Salinity Salt goes in cloudy?

[SquidBreath]

Hey all!
Well, everyone has been raving about this Salinity salt, and having just had my worst reef-fail ever, I was in need of a lot of salt at Reefstock, so I took the plunge and bought a big bucket of Salinity.

The distaster was that ATO got stuck and drained down to the VERY bottom--into the kalk. Tank looked like milk when I got home...lost some stuff...bah! :-(

Anyway...been doing some water changes, and wanted to ask of the other people who use this stuff...

Mixed overnight, it still goes in cloudy...it seems to clear up ok fast, but....is it supposed to go in cloudy?

Also...what are these greyish-brown grains in the bottom on the salt bucket now? It seems to leave a little dirt behind.

Should I be worried?

Any tips much appreciated.

Thanks
Dave

 

[280g-reefman]

So i "hypo" mix mine. Put a big pump in and let it circulate overnight. It is clear for me after that. Not sure about the little black thingies however i have seen them before. Possibly too high of concentration? Not sure, just a theory.

 

[Dbarnes]

Salinity Salt goes in cloudy?

Yep same here I mix it for 24hrs first, that will solve the cloudy water. You will also need to heat it to the temp of your tank due to it mixing @ a higher or lower salinity depending on the temperature of the water. I have never seen little black things

 

[Walter White]

I used Salinity for almost a year because I had always heard how great it was. I switched to ESV a few months back and now I don't think it was so great. You cant store it for more than a couple days max without it completely precipitating out of solution, It smells weird, It can be very cloudy, It leaves nasty brown residue behind as well at the other random crap you mentioned, and it always seems to **** my corals off every time I did a water change. Oh and lets not forget if your just mixing up small batches be prepared for every batch to be different.

I get none of the above with the ESV, sure its allot more effort to mix a batch because all the components are individually weighed but every batch comes out crystal clear, no smell, no residue or left over "stuff", I have tested it after three weeks of sitting in an air tight container and the parameters where exactly the same as the day I mixed it and even better I can change over half my water volume and still have excellent polyp extension.

I am no longer a fan of the salinity. I spoke with John at the Seachem booth at ReefStock and he acknowledged allot of these issues and said they are in the process of changing the formula to hopefully improve upon many of these issues. He also stated that Salinity is intended to be used right away and not allowed to sit with heat or excess agitation as this accelerates the rate of precipitation. I for one love many of the Seachem products but this is not one of them. At least not right now.

 

[Smiley]

^^ exact same reason but i switched to Microbe-Lift..

 

[jda123]

Temp and mix overnight and mine goes in clear. When I say mix, I have a mag 12 in a 33G Brute, not like a 1200 maxijet or something - it gets MIXED. I am not displeased with it, but I don't know that I would rave. I will use the rest of the bucket and then it is back to good ol' IO for me - it has never let me down.

 

[reef dummy]

Salinity Salt goes in cloudy?

Ive used salinity for a year with no problems. Mix it and heat in a 33 g brute overnight and it goes in clear. There is some brown residue on the brute when im done but not much, most salt mixes leave some residue.

 

[Bajamike]

Dont like salinity for all the reasons best luck with kent. I mix 55 gallons at a time ready to go in with 1 hour of mixing. Barrel is clean and fills with rodi after water change. I will say the more sps we ad we do need to dose alk a lot more but that seems to be the case with all salts

 

[SquidBreath]

Thanks for all the input guys...
I will grit my teeth and give this stuff a chance. Right now it's the only ship in the quadrant.
If not happy though, I will be goin back to Reef Crystals.

 

[Munch]

Funny, I flipped from RC to Salinity

 

[Walter White]

Dont get me wrong I dont think its a bad salt. I just dont think its worthy of all the praise it gets. IMO there are many other better salts for the money. I used it for a long while and it was just fine I just like my new salt 10 times better is all. Obviously allot people do just fine with it.

 

[Munch]

Yeah, alot depends on your tank. I switched from RC because my Alk started out much higher than I wanted. Close to 12 on freshly mixed water. With Salinity, I run 9.

 

[waterboy0524]

I'm halfway through my first bucket of salinity after using reef crystals for about a year. I haven't had any of the problems you've had. I mix 10 gallons at a time using a powerhead and a heater. After 24 hours its good to go. The one thing I like most about salinity vs. the other salts I've used is that Seachem lists the values of most of the ingredients including alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium, so I know what is being added with each water change.

 

[Guest]

I ran out of Kenta few months ago and decided to try salinity. So far so good. Sure its cloudy when mixed, but I let it sit with a pump in the mixing container for a day or so before I add it to the tanks. Never noticed any residue. I mix 5g at a time and it lasts a week or so. I dont test my water, so I couldnt tell you what any of the levels are doing. All I knowis my corals are healthy and colorful.

 

[Walter White]

I ran out of Kenta few months ago and decided to try salinity. So far so good. Sure its cloudy when mixed, but I let it sit with a pump in the mixing container for a day or so before I add it to the tanks. Never noticed any residue. I mix 5g at a time and it lasts a week or so. I dont test my water, so I couldnt tell you what any of the levels are doing. All I knowis my corals are healthy and colorful.

seriously do yourself a huge favor and test the calcium alk and mag after leaving it mix for 24hrs and compare the results
to what's on the side of the bucket you will see that they are a little lower than they should be but definitely with in a good range. Then let it sit for a full week and test it again you will be shocked! Your alk will be around 7 dkh at best. It will be even lower if you left a heater and power head on it all that time. Even Seachem will tell you not to leave it sit that long before using it. They will tell you it's designed to be used within the first few hours.

i want to clarify again its not a horrible salt I used it successfully or almost a year but its important to know how this salt works just in case something seems off like your parametrs fluctuating or suddenly dropping off. I will say that when I switched from salinity to ESV my growth nearly doubled and ORP went from an avg of 320 to 400.

in case anyone else is asking themselves the same question I did, "Why doesn't it do this in the aquarium then?". I asked Sechem this same question at reef stock and they said something to the effect of the excelerated precipitation stops when diluted with the older water in your tank.

 

[that0neguy1126]

I used it for about 2 years.

After experimenting with other salts, its just not worth the extra money. Maybe it's because the size of my system, but I am dosing to keep levels up. Not doing water changes to keep levels up. The only reason to do a water change is for nutrient export. With that in mind, it really doesn't matter what salt you use.