Independant Salt Study??

[randyorr]

I am trying to nail down the ideal sea salt mix. I use RO/DI water, so I need to remineralize. I tried a couple different kinds and have been disappointed by one thing or another. Is there an independant study out there that will break down the mineral content of the individual salt mixes. Phosphates, silicates, magnesium, calcium, etc. All I have found is biased advertisements.

[pammy]

Here ya go. Pam
http://reefsaltanalysis.googlepages.com/AWT_Salt_Analysis_0208.pdf


<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12804256#post12804256 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by randyorr
I am trying to nail down the ideal sea salt mix. I use RO/DI water, so I need to remineralize. I tried a couple different kinds and have been disappointed by one thing or another. Is there an independant study out there that will break down the mineral content of the individual salt mixes. Phosphates, silicates, magnesium, calcium, etc. All I have found is biased advertisements.

[randyorr]

WOW!!! Thanks Pammy! That is a nice .pdf. It looks to me according to this test, that Coralife is the most balanced for what I am looking for.

[pammy]

You're welcome. I switched from Tropic Marin to Reef Crystals after reading the report. I was wondering why my Calcium was always so low before reading the report, and then saw that Tropic Marin was one of the lower ones for Calcium.
Pam.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12804381#post12804381 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by randyorr
WOW!!! Thanks Pammy! That is a nice .pdf. It looks to me according to this test, that Coralife is the most balanced for what I am looking for.

[reefing102]

hmmm, interesting link. IMO that test is biased.

A list of 14 salts was submitted by members of Reef Central to be considered in this study. AquariumWaterTesting.com purchased all salts from normal distributors in common quantities. No salt manufacturers were contacted for samples, nor were they informed of the study. Two samples of each salt were purchased in December 2007, one each from different distributors. We chose distributors from geographically distant locations to increase the chances of seeing samples from different manufacturing runs. The only exceptions were Crystal Sea, Crystal Sea Bioassay, and Marine Environment, of which we were only able to obtain samples from a single source. We therefore chose to analyze only one sample of these 3 products. As we wished to conduct this study without any possibility of bias, each salt was given a unique number for the purpose of tracking the results. At no time did the technicians conducting these tests know which salt they were testing.

1. What about the other reef message boards? Sure RC is the biggest, but there are plenty of others that could have given their opinion. Sure they have this also
The following synthetic salt mixes were used in this study. We believe that they represent the vast majority of salt mixes currently being used in the hobby:
There are many, many, more commonly used salts. Those mentioned are mainly just the big boy, big name brand.

2. If they searched hard enough I'm sure they could have found more than one sample of ME, CrystalSea, and CrystalSea Bioassay. By only testing one they gave unfair advantages to the other salts with the averaging and everything.

The water was stored in a normal, polyethylene barrel that had been pre-cleaned and acid washed to remove
any possible sources of contamination.

3. Sure the barrel was pre-cleaned. Thats fine. Acid washed - who knows that some acid residue wasn't left in the barrel before filling? They never say that they rinsed out the barrel after the acid wash. I'm sure that any extra acid would have added to contamination.

Ok, I'm done. Thats just my honest opinion. Feel free to bash me but thats all I'm saying.

[seapug]

Criticize and nitpick all you all you want, but that company did a pretty nice favor by conducting and publishing that test for free. It may not have been conducted in a sterile lab in outer space with every single salt brand made on the planet, but it's more fair and comprehensive than anything else that's been done to date.

[hyperfocal]

I wonder why they chose to test based on mass of the sample rather than at 35ppt SG.

As the results are presented, it's almost impossible to make a fair comparison between salts as the quantity of salt used per gallon of SW will vary between manufacturers. The difference can be as much as 20%, not much on the trace elements but a pretty significant change to Alk and Ca.

[trojan9137]

I use RO/DI water with Tropic Marine (PRO REEF) and my reef is stunning. I think this is the best salt on the market personally. I've tried other brands in the past as well.

[jimwat]

Here is a little comparison an RC member did for Calc, Alk, and Mg.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1287118

[hyperfocal]

Thanks for that link, jimwat -- I was just about to fire up Excel and take a stab at it myself ;)

[jimwat]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12805560#post12805560 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by trojan9137
I use RO/DI water with Tropic Marine (PRO REEF) and my reef is stunning. I think this is the best salt on the market personally. I've tried other brands in the past as well. Some have better success with different salt mixes depending on their tank requirements. For instance, in my tank (non-sps) I need a mix that has more alkalinity and less calcium, so the TM Pro is not a good match.

[Skeptic_07]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12805560#post12805560 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by trojan9137
I use RO/DI water with Tropic Marine (PRO REEF) and my reef is stunning. I think this is the best salt on the market personally. I've tried other brands in the past as well.

Ditto for me. i like this stuff. It is like double the price of other mixes though. I wonder if mixing salts is bad or good.

[Slakker]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12805559#post12805559 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by hyperfocal
I wonder why they chose to test based on mass of the sample rather than at 35ppt SG.

As the results are presented, it's almost impossible to make a fair comparison between salts as the quantity of salt used per gallon of SW will vary between manufacturers. The difference can be as much as 20%, not much on the trace elements but a pretty significant change to Alk and Ca.

+1.

Mass of salt holds little relevance to it's makeup at proper salinity, as some brands take more salt to reach 35ppt than others.

[seapug]

yeah, that was the single greatest criticism people had back when that study was first posted on RC a few months back, but with a little math you can extrapolate what the the values would be at a standardized SG. Actually, I think someone did that back in the original thread. I need to go back through my post history and see if I can find it, unless someone can beat me to it.

[Mark426]

FYI.....

Actually they did test each salt at 35ppt SG. They just did not make it clear in the link provided. They did the mass test as an informational piece of data. AWT made it very clear that each sample was mixed to 35ppt and measured at a specific temp in another thread that is here on RC somewhere. I wish they would have gone back and edited the original test stop any misunderstanding.

I think one reason they have not corrected the original test on the published paper is this:

AWT most likely felt they were providing a nice service to us reefers, even though it is promoting their paid services. You should go find the 50 page discussion on this test…I was shocked at the nit picking criticism they received. Everything from straight out lying to promote one brand over another to wanna be scientist telling them how they should test it. I feel they just got fed up defending themselves, explaining their testing method and deflecting the usual bashing. The typical few RC that usually knock anything new, different, or not in agreement with what they think or have, ruined a good thing for the rest of us. Think AWT just threw in the towel and got fed up with dealing with us reefers and went back to dealing with other more rational customers. They pulled their sponsorship too…if I am not mistaken.

The way I see the test…it does not really matter that much what the absolute numbers are…it’s that each brand was tested in the same way and comparisons can easily be made.

Mark

[seapug]

Thanks for posting that, Mark. I didn't know they made that clarification. I was pretty embarrassed by the response they got from people here, too, so I stopped keeping track of the thread before they had to start defending the favor they provided for us. Didn't know it got so bad...quite a shame.