I am impressed!!!

[meshwheel]

Hi everyone,
I just wanted to throw out a plug for BrightWell Aquatics NeoMarine Salt!
I have been using it for about a month now and I can honestly say I love it!
For my 34 gallon Max nano reef with all SPS corals it is a perfect match!!!!
What do I like about it:
1. All levels test out spot on! Calcium, KH, Mag are spot on! MAKE SURE YOU MIX THE SALT IN THE BUCKET BEFORE TAKING OUT THE PORTION TO MAKE YOUR WATER. THERE ARE DIFFERENT GRANULAR SIZES THAT WILL SETTLE OUT!!!!
This is very important for my small tank!
2. It mixes superbly!!!! WOW!!!! The best mixing salt I have ever used! Hands down! Even in cooler fresh water! Dump it in, shake and it is dissolved!!!!
3. It seems to take less salt to make the same amount of water!!!!!! Hmmmm, less buffer or additives in there so more salt?
4. I like the bucket! It's heavy duty!!! SO HEAVY DUTY IT KEEPS AIR OUT AND NO BAG NEEDED IN THE BUCKET!
That is awesome!!! No more fumbling around with that darn bag, and not getting it closed up enough and getting chunky salt!!!!
5. I like thing made in the USA TOO!!!!!!
What have been your guys experience with the salt??

[reefgeezer]

Respectfully, here's some questions to spur a little critical thinking...

Calcium, alk, etc. "spot on" at what salinity? What's "spot on", NSW levels or something different? Why is it important that it dissolves immediately? Do you age your water? Is the price is in line with the rest of Brightwell's product line - high?

[mmotown]

You almost sound like a sales rep for them:spin3:

[jdpiii3]

You almost sound like a sales rep for them:spin3:

Thinking the same thing.

[noahm]

What did you switch from? Just curious if you were having problems.

[muppet]

Only 4 posts and a non-sequitur glowing recommendation? Yeah, I'd call this spam if I were a mod here.

[meshwheel]

not the place for this ... read the <a href="http://www.reefcentral.com/index.php/user-agreement">User Agreement</a> again


ReefGeezer, what would you "THINK" spot on is?????? What is this forum all about? If i must answer. Natural seawater values. Better????????? You answered your own question actually.......
Nope, do not work for Brightwell Aquatics. Never have. I am a hobbyist of 30 years. Just started trying their products. Always thought it was a fancy label and nothing more!
Comparing it to a multitude of other brands. I used RedSea Coral Pro for the past few years. Very high alkalinity. High or low calcium and magnesium everywhere.........usually low however.
Then, always "Dirt" at the bottom of the container after mixxed.
Nowhere did I say it was THE BEST. Just wanted other peoples experience with it and comments..................shesh.....

[dc]

Let's play nice kids. ;)

[meshwheel]

Thank you Debi!
Here's a few pics of my tank:
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x122/65bug_01/IMG_3157.jpg
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x122/65bug_01/IMG_3156.jpg
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x122/65bug_01/IMG_3153.jpg
http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x122/65bug_01/DSC02666.jpg
All these corals are in a 34 gallon nano reef. RedSea Max tank! All grown from small frags. All attatched to my rocks and coloring up nicely.......................
I thinking of trying the "Fancy label, Over priced, super hyped up, Brightwell "Coral Snow" next............

[meshwheel]

ooops. Got one of the race car in there..........LOL..........sorry!!!

[tmz]

It's just salt, not much different if at all than the others,imo. Glad you like it meshwheel. If it works for you keep using it. Some of the Brightwell marketing is a bit over the top for my taste, though.

[Allmost]

Hello,
so what are the values you got, KH, CA++, MG, and salinity ? care to post them ? have you tested for K+ ?

thank you :)

[GTSI]

Glad it's working out for you. I just switched out from Brightwell to ESV, and will gladly give the 1.5 buckets I have left away for free. Be careful with the Brightwell, it gets extremely hot once in contact with water. I was told that it may contain Kalkwasser, but as I never dealt with Kalk, I can't confirm. For giggles, I measured the temperature and it hit around 140 degrees.

