- Today on BRStv Investigates,
Does heating and circulating affect salt water storage?
(upbeat music)
Hi, I'm Randy, a host for the YouTube series
BRStv Investigates, where we take popular reefing theories,
methods, questions, and products,
and dive even further than what the manuals
and packaging will tell you, in order to put them
to the test in real world environments,
rate them on our scale of reef fantasy to reef certainty,
and share with you, the reefing community, what we find.
In a previous BRStv Investigates test,
we tested saltwater storage, where the mixed saltwater
was stored at room temperature
without circulation for upwards of three weeks,
to see if the alkalinity and calcium levels
would remain the same or stable, over time.
So in contrast to that, because many reefers choose to both
heat and circulate their mixed saltwater during storage,
we thought we'd repeat the same test,
but this time with a heater and powerhead
to keep the water warm and circulated.
With that in mind, today on BRStv Investigates,
we aim to answer two questions.
One, do parameters like alkalinity and calcium
shift in heated and well circulated reservoirs?
And two, will we see any related precipitation
or crust in the bins after storage?
Meaning if we mix and heat our saltwater during storage,
should we expect to see any changes to the
alkalinity and calcium levels in the water?
And if so, will it show up as precipitate
or insoluble material in the bottom of our storage bin?
So, why is this important to the average
reefer in their tank?
Well, I bet it's safe to say that to some degree,
we all desire stable numbers for alkalinity and calcium,
and if given the choice, we'd rather not have
to adjust those levels in our mixing bins
prior to using the saltwater for regular water changes.
And along with that, if there's any opportunity
that I can reduce the amount of frequent cleaning
I need to do on my reservoirs and save me
a bit of time and effort, I'm all ears
when it comes to finding ways to reduce
potential buildup inside them.
How we gonna get this part two,
of our saltwater storage investigation underway?
Well, we plan to test our eight most popular salts
that we used in previous tests.
Using Tropic Marin Pro and Classic,
Brightwell NeoMarine, Red Sea Coral Pro and Blue Bucket,
HW Reefer and both Instant Ocean
standard salt and reef crystals.
Similar to the unheated and uncirculated test,
we'll mix 20 gallons of each salt to the commonly targeted
35 parts per thousand, or 1.026 specific gravity,
and take their initial batch readings
for alkalinity and calcium directly after mixing,
two hours and four hours later, at 24 and 48 hours,
and at the one and two week storage mark.
Only this time we're adding 100 watt
Finnex HPG heater with the external temp probe
set to 78 degrees, and a Maxi-Jet 1200.
Since some of the salts directly state
in the instructions to mix them cold
and then heat them to the desired temperature,
we'll do exactly that, where we'll start mixing
each salt at room temp of around 68 degrees,
and then slowly heat to a common target temp of 78 degrees.
We'll leave the tanks loosely covered
with plastic wrap and then test each one
using the same type of hobby grade test kits
that many reefers also use at home.
The key point to note here with using
hobby grade test kits, is that there should be
some expectation of accuracy margin
to account for in the results,
which will probably be plus or minus a half a dKH point
for alkalinity, and about plus or minus
10 to 15 parts per million in calcium.
This accuracy range is not only
within the test kit's accuracy range themselves,
but also adds in some room for minor
human testing procedure inconsistencies,
and somewhat subjective test point end readings,
but I do expect the results will still be clear
and meaningful to the average reefer
in their own home who use the same type of test kits.
Before we get into the results of this test,
I have to say that Ryan and I both had expectations
as to what we'd find in today's testing
because in theory the solubility of calcium carbonate
actually decreases as the temperature rises,
and due to that, should cause more precipitate.
However, I'll admit, at face value,
we're definitely wrong in those expectations.
Let's first take a look at what we found
for calcium levels during heated and circulated storage,
keeping in mind that we do have our
10 to 15 part per million margin of error
for testing procedure, and testing end point
when the reagent color changed.
First I'll show you the entire group
of salt mixes all together, where you can clearly see
that in almost every case, there is a steady line
of stable levels for each salt,
with no drastic drops over two weeks,
but actually what seems to be like
slight increases in levels for a majority of them.
I do wanna put in a reminder here
the average temperature during the test,
which started at around 68 degrees,
which is about room temp, after two hours
the average tank temp reached 72 degrees,
and at four hours we ended up at 76 degrees,
which is a couple degrees lower than our target 78,
and then somewhere between the four hour mark
and when I took the sample at 24 hours,
the tank temp stabilized at 78,
and stayed that way for the rest of the test.
Okay, so starting with the Topic Marin Pro,
we see a start point of 390 parts per million,
and then after two weeks ended up around 420,
for the total change of 30 parts per million
over the entire testing period.
What we do see here, which is also somewhat echoed
in other salts, is that it takes somewhere
between four and a full 24 hours of mixing
for the levels in the Tropic Marin Pro
to stabilize around that 420 mark,
which we also saw visually in a previous test
for clarity and contrast, with a 24 hour time lapse
of mixing time, where the Tropic Marin Pro
ended up mixing clear the fastest,
at around a full eight hours.
The levels we see here and what we'll also see
throughout today's results, lead me to believe
that the salts may not be fully homogenized
until some time between six to 24 hours,
adding to the results of our previous testing.
With that in mind, we'll focus on the 24 hour
to two week data for the remainder of the test results,
with the Tropic Marin Classic next,
which only shows a 10 point change from 400 to 410.
