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- Today on BRStv INVESTIGATES,
we bring more clarity to the question
do you really need heat and flow
in your saltwater mixing bin?
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Hi, I'm Randy, the host for the YouTube series,
BRStv INSVESTIGATES,
where we take popular reefing theories
and put them to the test.
So far in these BRStv INVESTIGATES salt mix experiments,
we've discovered two things.
One, it takes longer to fully mix salt water
than what most reefers may have thought.
Two, adding heat and flow to the mixing process
seems to prevent a ton of crust in the storage bin,
as well as help maintain parameters for alkalinity
and calcium during storage.
For this week, we attempt to answer two things.
First, after the saltwater is fully mixed and homogenized,
can you turn the flow and heat off
and then store the saltwater without causing
precipitation or a change to
alkalinity and calcium parameters?
And secondly, is heating really required?
Okay, you may be asking yourself how all of this saltwater
mixing and saltwater storage testing effects you
and your reef tank.
Well, up until now,
nearly all of the advice for how to mix and store
saltwater's been pretty antidotal and all over the place,
with conflicting recommendations to heat or not heat
while mixing, mix until visibly clear,
or mix multiple hours or days.
Use the saltwater immediately after mixing
or that it can be stored for an extended period of time.
The list just goes on.
With so much ambiguity surrounding the topic
that effects pretty much every single tank out there,
by the time we're done testing,
we hope to be able to give a final answer to the question
of how to properly mix salt water.
From the results we've seen so far,
there seems to be a best practice approach
to mixing and storing saltwater becoming increasingly clear.
In order to clarify the differences between the results
we've seen in the last two storage tests,
where we saw changes to the alkalinity and calcium
as well as precipitate build up when the tanks
were unheated and uncirculated
and basically the complete opposite without changes to
alk and calcium or signs of precipitate
when they were constantly heated and circulated,
we planned to conduct two final tests to see
if we could determine why we saw those differing results.
To test whether continuous heat and circulation
is required to maintain stable parameters
and keep precipitate at bay,
we'll literally pull the plug on the heated and circulated
storage tests,
which have been mixing at 78 degrees for over two weeks
and let them sit for a couple of more weeks
with no flow in heat,
while we monitor them for changes to alkalinity and calcium
as well as any potential precipitate to form.
Alongside of that, in a second experiment,
we will mix brand new saltwater for a full 48 hours
without heat to create a fully homogenous solution,
then pull the plug on the pumps and determine if
adequate flow and intentionally longer mixing times
are required to prevent obvious signs of precipitation
and shifting parameters.
All right, let's first find out what happened
when we turned off the heaters and power heads
after it had been mixing and heated for over two weeks
with Tropic Marin Pro, Tropic Marin Classic,
Red Sea Coral Pro and Red Sea Salt in the blue bucket,
Brightwell NeoMarine, HW Reefer Salt,
and the Instant Ocean Standard,
and the Instant Ocean Reef Crystals.
Looking at the calcium data across the board,
where we're showing the last two weeks of the parameters
when the heat and pumps were on,
along with two weeks of data after the plugs were pulled,
there's really no drastic change to any of the salts,
including those elevated salts like the Red Sea Coral Pro.
For changes to alkalinity across all eight salts,
we see a very similar story,
where there was little to no change in parameters
in the last two weeks of being heated and circulated,
and following the power being off for the pumps and heaters,
we continued to see very steady DKH levels.
It's pretty plain to see that heating and circulating
saltwater for a couple of weeks not only help to create
a fully homogenous solution,
but even after two weeks of storage,
with the pumps and heaters off,
we continue to see solid stability
in alkalinity and calcium levels.
Looking at this data overall,
I think almost all could infer that after the saltwater's
fully mixed or homogenized,
it's less important to keep the heat and the flow turned on.
To show a visual representation of what these tanks
look like after multiple weeks of storage
with heat and circulation,
and then with both of those variables being removed,
we added a couple of black and white poker chips
to the bottom of each tank to help determine
how much, if any, precipitate resulted.
From what we can see throughout each of the salt mixes,
there really is almost no measurable precipitate
in any of them,
and for the couple of mixes that show a very slight haze,
I likely suspect that is being some sort of
insoluble or organic material from the
mining or evaporation process of the various materials
that make up a complete salt mix.
Moving on to our experiment of mixing the salts
for a full 48 hours without heat
before turning the pumps off and taking measurements,
I have to say that after the pumps were off,
I noticed right away a distinct amount of precipitate
in a few of the tanks.
The same precipitate wasn't present in the heated
and circulated tanks,
so let's see what the numbers have to say
and take a look at the precipitate using the same
black and white poker chips as a reference.
Starting with the calcium levels
for the unheated and uncirculated tests,
we don't see much of a drastic change in parameters
from the 48 hour point to the one week mark,
as a majority of the salt mixes within that plus or minus
10 to 15 parts per million margin of error
for the hobby-grade testing accuracy and testing procedure.
After 48 hours of mixing and the pumps turned off,
Tropic Marin Pro started with 425 parts per million
and after one week, was pretty much unchanged at 420.
Tropic Marin Classic showed similar stability
with a 410 start point after 48 hours
and 400 after one week of storage.
As for any visual precipitate or insoluble material,
both of these salts showed little to no signs at the bottom
of the mixing container,
which can likely be attributed to how clear
they can mix within a 24 hour period
as well as the farmer grade materials
used to create that salt mix.