For the record, I switched salts right before Thanksgiving due to SPS STNing. My parameters were spot on, but couldn't figure out what was causing it. Even swapped out a 75 diode DIY LED system back to MH, and still to no avail. Till a friend suggested I try a different salt. Too early to tell, but crossing fingers.

[reefgeezer]

I didn't mean anything by my questions. It is not uncommon to ask questions to elicit discussion and spur critical thinking. This type of thinking is valuable as it makes us question things we might normally accept without too much thought. Unfortunately, the "critical" part (as in criticism) of this thinking process that makes it work also makes it seem like a challenge.

I have not used Brightwell salt. So, I suppose it seemed I was attacking you, particularly when read along with those posts implying that you may have other motives for starting the thread. That's not what I intended and apologize.

I have used many of Brightwell's products, and found them to be no better/worse than many other brands to include Seachem and Kent, but maybe a little more expensive in many cases. I would liketo expolre if NWS levels in salt mixes are over rated, but I'll do do in a different thread as that is not the subject of this one.

[meshwheel]

Reefgeezer,
Hey no problem. I suppose I am at fault here as well. Just everyone basically accused me of being a liar/impersonator of a brightwell employee.......??. People are so quick to judge. MYSELF INCLUDED!!!!
I too apologize if I lashed out at you or anyone else!
I, in particular like the salt because it has been for me very close to natural seawater in terms of KH(in the 7 range w/ test kit), Calcium was in the 450 range and Mag. was in the 1300 range. This at 35 pt salinity level or 1.025. Ph was 8.2-8.3 as well.
Not sure on potassium, but I do add a health food store for human consumption potassium supplement! A big bottle for 5.95!
My make up salt water for water changes is made up at least 48 hours before using for my water change.
When trying to grow about a 30 gallon box of water full of SPS corals, this really helps as levels can quickly get out of whack when doing a water change with new synthetic seawater that has a KH of say 15 and the tank water is 8!!!!!!
My corals do not slime up at all after my water change! Nothing!
The heating up of the brightwells salt is from the magnesium content.
It should not be a issue, as it quickly cools back down. I like the salt, and will continue to use it for now!
MANY small changes cannot be seen until ULNS levels are reached. Until you go this route, it is hard to understand.
GTSI, have you been using a PAR meter when you swapped out lights??? Do this happen after switching over to LEDs?
Personally, I love my metal halide and will continue to use it w/ my Ice Cap ballast........
PS, I am not going to give you EXACT values, as I believe there is a slight margin in all the reagent test kits.
However, Brightwells Neo salt is by far the closest I have used as of yet. If I had a 120 gallon tank, it may not need to be that close for sure. However, it certainly does not hurt by any means......

[greech]

Glad it's working out for you. I just switched out from Brightwell to ESV, and will gladly give the 1.5 buckets I have left away for free. Be careful with the Brightwell, it gets extremely hot once in contact with water. I was told that it may contain Kalkwasser, but as I never dealt with Kalk, I can't confirm. For giggles, I measured the temperature and it hit around 140 degrees.

For the record, I switched salts right before Thanksgiving due to SPS STNing. My parameters were spot on, but couldn't figure out what was causing it. Even swapped out a 75 diode DIY LED system back to MH, and still to no avail. Till a friend suggested I try a different salt. Too early to tell, but crossing fingers.

I'll take the free buckets! I have been using BWs for a little over a year now (switch from Reef Crystals) and I really like it. Mixes fast and clean, no residue and most importantly all of my corals respond very well to it. I do not test every batch nor am a huge tester but the tests that I have done have put everything within an acceptable range at 1.025 both in the new mix water and in my DT.

