[quote=“kaptken, post:19, topic:2211”]
Oh, Hey Chris, do you happen to have a recipe for a DIY salt mix? Most things are easy and cheap to buy bulk like sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, calcium chloride, magnesium chloride, magnesium sulfate, sodium tetraborate, a bottle of Tropic Marin Trace elements, and a pinch of strontium chloride and and dash of potassium Iodide to taste. and i think you got a salt mix.
Hmmmm?? I sense an experiment coming on. [/quote]
There are a few down and dirty ones that some people use for breeding fish and then another one that is a little more detailed but has a patent attached to it that AFIK all the salt companies use to make their salt mix’s
Well, I will search around for some recipe proportions. and most of the supplies will come in stock at Home depot soon for winter ice melt, or water softening, cooking and laundry. I spose with a little chemistry molar calculations i could back fit it from the tables that give the concentration of the major elements in salt water. if i can remember how. its been a long time.
But a quick estimate of prices seems like it will still cost about $20 a bucket buying stuff retail.
OK, will do. Thats right, you are a chemistry major. should be good practice. Maybe you can play with numbers while i search for a portions recipe. Need to figure out how many grams per kilo of salt mix of each dry salt to add to the mix. tables show the percent or ppm of each element.
we know the fomula of each salt and atomic weight. and the desired end SG of 1.025. or about 34 ppt salts. seems doable?? I would ignore the trace elements, strontium and iodine and borate, that can be dosed later. just the biggies. might be interesting to make a batch of salt from scratch. I think all the right stuff is available in good quality.
and if we actually buy the stuff and mix it, set up some small reef tanks and see how it works. Just for funzies.
good luck with that, physics is tough enough as a primary major. lucky for me it only took me 3.5 years to realize that a BS in physics is worth about as much as a BA in literature ;D It will be a tough dual major, but if you do it you will certainly be uniquly qualifed for a science career. Have you thought about doing bio/chem instead? I know its a little cliche but im sure the difference between jobs available to chem majors with a bio background vs a physics background is quite substantial. One interesting field that is growing for physicists is medicine. There are a lot of interesting jobs related to R&D for the technology that supports medical technology and andvancement. Considering the enormous roll that chemistry plays in medicine as well, a chem/phys backgournd might be well suited for the field. Out of curiosity, are Dr Shipman and Barnhardt still around?
Have you tested the alk on fresh made saltwater? The variance between baseline alk for differnet salts can be quite significant. If the salt you use mixes at a low alk to begin with you might be starting in the hole. My problem was always high alk. My Ca reactor contributed a lot to my alk, but the salt i used to use also mixed very high. The salt i use now mixes at around 7dkh and stays between 6-8 consistently with no dosing.
[quote=“kaptken, post:22, topic:2211”]
Well, I will search around for some recipe proportions. and most of the supplies will come in stock at Home depot soon for winter ice melt, or water softening, cooking and laundry. I spose with a little chemistry molar calculations i could back fit it from the tables that give the concentration of the major elements in salt water. if i can remember how. its been a long time.
But a quick estimate of prices seems like it will still cost about $20 a bucket buying stuff retail. [/quote]
Ken, I know the amounts but im not going to post the patented formula :BEER Let me dig it up and ill PM it to you
Yoh K!. Thanks. Its just a wild hair idea for something to play with this winter. maybe. There are plenty of charts detailing the ppm of each basic element. Marchingbanjos found some more info on the amount of sulfate and carbonate ions . from that one could prbably work back by parts and subtraction, from the formulas, to an amount of each whole chemical. i spose. sort of a science project. like my tanks. or the dirty dishes in the sink. HE HE.!!