Marine vs Aquarium Salt

[carcrazy]

I have read that marine salt is different from aquarium salt. What is the difference? I have added marine salt to my tank with stingrays and jardini and there has been no ill effect so far. Am I in danger of hurting the rays with the trace minerals and metals in marine salt (magnesium, strontium, iodine etc)? The amounts of these ions should be very low, I wouldn't think that they would be a problem at low concentrations. But what do I know...

Anybody out there use marine salt for their rays?

 

[stingray94]

I've never heard of anybody using marine salt with any freshwater fish. Marine salt is usually used in salt water and aquarium salt is used to cure freshwater fish of diseases and prevent disease

 

[carcrazy]

But both marine salt and aquarium salt is just - salt - NaCl. Marine salt may cost more but I have a reef tank as well, so it was handy to just dip in the bucket of Instant Ocean when I needed salt for the fw tank. Is there really that big a difference between the two?

 

[dmopar74]

aquarium salt is made from evaporated sea water, so basically its the same thing i would guess. i'll tell you that at home depot you can buy 50lb. bags of morton water softener salt for 5$, which is made from....... evaporated sea water, same thing, works great.

http://www.mortonsalt.com/products/watersoftner/white-crystal-solar.html

 

[cassharper]

plain aquarium salt is just that, salt.

Marine salt on the other hand has a load of other ingredients (calcium, magnesium, strontium, molydbenum... other stuff for healthy SW tanks). Some "reef" salt blends contain more of this than others.

This. is a link to SeaChem's Marine Trace additive. Should give you a good idea of what is added to salt blends (this has most of the same stuff). It was also made with solubility in mind (see: more additives) and to help buffer alkalinity.

 

[Pufferpunk]

http://www.aquariumboard.com/forums/articles/4770.htm