GaryP
Thu, 9th Mar 2006, 03:43 PM
Hello everyone,
MAAST has agreed to help in a salt analysis project that MARSH and Eric Borneman currently have going on. Basically, they are anyalyzing how fast several types of corals grow in several different brands of salt. This is different then previous projects that attempted to simply look at the chemical composition of salts. In scientific jargon, this is called a "bio-assay" since the they are measuring the biological impact of the salts.
Isis will be jumping in here and giving you more details. She is working with Eric and is the point person for MARSH. MAAST has agreed to help pay for some analytical test kits to help with the project. They are going through a lot of them and we are going to help with that end of the project.
They need your help too. What they need are samples of unopened containers of various different brands of salt. They do not need the whole container. What they would like is for you to donate 2000 gm (4.4 lb.) of salt from your next purchase of salt. Here are the brands they need: Tropic Marin, Reef Crystals, Coralife, Kent, HW Marine and Red Sea. Also, Isis asked me to tell you to that the date of purchase, place of purchase and the size of the container/bag must be documented. That information can be written with a Sharpie on a tightly sealed, large ziplock bag that has all the air removed. The original container/bag must be unopened when the sample is taken. That is, a freshly opened, new container. If you want to donate small packages that will remain unopened until we get them to Houston, that would be good too. If anyone has questions, please PM or email Isis.
You can PM her here or email her at kim.price@marshreef.com
This is a very worthwhile project that could really help us all. I would really like to see our members get behind this project. There is no data like this available, just the unproven claims of manufacturers. If nothing else it will provide some good info to add fire to our usual "best salt" debates. I would really appreciate anything you can do to help out. We will organize a drop off point so that we can get them shipped to, or picked up by Kim. If anyone makes regular trips to Houston that could deliver them, that would be appreciated also.
MAAST has agreed to help in a salt analysis project that MARSH and Eric Borneman currently have going on. Basically, they are anyalyzing how fast several types of corals grow in several different brands of salt. This is different then previous projects that attempted to simply look at the chemical composition of salts. In scientific jargon, this is called a "bio-assay" since the they are measuring the biological impact of the salts.
Isis will be jumping in here and giving you more details. She is working with Eric and is the point person for MARSH. MAAST has agreed to help pay for some analytical test kits to help with the project. They are going through a lot of them and we are going to help with that end of the project.
They need your help too. What they need are samples of unopened containers of various different brands of salt. They do not need the whole container. What they would like is for you to donate 2000 gm (4.4 lb.) of salt from your next purchase of salt. Here are the brands they need: Tropic Marin, Reef Crystals, Coralife, Kent, HW Marine and Red Sea. Also, Isis asked me to tell you to that the date of purchase, place of purchase and the size of the container/bag must be documented. That information can be written with a Sharpie on a tightly sealed, large ziplock bag that has all the air removed. The original container/bag must be unopened when the sample is taken. That is, a freshly opened, new container. If you want to donate small packages that will remain unopened until we get them to Houston, that would be good too. If anyone has questions, please PM or email Isis.
You can PM her here or email her at kim.price@marshreef.com
This is a very worthwhile project that could really help us all. I would really like to see our members get behind this project. There is no data like this available, just the unproven claims of manufacturers. If nothing else it will provide some good info to add fire to our usual "best salt" debates. I would really appreciate anything you can do to help out. We will organize a drop off point so that we can get them shipped to, or picked up by Kim. If anyone makes regular trips to Houston that could deliver them, that would be appreciated also.