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Originally Posted by Barbara
I always wondered why one was so much more than the other.....I mean salt is salt right? is it just because of the additives? if so, can't WE just add them ourselves? and why would one cloud the water more than another?  |
There are different grades (purity levels) of the chemicals used to make salt mix's. The clouding comes from either anti-caking agents or precipitation. Precipitation can happen if the water your adding the salt to is too cold or you add too much salt at once.
Chemical grade definitions from highest to lowest purity...
1. A.C.S.
A chemical grade of highest purity and meets or exceeds purity standards set by American Chemical Society (ACS).
2. Reagent
High purity generally equal to A.C.S. grade and suitable for use in many laboratory and analytical applications.
3. U.S.P.
A chemical grade of sufficient purity to meet or exceed requirements of the U.S. Pharmacopeia (USP); acceptable for food, drug, or medicinal use; may be used for most laboratory purposes.
4. N.F.
A grade of sufficient purity to meet or exceed requirements of the National Formulary (NF).
5. Lab
A chemical grade of relatively high quality with exact levels of impurities unknown; usually pure enough for educational applications. Not pure enough to be offered for food, drug, or medicinal use of any kind.
6. Purified
Also called pure or practical grade, and indicates good quality chemicals meeting no official standard; can be used in most cases for educational applications. Not pure enough to be offered for food, drug, or medicinal use of any kind.
7. Technical
Good quality chemical grade used for commercial and industrial purposes. Not pure enough to be offered for food, drug, or medicinal use of any kind.
is it just because of the additives? if so, can't WE just add them ourselves? and why would one cloud the water more than another?
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Originally Posted by logans_daddy
IMO? No.
For the most part yes.
yes you can. there are at least 70 trace elements found in NSW. are they important? i dont know but i personally think they are. can you locate, dose, and test for them to make sure they are added in the proper ratios? i dont know, but i cant. |
Most of the trace elements can be found as impurities in the other major salt compounds use to make these mixs.
This is the basis for all the salt mix's out there today and was patented by Frank Millero back in the late 60's (i think)
23.98 g sodium chloride
5.029 g magnesium chloride
4.01 g sodium sulfate
1.14 g calcium chloride
0.699 g potassium chloride
0.172 g sodium bicarbonate
0.100 g potassium bromide
0.0254 g boric acid
0.0143 g strontium chloride
0.0029 g sodium fluoride
Water to 1 kg total weight.
The end purity of the mix will of course depend on the purity level of the above salts. Its pretty easy to tell that non of the salt mix's out there are using the highest purity ingredients just by searching all the above salts and the different purity levels they come in and then pricing them at the quantities needed. (Ive done it)
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again, i dont know but in my opinion this is usually directly related to the quality of the salt. the cheaper salts ive used usually leave residue and the higher ends salts do not but i have not used all saltmix brands.
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Weve used both TM and TM pro in the past and ive gotten precipitation from them just like i get with
IO if the water is cold or i add all the salt at once. With
IO if the water is warm and i add half the salt i need one day and the rest the next i dont get precipitation.
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everyone will have different opinions on this subject and i will be no exception. what i will say is this topic is one i have read a lot about and given a lot of thought to and shared my ideas for the last several years with local members. i dont think there is anything wrong with 2/3 part dosing. however, for me, im not comfortable with putting something in my tank that is manufactured for the use of being put on your sidewalks.
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Prestone driveway heat is repackaged Peladow 94% pure calcium chloride (the other 6% is mostly water and
MG chloride) Peladow wasnt designed specifically to be put on your drive way. It has a whole bunch of different uses one of which happens to be melting ice. Pealdow is the exact same thing as Kent turbo calcium and thats marketed to the reef hobby as reef safe.
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Randy ammended his original article with the fact that he was contacted by Prestone(or one of the other manufactures) stating that they do not recommend their product to be used in reef tanks.
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Yes but your not saying why they said that. Dow chemical contacted him about a year after he wrote the 2 part article and told him that they are no longer producing borate so the are no longer refining their calcium chloride to remove the small amount of borate in it. Randy also said that even with the borate left in the produce the levels are small and he dosent see any problem with using it.
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for me buying 50lb sacks of chemicals with quality control standards not meant for this hobby along with the labor of measuring and dosing is not worth it. also, unless you dose daily or at least every couple of days your tank will not be as stable as it can be.
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I would have to argue that almost every additive out there for this hobby has low QC standards. Companys arent even required to put ingredient lists on the stuff they sell and they can make all the claims they want about what the product can do (ecoaqualizer anyone
)
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something else ive always found interesting are the number of RC TOTM that have since crashed because of unknown causes and all the talk about "old tank syndrome".
I do only waterchanges in a 265g SPS dominated tank with no dosing via daily 5-10g waterchanges with a target of 50-100% monthly turnover based on testing. I do so with the following thoughts in mind.
1)Regardless of whatever substance that this or that expert feels builds up over time that contributes to old tank syndrome i feel that dilution will prevent this from happening.
2)Waterchanges without dosing or minimum dosing will keep ionic balance among the different elements in the water. How important is this? Again, i dont know. It depends on which expert you want to believe. Personally? I think it can be a significant "unobserved" factor in old tank syndrome.
3)Small frequent waterchanges keeps my tank SUPER stable, keeps my major paramters at the right levels and stable, keeps my trace elements that i dont dose where they should be, and keeps my NO3 and PO4 and 0ppm with no reactors or other methods other than a fuge.
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I thought you were doing the balling method?