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.

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Neptune System’s APEX Controller is a powerful controller, but initial setup and installation can be a bear for some users. Alan Jones has published his version of a user’s manual on his website. For what I’ve read, it’s better than the manual that Neptune Systems provides, covering ever step in more detail w/ actual screen shots. Major props go to the configuration setup for network connections. Here’s the link for all you APEX users:

http://reeftech.webs.com

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Zeovit tanks achieve the best colors of any tanks I’ve ever seen. Although my experience w/ Zeovit was just ok, there are people out there that have had great results (My suspicions are that they’d have great results without Zeovit). Here’s Zeovit.com’s 1st quarter tank. If I could only get those colors in my sps!!!

1st Quarter Zeovit.com Tank

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It looks like Seachem has finally gotten off it’s butt and will be shipping out the much anticipated Salinity salt this month. A source on the internet is taking orders already. It looks like the retail pricing will be around $70 for a bucket. What’s nice is that a bucket will yield 225 gallons of saltwater at 1.025 specific gravity. Hopefully my LFS will be selling this for much less, like they do w/ all of their salt. Specs are as follows:

Calcium: target 422 mg/L, range 409-435 mg/L

Magnesium: target 1336 mg/L, range 1296-1376 mgl/L

Strontium: target 8.4 mg/L, range 8.1-8.7 mg/L

pH: 8.4-8.6

Alkalinity: 3.2-3.8 meq/L

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Even with an awesome skimmer (Bubble King SM250), high flow(Vortech & Tunzes) and ‘relatively’ small feedings (tangs and anthias!), I get a good amount of algae growth on my glass and bottom glass (my setup is bare bottom, no sand). In general, I have to clean my glass every three days because there is a layer of algae growth. Nothing major, but noticeable none the less. I was getting some aggressive growth of hair algae on the bottom glass and tried out a Seahare to fix the problem. Even though it did a decent job, it didn’t ‘fix’ the problem. After hearing some good reviews, I tried AlgaeFIX, a product from Aquarium Pharmaceuticals. They’re based in Chalfont, Pa, about a 5 minute walk from my Dad’s house! So far the results have been incredible. After 3 recommended doses, my hair algae is virtually gone! Cleaning my glass have become a weekly chore, instead of every three days. I’ve noticed that this product only effects the small hair algae and not the larger algae I have in the tank. Those seem to get weaker and need to be pulled out manually. My chaeto in my frag tank/refugium has taken a hit though; it’s not doing well. Overall, I’m very happy w/ this product. My long term cure is to add additional live rock for biological filtration(getting cooked now). Also, I’m going to restart my phosban reactor.

Here’s a link to the product: AlgaeFIX

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