Does anyone know which salt is used in typical reef salts?

[reefs4life]

Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone on here knows what kind of salt is used in reef salts whether it's NaCl (sodium chloride) or MgCl (magnesium chloride). Thanks, Fortunato

 

[marrone]

I think both are used.

 

[batt600]

Its sodium chloride if you ever used the ESV seasalt it a comes with sodium chloride the salt, mag salfate, alk and cal additives to mix

 

[cali_reef]

The bulk of it is NaCI.

 

[SevTT]

Hello everyone, I was wondering if anyone on here knows what kind of salt is used in reef salts whether it's NaCl (sodium chloride) or MgCl (magnesium chloride). Thanks, Fortunato

NaCl is used to provide the bulk of the 'salt', sodium chloride, but chemical salts like MgCl and NaCO3 are used to deliver specific ions needed in the tanks.

 

[reefs4life]

So what if I do half MgCl and half of the Seachem Reef Salt I use, would that be ok? I feel like the MgCl will help keep magnesium levels up

 

[cali_reef]

So what if I do half MgCl and half of the Seachem Reef Salt I use, would that be ok? I feel like the MgCl will help keep magnesium levels up

What are you trying to do?

 

[prattreef]

So what if I do half MgCl and half of the Seachem Reef Salt I use, would that be ok? I feel like the MgCl will help keep magnesium levels up

You are playing with fire if you think you can mix your own salt blend without REALLY knowing what you are doing.

 

[basiab]

You are playing with fire if you think you can mix your own salt blend without REALLY knowing what you are doing.

Come on now. Playing with fire could burn down a house. Playing with salt will only nuke your tank.

 

[cali_reef]

You are playing with fire if you think you can mix your own salt blend without REALLY knowing what you are doing.

But he can save $3 per water change:lol: Learning about how incorrect salt mixture can kill your tank is priceless:shhh:.

Disclaimer: I stock enough commercial blend salt to do about 1,000 gallons worth of water change....

 

[SevTT]

So what if I do half MgCl and half of the Seachem Reef Salt I use, would that be ok? I feel like the MgCl will help keep magnesium levels up

Stop. You obviously have no idea what you're doing. Learn some chemistry before you try mixing your own salts.

 

[tomtoothdoc]

Disclaimer: I stock enough commercial blend salt to do about 1,000 gallons worth of water change....

i thought i was the only one stockpiling salt...lol. last year when dr.foster had a sale on salt, i had a conway truck delivered 14 buckets on a pallet to my house....lol. my wife thought i was going to make a salt water hot tub.....lol.

 

[reefs4life]

Stop. You obviously have no idea what you're doing. Learn some chemistry before you try mixing your own salts.

I'm actually a biology major in college, heading to marine biology, and I am currently taking my second semester of chemistry got an A in the first one. So it would be nice to hold off on smart *** comments like that. Thank you.

Anyways...I obviously wouldn't test mixes on my whole system if I did decide to mix my own salt. And I wouldn't be doing it to try and save money either, I'm doing it to see if it would be more beneficial to growth. I know how to run experiments, this isn't something I would just throw into a system that I've invested tons of money into. I just wanted to get peoples opinion but as usual everyone has their smart comments on here, they can't just answer the question that's being asked. But it's cool I'll just learn on my own...

 

[SevTT]

I'm actually a biology major in college, heading to marine biology, and I am currently taking my second semester of chemistry got an A in the first one. So it would be nice to hold off on smart *** comments like that. Thank you.

Great, then you should be able to calculate the concentration, by weight, of magnesium ions in your saltwater should you use this idea for a salt mix that you have. Of course, you didn't specify whether you were mixing half and half BW or BV. I'm going to assume by weight. In any case, my quick-and-dirty math makes me think that you'd have Mg++ levels 3-5x what they should be, along with a concurrent deficiency in other needed ions, but, by all means, please do do the calculations using atomic weights and such for yourself.

Don't throw up your education as a rebuttal if that education should have resulted in you knowing the answer before you asked the question. That's just embarrassing for everyone involved. In fact, don't throw up your education as justification for anything at all, 'cause it doesn't mean jack by itself. An Appeal to Authority is just as logically fallacious whether the authority is someone else or the credits you've taken in college.

Edit: That being said, yeah, I'm an ass sometimes. Sorry.

 

[stedfast82]

wow fight nice guy's.

 

[cali_reef]

Wow! I am not a bio or Chem major but I can tell you half and half mix is not what you want or need.. I am pretty sure everyone thought you are trying to mix your own salt, and people do that to save money, not many other reasons.

Yes, I am a smart ass most of the time, other times I am just a plain ass.

 

[juiceguy]

if you wanted to raise the mag level of your salt why not just add some ESV mag chlor or epsom salts