I always get a charge on the ridiculous claims of "the best salt there is". More often than not, it is not the salt but a shift in the environment chemistry and at times that shift can make a tank go very bad or at times good. And it is from the reefer, not the salt, from not tanking care of his/her tank...period. There is NO such thing as some salt being more successful than another, it is the reefer that makes a tank successful. If one wants to go by the top 100 most successful reef tanks in the world, hands-down, the winners are IO and RC period.
and if your not using a refractometer you may be mixing the salt too rich.. bc at 1.024 the cal is in the 350 range and the mag is real low at abt 850..
That can not be unless you are mixing it wrong. RC @ 25C, 1.026 ~ 490 Calcium ( New blend in the last 2 years. Maybe some of you are getting the old salt still at that ~ way over 500)
490 / 26 = 18.85
18.85 x 24 = 452 ppm Calcium not 350
and you will get similar for Magnesium.
However, you can get that 350 even with a refract if you mix it to fast, as the high concentration in the local mixing area, where you dump it in, cause the local preicp of Calcite and Magnesium Hydroxide mostly, which pulls the Ca++, Mg++ and Alk down. Mixing temp also can cause issues. When you are dealing with any salt with Calcium much more over 420 you need to mix it slower and more so at any normal or high Ca++ if the Alk is high also. The same thing applies when using salts that use anhydrous salts in the mixes, which cause a exothermic reaction raising the temp of the water causing more rapid precip.
I have been using a hydrometer on the salinity test. So the directions say a half a cup per gallon.
What kind of Hydrometer and made by who ? If it is a swing-arm hydrometer and it has never been cleaned it can be way off, as it accumulates salt deposits on the swing-arm, which drags the needle down, so you really have a much higher Salinity than you think.
Refractometers can be WAY off, especially about 90 % of those used in this hobby as they are NOT seawater refracts but table salt refracts, which need to be calibrated in a seawater std and NOT RO/DI water.