[meshwheel]

Reefgeezer,
You know, I could not get other salts to dissolve after days of letting it set/mixing! I know this was obviously calcium/carbonate that just could not dissolve any further as the water was just saturated with it.
And the RedSea salt I was always left with "dirt" in the bottom of the bucket. It worked, and I liked it. I am just really in a fine tuning phase with my nitrates and phosphates at zero in my tank.
All my corals started out as frags, and I convert over to SPS about 12 months ago. So the system is young.
I also loaded my rear chambers back up with biobeads for extra filtration capacity. I still get yelled out that my wet/dry bio balls/beads is going to cause nitrates to high heaven!!!!LOL
Having biobeads totally submerged in a chamber is NOT a wet/dry filter! Not even close!!!
I punched a hole in teh top of my biobead bag and attatched a zip tie to it! I can plunge it from the top of the rear compartment now like a zeo reactor and feed my acros bacteria and detritus at least once a day

[meshwheel]

Also, I have pondered the thought that many companies use the bicarbonate as a "filler" to save money in other areas. Hence the pile of it at the bottom of your new water container.
NOT SAYING THIS IS TRUE, BUT IF IT IS, BRIGHTWELLS IS WORTH THE EXTRA MONEY IN MY OPINION.
We are gauging how much salt we use by the salinity level. More fillers, the more salt needs to be used to make the same amount of seawater at a specified salinity.

[psykobowler]

I am glad it works for you but you only have a 34 gallon nano and you previously used bags of salt. Some of us deal with 800 gallon systems and we use buckets of salt all the time. It would not be economical to get your salt. Frankly speaking, I would just use natural seawater in that small size tank and be done with it. You would still need additives and brightwell has good ones.

Any salt mixes well with a mag drive.

[denash24]

WTH GREECH you copied my avatar...:blown:

[meshwheel]

natural seawater would pollute MY TANK WATER.......................

[TheH]

I've always suspected that Brightwell provides most of the calcium in their salt via calcium oxide. This would explain the high heat during dissolution and the "burning" sensation upon skin contact.

Also, I find this claim from their website a little optimistic:

For what it’s worth, the final formulation provides all major, minor, and trace elements at concentrations within 0.000001% (with the exception of chloride) of their respective average natural seawater concentrations.

[meshwheel]

TheH,
Have you emailed them to ask them? I presumed it was just the higher magnesium levels. The salt goes in the water, not on your skin............................LOL.
Their is a warning about that right on the label. That is a very very VERY low percentage level.
I would think some very sophisticated/expensive equipment would be need to measure down to those concentrations.......

[denash24]

I've always suspected that Brightwell provides most of the calcium in their salt via calcium oxide. This would explain the high heat during dissolution and the "burning" sensation upon skin contact.

Also, I find this claim from their website a little optimistic:

For what it's worth I've using Brightwell salt because my favorite LFS (vividaquariums) uses it for their tanks including their display and if you've had the pleasure of seeing that tank in person you'd probably want to do whatever it is they're doing. This is my third bucket of Brightwell (i switched over from TM) and I have not experienced heat issues and most definitely not 140 degrees F / the only way I can see this happening is if you add a cup of water to a large amount of salt but even then I doubt it. I'm still a fan.....

BTW Made in the U.S.A. is a big deal for me.....

[tmz]

I've always suspected that Brightwell provides most of the calcium in their salt via calcium oxide. This would explain the high heat during dissolution and the "burning" sensation upon skin contact.

Also, I find this claim from their website a little optimistic:

Don't know about the calcium oxide but the nsw values statement for all elements (trace, minor, major) is very dubious.

[3D-Reef]

I tried the Brightwells salt and wasn't all that impressed.It did take less salt to mix it up,but I always had "dirt"/black film stuck too the sides and bottom of the bucket.Maybe I just got a hold of a bad batch IDK.It didn't matter how I mixed it.I tried warming the water up to temp first then mixed it with a PH...mixed it by hand (a plastic rod).....let the PH warm the water while mixing it...ect. Thinking I was pouring it in too fast,by just dumping the amount in,I tried doing just a little at a time,but to no avail.I also noticed a strange smell when mixing it in the water.Possibly due to the heat?

