Does anyone use Tropic Marin Pro sea salt?

[enzo]

TMP came in tonight from Dr Fosters and Smith, and the packaging sucked, anyways ill be using it this saturday. This 200gl. mix should last me a long time, my tank is only a 30gl. breeder.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I just received a new 200g bucket. I will say it's going to be my last bucket. The bucket prior to this one had really high magnesium around 1600+. I dealt with it for some time. Although folks told me it wouldn't have much effect on the tank, my corals were never thriving.
This new bucket of TMPR parameters are as follows

EDIT: mixed at 1.026 via milwuakee meter
CA -460
ALK- 6.6dkh
MAG- 1200

I have mixed this batch over and over 3 separate times. The last time I mixed the bucket, I worked on it for 30 minutes. Never again will buy this brand of salt. I've had enough.

 

[enzo]

I just received a new 200g bucket. I will say it's going to be my last bucket. The bucket prior to this one had really high magnesium around 1600+. I dealt with it for some time. Although folks told me it wouldn't have much effect on the tank, my corals were never thriving.
This new bucket of TMPR parameters are as follows

EDIT: mixed at 1.026 via milwuakee meter
CA -460
ALK- 6.6dkh
MAG- 1200

I have mixed this batch over and over 3 separate times. The last time I mixed the bucket, I worked on it for 30 minutes. Never again will buy this brand of salt. I've had enough.

My mag. is low 1000, i'll test my TMP also, maybe you got a bad batch.

 

[reeferfoxx]

My mag. is low 1000, i'll test my TMP also, maybe you got a bad batch.

Yeah. Point was this the second 200g bucket in a row that is a bad batch. I've mixed and mixed the dry salt prior to making water with no success. I keep a nano its going to last awhile. Unfortunately I have to dose mag and alk. Super annoying and costly. $100 a bucket is NOT worth it.

 

[enzo]

Yeah. Point was this the second 200g bucket in a row that is a bad batch. I've mixed and mixed the dry salt prior to making water with no success. I keep a nano its going to last awhile. Unfortunately I have to dose mag and alk. Super annoying and costly. $100 a bucket is NOT worth it.

I have a nano also and bought 1 200gal mix it should last me a very long time. I want to share my very near experience with TMP just last night I did a water change. And this morning when the lights came on i was impressed with what I saw. My gorgonian was dying the tips where thining out and polyps weren't extending anymore. I've had it for two emails months and it looked great for the first two weeks but that was it. But now it's come back to life. I've changed nothing except that water change from last night and it looks like its came back, I'll post a picture and if you can look at the branches you can see how they are thining out.

 

[enzo]

I don't know why the word email is in there I reread the post twice before I sent it, anyways. Here another picture different angle.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I don't know why the word email is in there I reread the post twice before I sent it, anyways. Here another picture different angle.

Nice! Looks like your tank just needed a good water change

 

[DHill6]

Using TM salts for the past 7 yrs. I had two bad buckets, Calcium was extremely high, used it for weed killer. Mg needs a little boost on this bucket, otherwise spot on. Overall not bad for 7 yrs of salt!

 

[enzo]

Nice! Looks like your tank just needed a good water change

Yup with TMP

 

[reeferfoxx]

Yup with TMP

I defended TMP for years. I just can't do it anymore. Too many inconsistencies. Switching to RSB. Cheers

 

[enzo]

What is RSB?

 

[reeferfoxx]

What is RSB?

Red Sea Blue bucket. I've also considered Fritz Pro Freef but I wanted to start with red sea. The salt parameters are similar to my tank parameters. Though Magnesium is low. The Alk levels are where i keep mine. They also post the parameter on the bucket which is more comforting. Also the salt isn't imported which reduces cost and helps maintain mixed quality. Ultimately I'm looking for consistency, and sometimes I wonder if rejected salt isn't shipped to the U.S. Silly thought, I know. But I'm not trying to derail TMP's quality. They are doing that on their own.

 

[enzo]

I just did a water test and and these are my parameters. They are much better than AF.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I just did a water test and and these are my parameters. They are much better than AF.

Your mag is about as low as it will go. Needs to be between 1250-1350.

 

[enzo]

It's a lot better now believe it or not, it was at 1000 with AF. I've only had one small water change so far I'm hoping the more changes the better it gets.

 

[Elementalj]

Maybe it's a difference in the water I've been using. After having super high alkalinity and next to zero magnesium in the boxes of reefcrystals I've used this salt seemed like a dream. Sorry about you having such a bad time with it, really.

 

[jwshiver]

That's pretty close to what I am looking for. I'm looking for 7.5 dKH ideally. I've got a few buckets of NeoMarine that say they mix up at that, but I haven't tried them yet.

I bought some IO while it was on sale on Black friday because I wanted a salt with lower Mg levels so I could load it with Kent tech M (not that my bryopsis cares about it.). It's alkalinity consistently mixes up at 10.64 dKH (I've mixed 240 gallons so far in two batches). I had to burn the excess off with HCl (not a big deal, but I would rather not have to do that on a regular basis).

I had been using Red Sea Blue bucket, but it's a little higher on the alk than Ideally want and tends to be consistently low in Mg. Not a big deal but it would be nice to find one that was consistently close to what I am looking for. That way I can mix 100-125gallon batches,test and not have to make major adjustments. I'm getting ready to set up constant automatic waterchanges to the display tank, so in the spirit of simplification, I'd like to find a salt that I can mostly be happy with the parameters.

I think in part because of this thread I have it narrowed down to NeoMarine and now Tropic Marin Pro. I think next salt purchase I will give the Tropic Marin a try. I have 3 buckets of NeoMarine to get through after 3 boxes of IO... I could let the tank decide.... I'll let you know in roughly 99 weeks what the tank decides it likes the best between the three.

I ran a Triton test on NeoMarine. I have attached a pdf of the results. You might want to check it out. I'm switching to Tropic Marin Pro. I use a BRS 6 stage RODI system with a pump assist to bring my pressure up to 80 psi. I run approximately 30 gallons of finished water a week. I change the sediment and carbon filters every 4-5 months if they need it or not (currently 1 month old, both RO membranes were changed last June) and I never let the DI resin turn completely brown in the first canister before rotating the second canister in place of the first and refilling with fresh resin. I also stay on top of my TDS readings with a HM Digital COM-100 Combo Meter because I don't trust the TDS meter that comes mounted on the RODI unit. On February 8, 2017 my tap water was 362 ppm, coming out of carbon/RO filters was 2.1 ppm, coming out of DI as finished water was 0.4 ppm. That being said I wouldn't think the high readings are from my source water.

 

[reeferfoxx]

I left tmpr after two years. $200 on last two buckets were bad. Made me rage quit that brand.

 

[DHill6]

This bucket matches parameters except the mg is low. This one came from the TM warehouse. The Two prior buckets were bad, CA 600 or above, they came from an online supply source. Reeferfox what brand do you use now?

 

[DHill6]

Disregard, I read the above posts, I see it's RSB