levels, and noticed that my calcium had been rising: from 420ppm to 460ppm in only a few days. my alkalinity was also dropping, so i started dosing that to try and keep up. after a week of trying to even it out, i realized that my efforts were futile. i decided to do a series of water changes over the course of a week, to try and drop everything back to normal, and then start using B-ionic (which, I recommend starting out with a 2 part to anybody) to keep everything stable. just tested my water change: sg 1.024 (normal), calcium is off the charts. my test only reads up to 520ppm, with a 20ppm increase with each drop added. i'm over 600ppm and the thing still hasn't changed colors. i don't know if i got a bad batch or what, but be careful and make sure you measure the water change first before you dump oceanic mix into your tank. it almost destroyed my tank. correction: to be fair, I almost destroyed my tank, not the mix. but it was because i declined to test my water changes, and because i assumed that no salt mix would have crazy undesirably high calcium levels. my bad. Link to comment
shag26272 Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 I have heard bad things about the oceanic salt also, I switched to Tropic Marin, calcium is perfect , I just dose a little Alk now. Link to comment
chrisdamage Posted July 2, 2007 Share Posted July 2, 2007 I'm a fan of Red Sea's salt mix... good stuff, perfect if you use RO water Link to comment
toastii Posted July 3, 2007 Share Posted July 3, 2007 so i guess the fact that i have a 200gl bucket of oceanic is bad? i liked it? but i wasnt using it for reef... i was using it for my seahorses- and nothing really soaks up the Ca in that tank- that i know of..... ummmm sooo what does this mean.. for me? heh also arent you not supposed to really change salt mixes- that if you have a mix stick to it- i have heard bad things about just switching salt mixes Link to comment
EtOH_is_good Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 it may very well be a bad batch. you may want to check with the company. also may want to look for some hidden die-off as a cause of your coral not opening. i use oceanic without having problems with my coral. of course, i liked my sps to use the high calc levels. as for dosing two part, why? high calc levels won't be solved while adding equal volumes of two part solution. while continuing with weekly water changes, i would let the tank find it's equilibrium without dosing. Link to comment
supernip Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 you're using a droplet based test? Link to comment
surftaco Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 I use Oceanic Sea Salt. Been using it since I started my tank. Everything looks great. I guess your tank was just use to the other brand. Link to comment
eklikewhoa Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 I too have had no problems with Oceanic salts. Link to comment
dtfleming Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 I've been using oceanic salt for a year without problem. Sure you weren't dosing too much? Link to comment
Truck_Under_Water Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 I've been using oceanic salt for a year without problem. Sure you weren't dosing too much? DITTO. Link to comment
mattyice Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 i use oceanic salt in my 125 and i love the way it mixes and i dont have any problem with high calcium at all, then again i have about 5 frags of SPS that grow fast and i also have a gigas clam that sucks up calcium like no other, so i have to top off with kalkwasser and dose B-Ionic 2 part all the time to keep my calcium up Link to comment
Mike Savage Posted July 4, 2007 Share Posted July 4, 2007 I have been using Oceanic for a couple years with no problems. Two things come to mind. Check your hydrometer/refractometer to make sure it is still in calibration and bring up the Alk to where it should be and the CA will come down. Mike Link to comment
baconfingers Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 Like the author, I have found Oceanic sea salt to have high levels of calcium. I believe I am measuring the salt correctly, as my mixed water has 1.025 gravity. Here is what I've done to deal with it so far. I stocked my tank 3 months ago and as soon as I began doing water changes with Oceanic mix I had precipitation. So I've been gradually making changes over time including: - added 4th stage (DI cartridge) to my RO buddie - tested for & dosed magnesium (slowly) to bring it up to 1350 (it was under 1000) - dosed baking soda to get pH and dKH into ideal ranges (they were on the low side at 8 and 7 respectively) - frequently tested calcium in the DT to monitor its decline which has been very slow if at all. i have gone from 540 down to 520 - with the addition of magnesium, precipitation has begun to fade significantly but is still visible - tested my RO 3 stage water w/ oceanic and my new RO 4 stage water w/ oceanic. it was 520 ppm calc in both So I'm going to switch away from oceanic in my next water change and hope to see the new mix has less calc (i'll test) and lowers my tank's calcium accordingly, with a goal of ending the precipitation. If I can get there, I'll begin dosing Kalk via my ATO. I think I will hold on to the remaining Oceanic mix, for when I have corals, i figure the extra boost of calcium may come in handy? Not sure, my first tank. Link to comment
chipmunkofdoom2 Posted February 20, 2016 Share Posted February 20, 2016 janky, are you using RO water? Do you stir/mix the salt mix before using it? What are your Ca, Mg and alkalinity readings for newly mixed water and your tank? Link to comment
Rehype Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 Like the author, I have found Oceanic sea salt to have high levels of calcium. I believe I am measuring the salt correctly, as my mixed water has 1.025 gravity. Here is what I've done to deal with it so far. I stocked my tank 3 months ago and as soon as I began doing water changes with Oceanic mix I had precipitation. So I've been gradually making changes over time including: - added 4th stage (DI cartridge) to my RO buddie - tested for & dosed magnesium (slowly) to bring it up to 1350 (it was under 1000) - dosed baking soda to get pH and dKH into ideal ranges (they were on the low side at 8 and 7 respectively) - frequently tested calcium in the DT to monitor its decline which has been very slow if at all. i have gone from 540 down to 520 - with the addition of magnesium, precipitation has begun to fade significantly but is still visible - tested my RO 3 stage water w/ oceanic and my new RO 4 stage water w/ oceanic. it was 520 ppm calc in both So I'm going to switch away from oceanic in my next water change and hope to see the new mix has less calc (i'll test) and lowers my tank's calcium accordingly, with a goal of ending the precipitation. If I can get there, I'll begin dosing Kalk via my ATO. I think I will hold on to the remaining Oceanic mix, for when I have corals, i figure the extra boost of calcium may come in handy? Not sure, my first tank. I use oceanic and have for many years. Its does have high calcium but thats not necessarily a bad thing. IME I only have to dose alk between water changes as the calcium never drops low enough to require supplemental dosing. This was the case even when I had a tank full of SPS coral. Link to comment
jack1978 Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 janky, are you using RO water? Do you stir/mix the salt mix before using it? What are your Ca, Mg and alkalinity readings for newly mixed water and your tank? This thread was from almost 10 years ago....... Link to comment
D3monic Posted February 21, 2016 Share Posted February 21, 2016 This thread was from almost 10 years ago....... Link to comment
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