Brightwell NeoMarine shows 380 to 400
parts per million calcium for a 20 point change.
HW Reefer really had no change from 430 to 430
in our testing window, Red Sea blue bucket
gains 10 parts per million from 420 to 430,
the Red Sea Coral Pro looks very stable
from 450 to 460 parts per million for a gain
within the margin of error of 10 parts per million,
Instant Ocean Standard also gains 10 parts per million
from 415 to 425, and finally Instant Ocean Reef Crystals
shows steady results from 490 to 500
in the final parts of the test.
So again, really what we're seeing here
is that none of the salts dropped
as we saw some do in our first storage test,
and in my opinion, more importantly,
none of the tanks show signs of precipitate
nearly to the degree that we had in the end
of our previous test, if any at all.
The most dramatic results show with the elevated salts
like Red Sea Coral Pro, where the side by side
test results we can see a major difference
in the levels over weeks of storage.
It is notable that the mixing procedure for Coral Pro
explicitly states to mix, then heat as we have done,
yet for this test we went well beyond
the maximum four hours of mixing that they advise.
Okay, let's look at alkalinity next,
comparing the 24 to two week window
like we did in the calcium results,
and as a whole, each salt looks
to be very stable across the board.
Tropic Marin Pro was stable within a 10th of a dKH point
at 7.1 to 7.2, at any given point throughout the testing,
which is well below our 0.5 dKH margin of error.
Tropic Marin Classic also shows absolute stability
from 9.5 to 9.5 in the latter parts of the test.
Next is Brightwell NeoMarine with a 7.8 start
and a 7.8 dKH finish with no change,
the HW Reefer mix gains slightly
from 9.0 dKH to 9.3, and still under our margin of error.
The Red Sea Blue Bucket is very stable
from 8.0 to 8.1 dKH, and Red Sea Coral Pro
has a slight increase from 12.1 to 12.4,
between 24 hours in two weeks.
Wrapping up the alkalinity results
is the Instant Ocean Standard salt,
which has an equal 10.3 and 10.3
for both the 24 hours to two weeks,
while the Reef Crystals shows nearly a straight line
from 10.8 to 10.8 dKH to round out the testing.
Again there's absolutely no denying
the stability we see here with each of the salt mixes,
where again the elevated salt mixes have
pretty dramatically different results than previous tests.
Along with that we're just not seeing
the same signs of calcium carbonate precipitation,
which at face value kinda defies
what we felt should be happening,
and really starts to raise even more questions
about the larger picture of what's happening here.
So to answer today's BRStv Investigates question
of do the alkalinity and calcium parameters shift
in heated and well circulated storage,
I'll go ahead and give this one a one
on the Reef Fantasy scale, because we can clearly see
on pretty much all fronts that the levels
for both alkalinity and calcium remain very stable
and almost unchanged at all, except for some
slight increase in calcium as the salt is fully dissolved,
but at the same time, could also be a product
of using hobby grade test kits.
As for the second question of whether or not
there's leftover precipitate in the storage bin
after heating and circulating,
we definitely don't see precipitate
to the degree that we did in the first
BRStv Investigates test, if any at all,
which does begin to raise even more questions
about why and how that may be,
and what we're actually seeing here.
Okay, how will the results of today's testing
affect reefers and their tanks?
Well depending on the salt mix you use,
it may be worthwhile to heat and circulate
your salt water during storage,
especially for those salts that purposefully have
elevated levels, and clearly state
in the instructions how to mix them properly.
That said, as we saw in previous tests,
there are some salt options that show
steady parameters and don't require
heating and circulating, which also may have
some added savings on electricity consumption
of maybe four to eight bucks per month,
depending on the equipment you use, and the size
of your mixing bins you have for your own setup.
So with the results of both salt storage tests
in the books, rather than simply just having
answers to our questions, we've actually developed
more questions that we feel could use
some additional testing, in this case we walked away
with a very distinct question that we plan to test
even further, to continue to add clarity
to the salt mixing and salt water storage.
The biggest question we wanna answer here is,
was the precipitation we saw in our initial
salt water storage test due to it being
unheated and uncirculated, or was it just
that the salts weren't mixed long enough?
Based on most reefers generally feeling
that mixing for an hour is adequate,
in that first experiment, we followed
the same thought and mixed each batch for a single hour
before pulling the pump and letting them settle.
It was only after testing how long it takes
for each of the salts to mix clear
did we realize that a majority of them
take upwards of 24 hours or perhaps longer,
with some standouts that mixed
fully clear before the 24 hour mark.
So we plan to add clarity to this question
by conducting two more tests.
For today's test of heating and storing,
we'll pull the plug on the heaters and pumps
and let the tanks sit for a couple more weeks
to see if they begin to show signs
of shifting parameters or precipitate in the storage bin.
Secondly, we plan to repeat the initial salt storage test,
only this time, we'll let each of the salts
mix for a full 48 hours before turning the pumps off,
and then start testing the alkalinity
and calcium levels without circulation or heat
to see if we get similar results.
Thanks for watching this BRStv Investigates,
if you'd like to see the first test we did
on salt storage, click the video link at the top,
or if you wanna know how much your salt mix
costs you to use per month, click the video on the bottom,
and to sign up as a preferred reefer
for your chance at getting your recent order
or shopping cart refunded, hit that link
in the lower left, and we'll see you
on the next BRStv Investigates.