Brightwell's NeoMarine Calcium started at
425 parts per million after 48 hours of mixing
and after a week of storage, ended at 400,
which is slightly outside the margin of error range,
but still there really is almost no visual sign
of precipitate in the tank, which may have something to do
with it being one of the few salts that mixed clear
under the 24 hour mark.
HW Reefer salt remained flat at 425
during the week of storage,
however, on this one,
we do see a noticeable haze of precipitate
or insoluble material at the bottom,
much like we did during the initial unheated
and uncirculated test.
The Red Sea Salt in the blue bucket
and the Red Sea Coral Pro
showed little change to calcium over a week of storage
after each being mixed for 48 hours,
however, visually,
we can see a difference between a salt mix
that has purposefully elevated levels for alkalinity
and calcium,
where the blue bucket salt shows little to no signs
of precipitate in the storage container,
while directly after turning off the pumps,
I did notice a distinct amount of precip
at the bottom of the Coral Pro,
which really starts to show the importance
of following distinct mixing instructions
given by the salt mix manufacturer for the best performance.
In this case, Red Sea not only recognizes how elevated
levels of alkalinity and calcium should behave in a salt mix
but they also provide reefers who use the salts
with clearer guidance with detailed instructions
on how to properly mix the salt to overcome things
like precipitate when using them,
as we can see probably was the case here
when we didn't follow it directly.
Moving on to the calcium levels for the
Instant Ocean Standard,
we see a start point of 420 parts per million,
and after a week, it's at 400,
which is just five parts per million
outside of our error margin,
and not really much of a change.
We do notice some insoluble material and precipitate
in the tank, which was also one of the salts
that didn't mix clear in our 24 hour mixing test.
Lastly, for calcium is the Instant Ocean Reef Crystals
that showed similar results with a start point of 500
and an end point of 480.
Also with some measurable amount of precip
in the bottom of the tank.
Let's take a close look at the alkalinity results
for this experiment,
where we see Tropic Marin Pro holds steady at 7.2
for both test points.
Tropic Marin Classic showed a slight increase
from nine to 9.2 at 48 hours and one week, respectively,
which is under our 0.5 DKH margin of error.
Brightwell NeoMarine started at 7.9 and ended at 7.8,
which is really no change at all.
HW Reefer also shows nearly no change from 8.6 to 8.3 DHK
during the test.
For Red Sea Blue Bucket,
we see a variance inside of our margin of error
from 8.0 to 7.9 DKH.
Red Sea Coral Pro shows a drop of almost a full DKH point
from 10.2 to 9.3, which again,
is what most would expect in an elevated salt mix
and is also similar results to what we saw in our first
initial test of unheated and uncirculated storage.
Instant Ocean Standard's alkalinity doesn't change much
from 48 hours to one week,
where it starts at 9.8 and ends at 10.0 DHK.
To wrap up this test with the Reef Crystals,
we again see no shift in parameters
from 10.7 to 10.8 during the testing period.
From the entire panel of results that we saw here today,
and to answer our first question of
after the saltwater is fully mixed,
can you turn off the flow and heat
and then store the water without causing precip
or changes to parameters,
I'm gonna rate this one a nine on the Reef Certainty scale
and say with some level of confidence
that after seeing today's results,
it certainly seems like you don't need the heaters
and circulation after the saltwater's been fully homogenized
to keep the precipitation out of the storage bin
and still maintain consistent alkalinity and calcium.
From the looks of it, even on those elevated salts.
For the second question, is heating really required?
I'll give this one a seven towards being a reef certainty
because there are absolutely some salts that showed
no change to parameters and no real precipitation
when heated and circulated.
However, with the heat removed from the equation,
definitely showed some signs of measurable precipitate
on the bottoms inside of the storage tank,
even after being intentionally mixed
for an extended period of time.
Some salts like Tropic Marin Pro do have instructions
that call for mixing salt in heated water.
However, in our case,
none of our experiments on that salt mix
seemed to actually require it.
I'd also note that throughout these tests,
we also learned that those salts
where we saw little to no precipitation
were some of the same salts that were able to mix up clear
within our 24 hour time lapse experiment.
In the end,
how will today's result effect hobbyists and their tanks?
For one there's a lot to be said about properly following
the manufacturer's instructions for mixing,
specifically in the case of elevated salt mixes.
As a general statement,
mixing for at least 48 hours with heat and flow
will likely produce the best results.
Along with that,
there are choices out there that do mix clear in less time
than others with some in as little as an hour,
so there is an option for those looking to have
a fully homogenous salt mix ready to go
in shorter amounts of time,
however, personally for me,
when it comes time to do a water change,
I will simply start mixing my water the day prior
and allow it more time to mix fully clear before using it,
or for that matter,
just have a batch mixed and stored at all times
without any concern to shifting parameters
prior to using it.
It's pretty common for many of us to seek out the absolute
best of the best to help our decisions
on what we want to use for our saltwater aquariums
and salt is definitely one of 'em.
However, in most cases,
what's best is going to be pretty subjective
to each individual.
In Ryan's video about which salt mix is best,
it doesn't actually appoint one salt above the rest,
but instead helps to explain reasons why reefers
choose one salt over another,
which may help you pick one for your own tank.
So click on that link to check it out.
See you next time on BRStv INVESTIGATES.