[d0ughb0y]

Be careful with the Brightwell, it gets extremely hot once in contact with water. I was told that it may contain Kalkwasser, but as I never dealt with Kalk, I can't confirm. For giggles, I measured the temperature and it hit around 140 degrees.



FWIW, Seachem Aquavitro Salinity is the same. it gets hot when mixed, and it is supposed to. users of that salt all say it is "spot on" also, meaning, all the parameters measured is exactly what is printed on the bucket I am almost running out of salt and looking for new salt. I heard a lot of good things about seachem salinity but it seems hard to find, so I may try the brightwell. thanks for the post.

[DJREEF]

Hi guys,
Very high alkalinity.

This is one of the reasons why I went back to the regular Red Sea.

DJ

[greech]

WTH GREECH you copied my avatar...:blown:

No way, I was first! How about we rock, paper, scissor for it :fun2:

[reefgeezer]

natural seawater would pollute MY TANK WATER.......................

I'd kill (well, maybe only give up my a spare part of my anatomy... no, mind out of the gutter... I mean eye tooth) to get a good source of natural sea water here in Kansas. The planktonic (sp?) content would be a lot better food than all the bacteria and mulm we could possibly culture.

[meshwheel]

reefgeezer,
I can not even use the seawater off the coast of California here. It's too polluted and is loaded with both good and bad bacteria.
The water that is trucked in to local pet shops has to be filtered to remove all particulates. Including bacterias, cycsts, plankton etc. I know it is then UV'd and or ozoned. As both bacteria and plankton die quickly in the pumped in seawater that goes into the boat.So, it has to be filtered first.
Anytime I have ever tested Catalina Seawater it has had a nitrate level of at least 10 ppm.
I am sure you are correct, the planktonic food would be most valuable I would assume.
As long as the corals you keep would consume those from that specific area.:fish2:

[reefgeezer]

I've known people near southern Cal. that use NSW and have great reefs. I don't however know where they get it. There's still an eye tooth in it for anyone who can get some to Kansas.

[meshwheel]

Scrippts Institute has free ocean water that is filtered I believe in a sand filter directly from the ocean.
However, it's about 75 miles from my house down a very busy freeway!

[d0ughb0y]

I got one bucket from petstore.com ($55) before they corrected their price :)
anyway, I mixed 5 gallons last weekend, and my initial impressions are

its really concentrated. the directions say 1/2 cup per gallon, so I used 2.5 cups for 5 gallons and I ended up with 1.032 SG! my calculations show I only need 2 cups to mix 5 gallons to get 1.025. I need 3 cups of RC per 5 gallons mix to get 1.025.

no clumps at all in the salt. I have never bought a bucket or bag of salt of RC or Seachem reef that did not have clumps.

I like the bucket with a sealed lid. it is a pain to open, but I am sure the bucket has not been tampered with. unlike those screw on lid, where someone could open it and close it back. I suspect the seachem buckets my LFS is selling have been opened, but that is another story.

on the not so good part. alk is 8, ca is 380, mg is 1100. I did not roll the bucket around to mix up the contents before opening though, So I'll do that before I mix my next batch. If it comes out around 9/420/1300, then I would not mind paying the higher/corrected price next time around. Its not that much more considering you need 2/3rds that amount to mix up the same sg as RC.

[flo aquaculture]

ive used tropic marin forever and would like to see how the brightwell salt is the price point different

[flo aquaculture]

Scrippts Institute has free ocean water that is filtered I believe in a sand filter directly from the ocean.
However, it's about 75 miles from my house down a very busy freeway!

ive heard alot of good/bad reviews about scripps water havent tried it myself but im interested in seeing how it is

[odiest]

For what it’s worth, the final formulation provides all major, minor, and trace elements at concentrations within 0.000001% (with the exception of chloride) of their respective average natural seawater concentrations.

