I’ve finally gotten my hands on a bucket of the newly release Seachem Aquavito Salinity Salt. Special thanks to Seachem Technical Support for making this happen!
Here’s my early review of the product:
1. The package is worth it’s weight in gold! Although regular salt buckets, such as the ones used by Instant Ocean, are OK to use, others are just terrible (Brightwell). The Salinity bucket is a god send! A clever lever releases the top and its a simple spin to open and close the bucket (Goodbye rusty hammer!).Also the package is taller than a regular bucket giving it a very sleek and premium look. I’d recommend everyone to get this salt just to reuse the bucket alone! Below is a picture for size comparison.
2. This salt is heavy. I’m not sure if it’s the packaging, but the salt bucket feels much heavier than my other buckets. Seachem claims that Salinity is more concentrated and will yield more saltwater. Based on my unscientific weight test, I can’t argue with this. I’ve read elsewhere that a bucket may yet 220-225g at 1.025. Compared to other salts that mix 150g at 1.021, the price vs quantity produced shows this new salt’s value.
3. The salt contains many different particle sizes of material. Most of the salts I’ve used had a uniform salt grain appearance. The salt in Aquavitro Salinity appears to be a mix of different materials. I can’t quite explain it, but some particles look like regular salt, others look like tiny flakes and others look like tiny balls. This is a good indication to me because these look like some of the additives I use. It appears that Seachem is using different dry ingredients to get the exact ratios they’re after.
4. A batch specific label is attached to each bucket to show what the salt actually tested at the warehouse. I don’t know about you, but this gives me much reassurance that I’m not getting a bad batch of salt and using it in my tank. Below is what my label read. I’ve mixed 5 gallons so far and my Salifert test kits(pH, Alk and Calc) supports the label very closely (A bit of advice: Always roll you bucket around before opening to account for settling).
5. Conclusion: I’m a reef geek! The fact that I’ve been waiting for this salt mix and got excited when it finally arrived proves that I have no life! The good news is that the wait was well worth it and I’ve found my new salt mix. We’ll see how my tank reacts to this salt, but all indications show it’ll be a positive one.
