tropic marine

[chizzle]

I had a couple of quick questions about this brand of salt. First off, there is a list of ingredients listed on the side & one of them is copper. Any body have any problems, or is this something that I shouldn't be worried about?

Second question, there doesn't seem to be any mixing instructions on the box. I checked the website & can't find anything there either. I would assume that it would be 1/2 per gallon, but I wanted to make sure before I ruined bunch of water.

TIA

 

[melosu58]

I dont know much about it but I`m thinking that the copper is really a compound. There are around 89 different salts in ocean water and I think that what you are talking about is one of those sea salts. Examples are Sodium Chloride or potasium chloride. So what does it say where you see copper. It will say something like Copper chloride or copper something. Just because it says copper does not make it bad. Example would be Sodium Chloride (Plain Salt). Sodium by itself when put in water will spark, smoke and explode while Chlorine is one of the most poisonous gasses. Combined they create regular table salt so just because you see copper does always mean something bad. Write back and let me know what is beside that word copper on the ingredients. HTH

 

[chizzle]

It just says copper by itself. Actually, it doesn't appear that any thing that is a natural element is listed as a compound. It lists iron, arsenic, copper, ect. everything by itself. I would assume that it is such an insignificant amount that it wouldn't do any harm, but I just thought I would check before we start using it.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Tropic Marin is a great salt, always highly reccomended. My guess is that, like you said, it's found at such small numbers that it is no harm at all. I did a quick google on Tropic Marin and it says it contains 70 trace elements found in natural sea water. Then you said it lists iron, arsenic, and copper as ingredients on the side of the box.

Kinda makes me wonder what prolonged use of Tropic Marin would do to a system. Would it cause an increase in copper levels over time? It's interesting. I looked up the Seachem salt that I'm using, and it says it contains .0003 ppm (I think ppm) copper.

I beleive it was Shimek who wrote an article on the toxicity of synthetic sea salts we use for our tanks.

No answer I know, sorry. It's interesting.

 

[melosu58]

Still if it says you are adding Iron,copper and other elements you are still adding compounds. Just like if you are buying a bottle of calcium it will say on the bottle calcium but you are adding calcium chloride. The bottle does not say calcium chloride but says calcium. I know my chemistry is only HS but I do remember that part. Can someone give me a link to this salt and it`s components

 

[chizzle]

I completely follow you. It's too bad I didn't get that much from my HS chem class...nor my college. Here's the link anyways, http://www.tropic-marin.de/ I couldn't really find too much info, but I definitely appreciate all of your help.

 

[melosu58]

No problem. I could not find anything on that site and I checked my jugs of oceanic salt and could not find a list but I`ll keep looking.

 

[JM]

I've used it since day one and i haven't had any problems. It wouldn't be one of the best salts out there if it was bad for your tank. I highly recommend it and wouldn't worry about the ingredient list. Even if there is a copper compound in there i'm sure its fine for the inverts.

 

[Innovator]

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-11/rhf/index.php

 

[melosu58]

This article has a chart on copper in the reef and in a New tank and a old tank.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/jan2004/feature.htm


BTW Great article James.

 

[bavass]

Is there an update to the use of this salt I am thinking of switching to this. I had been using Instant Ocean but I want to switch since I want to start adding corals at some point.

 

[AMDPhenomX4]

Most if not all corals will do fine in instant ocean. My 40G tank was all oceanic until recently and i have zoas, frogspawn, a scoly, and a brain to get a broad range.

 

[Bige]

Great question and discussion! I looked at my oceanic salt and my coral life salt. Neither one had ingredients. My Seachem salt says that "it contains all essential major,minor, and trace components found in natural reef water, but contains no toxic or non-essential components such as nitrate, phosphate, silicate, arsenic, cadmium, beryllium". There were no ingredients listed. It specifically said that it does not contain arsenic.

 

[bavass]

Great question and discussion! I looked at my oceanic salt and my coral life salt. Neither one had ingredients. My Seachem salt says that "it contains all essential major,minor, and trace components found in natural reef water, but contains no toxic or non-essential components such as nitrate, phosphate, silicate, arsenic, cadmium, beryllium". There were no ingredients listed. It specifically said that it does not contain arsenic.

good to know! I am looking for a reef salt was trying to decide between Reef Crystals and Tropic Marin. Hmmm, might have to look into Seachem