I would like to see them back up this claim with an independent lab test of their salt showing this accuracy. It sends up marketing hype warnings to me with claims like this.

I tried a bucket with my 28 gallon nano-cube and wasn't that impressed. I switched back to IO.

David

[Toadally]

ive used tropic marin forever and would like to see how the brightwell salt is the price point different

I just started using Tropic Marin Pro Reef about a month ago. I really like it and the numbers. I got tired of the brown crap from RC.

[dc]

meshwheel, one question. If this is so great why don't you carry it? While you don't work for them, you are in the business are you not?

[sanchoy]

hmm. sales rep?

[psykobowler]

It's hard to argue with someone who thinks synthetic salt is better than real ocean water. All the livestock in that red sea max originated in the sea. All the salt mixes are attempting to replicate ocean water. I absolutely agree that contamination is possible during transport of nsw but I have not heard of anyone having negative effects with nsw. They do get uv or ozone treated. My least maintenance tank is a 9 gallon cube in my office. I change a gallon of seawater a week since there is an lfs selling seawater close by my office in the bay area. The corals are always healthy and more vibrant after a water change. I never needed dosing. I don't even know the salinity of the water. If nsw is cheap and transportation cost is not an issue I would use it in my 300 gallon and 150 gallon tank at home.

[tmz]

I would like to see them back up this claim with an independent lab test of their salt showing this accuracy. It sends up marketing hype warnings to me with claims like this.



David

Me too. They can't back that up. It's misleading in as much as it's used to imply their product is superior to others. There are several threads about it.
Another piece of Brightwell hype goes with a product claimed to dose kalk and magnesium together. That wont work since the magnesium will precipitate in the limewater.

[reefgeezer]

Yep. Some reefers have diferences with Brightwell's products and claims. However, I think it would be fair to say some reefers differ with many other manufacturer's who make unverifiable claims. We are equal opportunity "haters" of dubious claims.

I am under the impression that Brightwell product line resulted when certain personnel left Kent Products to form their own company. I sold and used Kent's product line for many years when I owned an LFS back in the day. I still think they produce quality products that do mostly what they claim.

I've always kind of assumed that Brightwell's products were just reformulated Kent stuff. I tried a few and found them to be more dilute (thus more expensive) than the Kent version. Because of the expense, I never used them long enough to form an opinion as to how well they worked. Now I don't use any additives so it doesn't make any difference. I do still use Kent's salt. The Kent salt really does completely dissolve and leaves nothing in the mixing bucket. It doesn't heat up either. Its numbers are not "spot on" NSW but don't claim to be. They are however very consistant (what I can measure) and IMO that's the key. I really think the NSW thing is over rated.

[d0ughb0y]

I like kent because they list the contents of their product. no secret ingredients.

I don't pre-judge or jump on any bandwagon just because someone just starts bashing a product or a person and it is fun to join in on the bashing. (that's what the other message boards do, but I have noticed RC has been going in that direction as well).

that is why I always buy the product to see for myself if it is good or not. I will try kent salt next.

[AquaReeferMan]

The only thing that impressed me with the Brightwell salt was the way it mixed up. It was very low in Ca and Mg when I was using it, as stated in the salt mixes sticky.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1714505
Needless to say I went back to Tropic Marin Pro.

[kichimark]

For what it's worth I've using Brightwell salt because my favorite LFS (vividaquariums) uses it for their tanks including their display and if you've had the pleasure of seeing that tank in person you'd probably want to do whatever it is they're doing. ..

Hmmm they told me they use TM

[davidtsx]

I have been using Brightwell's salt for about a year now. Yeah it gets hot when mixing but I don't have any other issues with it. When I mix it to 1.025 I get a 430 cal, 8 Alk and 1300 mag. Before I was using RC and was having problems with numbers being off.

[bertoni]

The LFS probably uses whatever is in stock...