Home-made Salt Recipe

[mattiej]

My Salt Mix Recipe
25 gallon Mix
NaCl2350 g
MgCl500 g
MgSO4 400 g
CaCl2110 g
Kcl66 g
NaHCO3 20 g
SrCl22 g
Kent Marine Essential Elements1 capful
Sources:
NaClsolar salt, water softener salt
MgCl2magnesium chloride ice melter at most Home
Depot
MgSO4Epsoms salt at any grocery or drug store
CaCl2another ice melter
KClsolar salt that is called pipe safe again at Home
Depot
NaHCO3baking soda
SrCl2Kent Marine Turbo Strontium
The Kent Marine Essential Elements is just to round out the mix and can be substituted with any full spectrum additive

 

[moraym]

thanks! I'll have to buy a small scale and get on it, you couldn't put 'em in volumes could you

Anyways, tried this the FOWLR before? Or just your shark pool?

 

[mattiej]

Moray all the chemicals are solid and volumes are meaningless. I use this mix on my shark pool, my FOWLR, and I used it to cure my live rock when I first set up my reef. I now use Oceanic salt for my reef as it has the full compliment of components and is a bit better for my SPS.
Most decent kitchen scales have both a metric and a standard scale and is what I use at home. When all the salts are added and fully dissolved the specific gravity is about 1.024, Ca is around 450, alk is 2.5-3.5 (depending on the exact amount of sodium bicarb added).
Even though the salts are from the local hardware store or Home Depot, there are no metals to worry about and if you use RO/DI water no nitrates or phosphates. Luckily the only 'contaminants' are the other salts (ie the mag chloride has listed both calcium chloride and sodium chloride as also being present)

 

[squidd]

I had asked on "another" forum (and I think this one as well) if anyone had experience in using "ice melt" products in SW aquaria...
Thought for sure some of the "old timers" would have stories about the good old days before synthetics were readily available...
Didn't get any positive response to those inquiries...
I would think these "base" compounds could be mixed/used as most are extracted from SW to begin with.
I was especially interested in the calcium chloride "ice melt" as a "generic" calcium supplement...
Will copy this recipe for future reference...

 

[mattiej]

Squidd on another forum there is an article about a home-made two part Ca/Alk system that uses an ice melter from Home Depot. While I worked at the New Jersey Aquarium we used basically the same formulation for almost 90% of the exhibits and with only long term positive effects. THe large ocean tank was set up and filled with the exact recipe. I just want to clarify that the reason I posted this recipe was due to several folks asking for it in posts about my own tanks and pool. Just wanted to show that there are many ways to skin a cat.

 

[gasguzzler]

mattie, do you like that new Oceanic stuff? My cousins husband works for Oceanic and he brought me to a trade show where they dissolved over 1000 gal in under 3 minutes! I switched all my tanks over to that stuff 6 months ago. Good stuff.

 

[mattiej]

gas, yes the results thus far have been very positive. All of my corals look better, polyps are extended beautifully, and so-so blues are looking much brighter. I have found that you can mix the salt one day and 24 hours later it is perfectly safe to use. I can honestly say that Oceanic will be my only salt mix!

 

[dskidmore]

Sorry to bring up such an old topic, I became interested after reading Requiem's post on the matter
What kind of cost savings do you see by mixing your own salt? Have any comparisons been done between inverts/macroalgaes/plants kept in this mix vs the professional stuff?