Calcium Chloride in Ice melt

I have recently aquired a 50 lb bag of calcium chloride that was used at our site for ice melt. It says it is 80% with the remaining 20 % being magnesium cholride (10%) sodium chloride, potassium chloride. Can I use this to help keep up my calcium levels in my tank with out danger? Seeing as all of the above are needed I didn't see where it would hurt anything, but I am always just wary if it doesn't come from a fish store. I now use magnesium chloride from an ice melt and baking soda for my alkalinity (both scared me at first). I know what they (fish stores) use is what we can find at the grocery and hardware store allot of times, but it still scares me some knowing my investment is in my hands and they are shaking! Any help would be helpful!

 

Sure you can use it I do and have mine is just a bit more Prue then Dow flakes are .. As for your Buffer mix the baking soda at a rate of 4 parts Backing soda to 1 part 20 mule team Laundry booster mix it well the borate will keep P.H from spiking really face and will help hold it more steady.. Sea water Carbonates are arrived at from 3 to 5% borate.. Thats mix is what you pay sea chem or Kent's reef buffer 10 X's more for,,
Believe it or not there was a time we had to mix all of our own natural elements for our own use. Like Strontium Carbonate or to Molybdenum to even the very salt we use .. People today just think its all new and has to have a fancy label or brand name on it LOL I remember telling gus about using Pickling lime or Quick lime for they Kalkwasser LOL and or adding simple old cheap Dolomite to a calcium reactor to raise magnesium naturally .

 

CaCl2: in itself will raise Ca
MgCl2: in itself will raise Mg
NaCl: in itself will raise the salinity
KCl: saturated keeps the chloride constant
CI: the common denominator

all of those seperate will work depending on the circumstances but there are chemicals added to aid in the melting process. to much CI in a reef tank is not good

do what you will, but i wouldnt

 

can I use Morton brand calcium cloride sidewalk melt? none of our stores carry Dowflakes

 

I personally would not use that now since they changed the manufacturing process. You can get calcuim choride cheap from bulk reef supply.

BulkReefSupply - Bulk Calcium Chloride Bulk Reef Supply - Bulk Reef Supply

 

I just buy from Bulk Reef Supply. I'll let them do the research on purity, etc... A ton of reefers buy from them and talk about them on the forums. If they screw up on purity they'll be out of business in a hurry so they have a lot on the line to make sure they get it right. It isn't that expensive either. Why take the risk?

 

I wouldn't use something like that personally. Unless you really do your research to find out the actual purity of the mix it's possible there are trace amounts of things that could be harmful to your tank that are in there in small enough amounts where they don't have to be listed on the packaging etc.

Second of all it's probably not very likely that all of those elements are going to be depleted at exactly the same rate so over time you may end up overdosing on one or the other.

I would second the BRS chemicals, pretty cheap and all the research/safety/guesswork is done for you.