Oceanic salt and phosphates?

phantom phish

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I have recently been reading some of the posts on Reefcentral and TRT reagarding Oceanic salt and phosphates and/or perceived algae blooms.

A lot of the information in those posts is inconclusive in my opinion, and may be coincidental. But at least some seem to be from reasonable people who seem to have taken a more scientific approach and actually done some testing of freshly mixed Oceanic ASW, and found measurable phosphates, while others have found none. The speculation seems to be that there may have been some "bad batches" of Oceanic salt that got out into the marketplace.

I use both Insant Ocean and Oceanic salt in my system, and so I tested my nearly empty 200 gallon bucket of Oceanic salt, mixed at a SG of 1.025 with RO/DI water, and tested with Salifert Phosphate and Nitrate kits. I find no detectable phosphates or nitrates.

Before I go out and buy another bucket of Oceanic salt, I was wondering if anyone else here locally has tested their Oceanic salt, and found any of these nutrients?
 
I have been using Oceanic for about 8 months. I have tested for phosphates several times on fresh mixes with RO/DI water. The phosphates were not detectable with a hagen phosphate test.
 
Thanks Sammy.

I'll probably go out and buy another bucket of Oceanic salt this weekend, then mix it up and test it before using.

Although I don't really know what I'm going to do if it tests positive. Not sure any LFS is going to allow me to return an opened bucket of salt...
 
I recently bought a 5 gallon bucket in Dallas texas ( home of oceanic ) in a group buy. its tested anywhere from .5 to .75 PO4 with my ro/di hi s .. Even with new cartridges.. I have no use for the rest of it. All the other people who bought within that group buy are still fighting phosphate issues...


Nathan
 
Phantom Phish wrote:

Although I don't really know what I'm going to do if it tests positive. Not sure any LFS is going to allow me to return an opened bucket of salt...

My guess is that a good LFS would take it back if the product is guaranteed to have no phosphates and you can prove it has phosphates. Stores can usually receive credit for merchandise that has problems.
 
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