Reef Crystal IO salt

[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by banditpowdercoat

$5/cup?? WOW.
You can search ChemMasters threads here, he's got prices, Mg is like $2.95/Lb. shipping is extra but works to about $1-$1.5/Lb depending on volume

Yeah, Kevin at Red Coral is selling by the cup, he says one cup is equal to one pound. At $5 a pound that isn't cheap. However $1-1.50 a pound is really good.

Can you tell me what is better about his products, I am very interested to hear it. And at that price I think it is even cheaper than Seachem.

[banditpowdercoat]

Originally Posted by globaldesigns

Yeah, Kevin at Red Coral is selling by the cup, he says one cup is equal to one pound. At $5 a pound that isn't cheap. However $1-1.50 a pound is really good.

Can you tell me what is better about his products, I am very interested to hear it. And at that price I think it is even cheaper than Seachem.

Iv'e been using CM additives for a year now and love them. cheap and easy, Mix with RO, and add to high flow area, slowly in overflow works great for me. I will have to weigh it when I get home, 1 cup probibally is a LB, I wouldnt thnk Kevin would lie. I never thought about how much weight per volume before. But after paying the price for liquid CA/Mg and now the bulk crystals, I won't go back to liquid. Theres some pretty good threads on CM's products, check them out.

http://canreef.com/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=67

[whatcaneyedo]

Originally Posted by globaldesigns

Yeah, Kevin at Red Coral is selling by the cup, he says one cup is equal to one pound. At $5 a pound that isn't cheap. However $1-1.50 a pound is really good.

Can you tell me what is better about his products, I am very interested to hear it. And at that price I think it is even cheaper than Seachem.

$1-1.50 a pound is the shipping cost that banditpowdercoat was quoting. You have to add that to the product cost for the total. So you're looking at $4 - 4.50/lbs to buy direct. A savings of $.50 - 1.00/lbs instead of buying it from Red Coral, which isnt a whole lot but it does add up. You may want to contact Littlesilvermax yourself to verify.

[mark]

really don't want to do the math again but while ago I figured $5-10 to supplement a pail from chemicals fr littlesilvermax.

From another source, recent post here had bulk Ca at $113 for 50kg ($2.26/kg). I change about 20g a time, supplement Ca using about 1oz by volume of the Dowflake, or 33grams. For a pail (160g / 8 changes), about 0.26kg total.

Use lots more Mg about 180gram per change, 1.4kg per pail with LSM selling MG around $5/kg

[globaldesigns]

Originally Posted by whatcaneyedo

$1-1.50 a pound is the shipping cost that banditpowdercoat was quoting. You have to add that to the product cost for the total. So you're looking at $4 - 4.50/lbs to buy direct. A savings of $.50 - 1.00/lbs instead of buying it from Red Coral, which isnt a whole lot but it does add up. You may want to contact Littlesilvermax yourself to verify.

If that is the case then Red Coral isn't overcharging. I however, will eventually talk to LittleSilverMax. Thanks.

[Coleus]

Ok

I am about to give up with this reef crystal. I bought another reef crystal IO bucket and mix the salt with RO/DI water and leave it for a day. I also dosed 8 tsp of Seachem Advance Magnesium (which should increase 55 ppm) to the water before adding the salt.

Well. I test the MG with two different test kits and they all come to be around 1200

What am i missing?

If you buy IO salt and bulk Mg from chemmaster, how many tsp do you add to 15 gallon new water?

Thanks.

[whatcaneyedo]

A cup full should get you to where you want to be.

I make about 27gal at a time to do a 10% water change on my system. I use half IO salt and half Seachem Reef salt then add a little more than 2 cups of a similar Mg mix. By doing so my tanks Ca is 450, Alk is 9dkh and Mg is 1450.

Or use this calculator http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html

To raise 15gal of water from Mg 1000 to 1500 use 8.3oz (56.3 tsp aka 1 cup). If you dont want to go as high as 1500 try 3/4 cup.

[rayjay]

Originally Posted by Coleus

Ok
I am about to give up with this reef crystal. I bought another reef crystal IO bucket and mix the salt with RO/DI water and leave it for a day. I also dosed 8 tsp of Seachem Advance Magnesium (which should increase 55 ppm) to the water before adding the salt.
Well. I test the MG with two different test kits and they all come to be around 1200. What am i missing?

The results you get are not typical of the new I.O. salt mix.
If mixed to a s.g. of 1.0264 (35ppt) then you should be finding that the new IO should be about 400 ppm and 1350 ppm magnesium or so.
If your s.g. is lower then your mag level will also be lower, but with the new salt, your s.g. would probably have to be around 1.023 to get mag levels of 1200.
To boost magnesium takes a lot more of whatever product you are using to boost it, than most people would expect, because the flake is mostly water. (hexahydrate)

[banditpowdercoat]

I use 3 tsp of Ca and 1 cup of Mg for 15g of IO salt at 1.024 Sg isn't 1.026 a little high ?

[rayjay]

Originally Posted by banditpowdercoat

I use 3 tsp of Ca and 1 cup of Mg for 15g of IO salt at 1.024 Sg isn't 1.026 a little high ?

High is only in the eyes of the beholder I guess.
When I started seventeen years ago, it was normal to keep 1.026 for a reef tank as that is what the majority of the ocean water is at, where our fish and corals come from.
Many hobbyists keeping fish only used water with less salt content for one reason or another, but the same hobbyists kept the s.g. at 1.026 for their reef tank because it was better for the inverts and corals.
Based on my years of reading the forums on RC, I believe that the majority of hobbyists are using at least 1.025 - 1.026.