[e_baer]

Originally Posted by pogodzib

Overall, I like the salt that I use, Reef Crystals, the best, both from the test results and from how my tank performs with it. I looks to be a very nice study, but I'd like to see them add a few more samples overtime to make the results more reliable.

The one thing that I don't like about how they did the tests is that the chemicals tested were after using 7.0g of salt in 200 ml of water, which as the first results page shows, leads to a different salinity for each salt mix. I think it would have been been better to show how many grams of salt it takes to get a typical reef tank salinity and then test all of the salts for their chemical totals. This would essentially make all of the results higher in every category since every salt listed had a salinity lower than what most reef keepers keep their tanks. It would have also made the results easier for saltwater aquarists to read since it would have been comparing results from mixes made up at the same salinity. A couple examples are as follows:

When you initially compare the Calcium levels of the two Seachem mixes, you'd think that the Seachem Marine has more calcium. Why would Seachem make their Marine mix to have higher calcium levels than their Reef mix? If you do some simple math, you'll find out that, according to the samples tested, once the mixtures are adjusted up to a standard salinity of 35ppm as most reef tanks are, Seachem Reef has 542ppm versus 536ppm for their Marine mix.

Another example would be comparing the Magnesium levels of Reef Crystals and Red Sea Coral Pro. Upon looking at the results initially, you'd think that Red Sea Coral Pro has more magnesium, but once you adjust the numbers up to 35ppt, as a typical reef tank has, you'd find out the Reef Crystals has a higher Mg level, 1264ppm:1224ppm

As you can see, once you start adjusting the numbers as if they had the same salinity, the results will appear different when comparing them against one another.

I completely agree with you! I would definately like to find some more research comparing all the brands.