seachem

[tommy d]

Need some info about Seachem Cichlid Lake Salt.

I purchased a container of Seachem Cichlid Lake Salt and I’m not quite satisfied with the product. I have an aquarium stocked with Malawi cichlids and in the past have been using Epsom Salts to help replicate the environment. I’ve had no issues with the Epsom Salt but while exploring other options I came across an advertisement for the Seachem salts and decided to give it a try. My issue with the product is that I cannot get it to totally dissolve in the water. Upon my first usage I added the product to about a quart container filled with water and it immediately “clumped” up. I stirred it up a bit to get it to dissolve but it never really completely dissolved. I then put 1/2 teaspoon in an 8 oz container of water and stirred it up. I let the container sit for over 24 hours and there is still some salt that has not total dissolved. I’d like to use your product but I think it should totally dissolve, not sink down into the gravel. Anyone have the same problem or can offer a solution?
Thanks
Tom

 

[myswtsins]

It would not totally dissolve in the container or bottle I mixed it in but whatever was left would dissolve in the tank within a couple hours or something. It seems plausible that even a 1/2 tsp in 8 oz of water could have reached maximum solubility, there is a lot of minerals in that stuff. I know I used to take a quart container, add the salt, stir it up, let it settle a bit and drain off the water into the tank then add more tank water to the container and repeat. It would all dissolve eventually. Then I stopped worrying about it and dumped the stuff into the tank after the first stir, no ill effects.

I actually preferred to used some epsom salt, gh booster and the rift lake salt. Felt like that gave me a lot of bang for my buck in the way of money and minerals.

 

[tommy d]

Thanks for that info. I've sent an email to Seachem to see if they have any solutions or explanations. When I hear back I'll post it on this thread. I agree with the Epson salts...using them for years with no problems and yes...much cheaper.

 

[tommy d]

Seachems response:

I'm sorry to hear about your difficulty with Cichlid Lake Salt. There are a couple of things which could be happening. Cichlid Lake Salt does contain some anhydrous salts which heat up when moisture is added, so it is best to add the salt to water rather than the other way around. When dissolving it, you may need to use a larger volume of water. In a small volume of water, it may not completely dissolve and the heat created can be excessive, causing precipitation and clumping. Dissolving the salt in a larger volume of water should alleviate any issues.
Hmmmm....Back to Epsom Salts!

 

[myswtsins]

Seems perfectly reasonable. Why ditch it? I would still use at least some of the cichlid salt, it has WAY more minerals in it than Epsom Salt. At the least I would recommend using a gh booster with the epsom salt since epsom salt only contains Mg and no calcium.

 

[tommy d]

Guess so...I bought the 1kg container....LOL

 

[Razzo]

I ran RO DI water into a spare 125-gallon tank which I called my reservoir tank.

I would then need to add the following into my water: SeaChem's Lake Salt and their Tang buffer. I would remove RO DI water from the filled RT into two 5 gallon buckets. I would then put my dose of salt in one bucket and my dose of buffer into the other bucket. I would then stir and mix each bucket for about ten minutes and then dump both buckets into the 125 RT.

With a submersible pump and a python, I would circulate and mix the 125 RT for about an hour. I would let this settle for at least 24 hours before use (running air stones all the time). Enough would settle out to create a very thin film on the bottom of the 125 RT. I would then syphon off that into a couple 5 gallon buckets, let that settle, and dump some RO DI water back into the 125 RT and the "sludge" in left in the bottom of the buckets got dumped down the toilet.

I didn't care about the trace amounts of so called "wasted" product that I dumped down the toilet. The products worked so well for what I needed that the waste wasn't even an after thought.

I would not recommend using Epsom salt for anything other than temporary wound care. I just don't believe Epsom should be used as a regular maintenance product. As far as the unsettle lake salt,.... as an older mentor in my trade once told me about an issue that was bothering me.... "don't let it bother you boy!"