Crystal Sea BioAssay

[MikeP]

Josh - I was bored this weekend at work and read a thread about this salt causing bleaching in corals when switching. It seems sort of isolated but a large enough number of people have experienced it to make it worth reading. It's over on RC under Dr. Ron's forum.

For now I'm sticking with IO.

-Mike

[matt]

I just switched to this salt (thanks Josh!) with a 10% or so water change in both tanks. Since I'm planning on setting up my new system with Crystal Sea Bio-Assay from the start, I thought I'd begin changing water gradually, in light of the bleaching reported by some. In the 45, everything's fine. In the nano, where I did a bigger percentage change, one of my capnella colonies is bleached, but looks like it will survive. The E quad also looks lighter and has retracted a bit. Funny, there are several other capnella colonies that have budded off the main one, and they all seem fine. It doesn't look like anything's going to die.

The only thing I can think of is that the nano is quite a bit older, like 2 years as opposed to 1 year on the 45, and that the thread on reefcentral seems to indicate that older tanks are experiencing more bleaching. Anyhow, I'm in for another box of this salt, Josh. I like it. Some people have reported that it mixes up cloudy, but I found that it cleared up fine overnight. I've always wondered about that chlorine/ammonia smell of IO. It could be that there's some mixing agent in IO; they do advertise that it dissolves quicker. Anyhow, another thing about the Bio-Assay salt is that it reaches a nice high ph very soon after mixing, unlike IO which I have to heavily aerate for days to get to 8.2.

What I'm really curious about is any evidence of increased larval and micro fauna in my new system, which will never have IO in it. I'll know something by mid-July. Also, on reefs.org, there's a several page thread about inlandreefs, a store in New Hampshire, doing a set of tests on various salts for toxicity and chemical analysis. Can you imagine one of our "fine" local establishments doing something like that?

Matt