Thanks
@OSCAR85
A while ago I was exploring the usability for this salt as as many know, you can use many household or plain labelled products in your marine tank, e.g. epsom salts, bi-carb soda.
I called the company that makes it who advised me that there was nothing added or modified to it, and it was 100% naturally evaporated sea salt. They said to be sure, there would be 'SP' printed down the sides to indicate this.
Jeremy calculated how much I'd need to bring water to 1.025 salinity and we made it up by just putting into the equivalent amount of tap water, letting it sit over night and then shaking it a few times to help the salt dissolve (the salt is the size of rock salt FYI). We checked the salinity with a refractometer to be sure and then I used it for water changes for my nano and bigger display for a few months until I ran out of it.
Having always used NSW i noticed the corals
only reacted if I changed too much at a time (>40%; they reacted by retracting in for a few days then returning to normal). Otherwise, no problems. I keep a large variety of corals in each system and have not experienced any problems.
Taking into account all the intense critters that are in NSW, we're planning to mix the artificial saltwater we make with this product with NSW for our commercial tank systems (
@Morphology ) and my personal display. We then assume that those bacteria naturally occurring in the water will be able to populate the ASW thus making it more 'active' and 'better' for the biological balance of the systems (see
http://dive-shield.us/infonewspages/Underthemicroscopejustasplashofseawater.html)
The CONS
- I see the main issue with using this at a hobby level is that it does take some finesse to get the amount right and to mix it thoroughly. It's not as easy as the nice fine salt you get in the 'marine' products.
- Secondly, there is the legitimate issue of contamination from being in factory settings, trucks and in bunnings. There was no contaminants or dust that I could
see as the bag is similar to a large rice bag (pretty sealed but not impermeable).
We'll keep everyone updated as we use the stuff in our large systems and see what happens.