Do yall think this would work. DIY Salt Mix for 100 gallons. http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthrea ... 59&page=22 His is for 1000 gallons I reduced it to 100 gallons 9592 grams or 21.14 pounds- Sodium Chloride (Morton's High Purity Swimming Pool Salt - Could also use Water Softener Salt). 2011 grams or 4.44 pounds- Magnesium Chloride (Ice Melter) 1566 grams -3.45 pounds Magnesium Sulfate (Epsom Salt) 456 grams -  1.0 pounds Calcium Chloride (Ice Melter, There are other sources) 280 grams -.61 pounds Potassium Chloride (Water Softener available at HD) 668 grams – 1.47 pounds Sodium Bicarbonate (Baking Soda) 57.2 grams -.12 pounds Strontium (Kent Marine, etc.) Kent Marine Essential Elements - As directed on bottle for your volume of water.  These are the ingredients
check to see if any of the products contains anti-caking agents... Yellow Prussiate of Soda (YPS) is used in some salts to prevent caking. Na4Fe(CN)6 · 10H2O (sodium ferrocyanide decahydrate), it does contain cyanide so unsure if it could pose a risk. Â
Hiya, All I have to say is you're a braver person then I to even think of mixing your own salt. Kim/Benton, AR
What is the total cost to make 100gal worth of your own salt with this method? How do u get it evenly mixed? What is the final level of calcium ect.... Very curious
The public aquariums use Instant Ocean by the palletized sack (ton or so). If they think pre mixed is a good idea, I think I do too. LOL!
There is alot more to salt then just those few ingrediants, Use the commercial ones, it has taken very smart people several years to get where the mixes are today.
I agree, the commercial mixes contain everything you need for a successful reef tank. I think the risk of getting a contaminate in one of the bags of ingrediants would be enough for me not to try it. With the price of livestock why would you consider this?
The only reason I would consider this is my budget has went to nothing. My wife is on disability and I have had to quit work to take care of her, she is getting better slowly but until I can go back to work we are living on her disability. With two kids 17,18 years old it been very tight. I have been able to off set some cost of my tanks by selling corals and trading some in at NSA, but just salt mix is expensive to me now. I have had to consider getting out of the hobby for now, if I cant come up with ways to save. I have not been doing water changes on my salt tanks they are OK and the coral are doing good, my perimeters are all good. I have a 14 and 29 gal Bio-Cube they run 0's across the board, and a 75 gal as well the, 75 is a fish and soft coral tank the nitrate has been about 10 to 15 PPM everything is doing great, but I just wanted to have some extra salt mix to do more water changes.
I have not thought about the contaminate factor. I would think that most of the ingredients would be safe except maybe the ice melter, they would have to be environment friendly I would think, but may not be safe for a fish tank. Do you thing if I left out the ice melter's and changed my 75 to a FOWLR it would work.
I would still think you are going to come up short on several trace minerals. I am with the rest of these guys, I don't think you are going to get something that works very well.Â
Meco, I too had to take a little sabatical from the reefings. I know it's a hard decision, but sometimes it's best to back out, regroup, and wait till you have the funds to do things the way you want too. That's what I always liked about this hobby......you have to take things slow, which coincides with my money flow, lol.....slow.
