Seachem Reef Salt and Alkalinity

Hmmm. Makes me want to swap salts

 

That's my take. I'm not sure what Seachem's reasoning is for using much higher than normal borate levels, other than the fact that it's a better buffer. It is misleading for most aquarists, I would think.

 

Possibly. Thst said, I have had most of my lps double and triple in size within a year and see good growth on my clam. I have a single sps. It's not broke currently

 

Yeah, well I think if you shoot for an alkalinity above 10 you will probably be ok with Seachem since the carbonate and bicarbonate are still reasonably high. I would say if you don't have a problem, don't worry about it. In my case, I'm new to the hobby and trying to optimize and improve an existing (inherited) tank. I'm still learning what's what.

Today, for example, I learned that my refractometer can be calibrated. And that its way out of calibration. And that the actual specific gravity of my tank water is 1.028-1.029.

I've also learned that some test kits are WAY off in their test results. But that's a whole other thread!

 

To reduce complication in my life, I've decided to switch salt brands. I don't really want to check for borate alkalinity, and as far as I can tell I'm not sure there's a big benefit to the increased borate levels. I'd rather simply check my alkalinity and have it be a reasonably good surrogate for carbonate/bicarbonate. I'm switching over to Red Sea.

 

Sounds good. Let us know of your findings with this salt as many people use it.

 

Still investigating this issue and I found some more information from Randy Holmes-Farley. It appears that at one time the Seachem borate levels were as high as 12 times what is seen in normal seawater. At some point, the salt was reformulated to have borate levels around 3-4 times that of normal seawater.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1362201&highlight=borate seachem salt

I contacted Seachem about this issue, and their response was cryptic. I think they really want you to buy their borate/carbonate test kit, which has been shown to be fairly inaccurate, to determine the carbonate/borate split.

Randy Holmes-Farley does suggest in his post that subtracting about 1 dKH from the total alkalinity reading should give the carbonate/bicarbonate hardness. For example, if you measure total alkalinity of 12 dKH, then the contribution from carbonate/bicarbonate would be 11 dKH, give or take. Since carbonate/bicarbonate concentration is really the number we are after (we don't care much about borate concentration, except that it's an excellent buffer), alkalinity measurements need to be adjusted when using Seachem salt. As far as I can tell, anyway. I think it would behoove Seachem to be more transparent about this important difference and warn customers that they need to be careful interpreting the alkalinity results they are used to collecting.

 

For those of you keeping track, I think we can put this issue to rest. I just got this response from Seachem, and it seems to match exactly what Randy Holmes-Farley has said on reefcentral.com.

"Over the years we have adjusted our thinking on borate levels. While it can be helpful in maintaining pH in a reef system, most reef hobbyists are more concerned with maintaining their carbonate alkalinity for coral growth, and maintaining high borate levels can complicate this, so we lowered the amount of borate in Reef Salt. The amount of borate included in our Reef Salt used to be higher, and the the notes referencing it in instructions from the test kit were written then. I will make note of this for the next time we update our instructions. Currently the amount of borate in Reef Salt will account for only ~10% of the alkalinity, so with alkalinity of 11.8dKH, your carbonate alkalinity would be ~10.62dKH, falling still at the upper end of your target range."

 

Ok. Thst is fantastic news. I'll stick with seachem for sure now.

 

Let me see if I understand this.
A. They used increased borate levels because they beleive it helps stabilize Ph. Not we used increased borate levels to mislead hobbyists about an inflated alk. value.NSW does not contain these elevated levels of borate.
B.A relative newbie(no offense as you seem quite intelligent) has to do additional research and prod them for this information.
C.A newbie has to teach them how to print instructions on their own product.
D. While I have no proof I would bet the elevated borate levels have more to do with profit margin then the health of your Aquarium.

I wouldnt walk, I would run from this companies product.jm2c