The Coral Pro Salt Test Spin

The promos for the new re-formulated Coral Pro Salt from Red Sea coming soon boasted some sky-high alkalinity,calcium and magnesium numbers. I recently got my hands on some and wanted to share some test results I completed yesterday. I did my usual water change routine of filling a ten-gallon tank with my RO/DI water and putting a little powerhead and heater in it with about 3 cups of salt to start. I let this go for about 48 hours and then dialed the salinity in with a little less than 1/2 cup more of salt. For testing, I had the test water at 77.9 degrees by my temp gun and just over the 35 ppt line with my refractometer which I had calibrated recently. It was time to test.



I don't run a science lab here, but I have some decent kits that should be fairly accurate. The Salifert alkalinity kit was a recent purchase and the Seachem Reef Status kits all have new reagents sent from Seachem earlier this year. For calcium and magnesium Seachem Reef Status kits were used. One might say the weak link is the pH test which was from a Seachem marine basic kit, but I find it easy to read. I did all tests twice.









Mixing: Mixing the salt with a powerhead is a painless process, but I did note that the Coral Pro Salt mixes a bit faster than my other salt - Seachem's Salinity. It took just about the same amount of salt to make up 10 gallons at 35 ppt, somewhere over 3.25 ups and less than 3.5. Water clarity was restored within minutes with Coral Pro Salt.


The pH test: My pH test results were pretty average from my experience with a number of other salts out there. With the two tests I took, Coral Pro Salt landed somewhere above 8.1 each time. As I recall Seachem Salinity would test higher here.



pH
1st test: 8.1 pH
2nd test: 8.2 pH

But the next few tests are where Red Sea really hit the gas pedal with the new Coral Pro Salt...

The alkalinity test: It was when I was testing alkalinity with the Coral Pro Salt that I decided to do more than one test to verify numbers a bit. I was pretty amazed with the first alkanity result. The 1st test pulled 4.69 meq/L 13.1 dKH! Wow. I've never seen a number that high out of the box before. I should mention that I did the 4ml test with 2 drops with Salifert which is the more accurate test. The 2nd test pulled even higher: 4.91 meq/L 13.8 dKH. Somebody spiked the punch! I was started to believe that maybe I could relax on daily ESV a bit with this salt.

Alkalinity
1st test: 4.69 meq/L 13.1 dKH
2nd test: 4.91 meq/L 13.8 dKH


The Calcium test: I've never had good luck pulling strong calcium numbers on freshly mixed saltwater but the Coral Pro Salt gave a consistant 450 ppm on both tests. Assuming the alk would drop a bit closer to 4.5 shortly after being in the tank, we have a balanced high-number salt here. Hey now.



Calcium
1st test: 450 ppm
2nd test: 450 ppm


The Magnesium test: I've always tried to keep my magnesium over 1400 in my aquarium to keep the alkanity and calcium swings down and the calcerous algae happy. I don't think it will be a problem with the Coral Pro Salt. Both tests scored over 1400, in fact, hitting 1500 the fist time.



Magnesium:
1st test: 1500 ppm
2nd test: 1490 ppm


1st impressions

I like this new Coral Pro Salt from Red Sea a lot. It mixed fast and the big 3 numbers from the tests I took were great. I did not enjoy spiking my old salt mix prior to water changes and I often watched numbers drop as a result and it would take me a week to dial them in again. I won't have that problem with this salt mix. Cheers Red Sea!


Disclaimer:

As stated I am not running a science lab and these are not scientific results. I am sharing my experience for the benefit of my fellow 3reefers. I did double check results and verify the colors I was seeing with my roomate. I recently calibrated my refractometer and I used a digital temp gun. RO/DI water from a fairly new Spectropure unit was used in all tests. Reagents and triants were not expired and fairly new.


Red Sea Web site:
http://www.redseafish.com

3reef Thread with more info on the salt:
http://www.3reef.com/forums/3reef-radar/red-sea-elevates-game-new-coral-pro-salt-formula-96593.html

 

Great numbers and with in range of their adverts. Thanks for sharing. Looks like I might have a new salt.

 

This is great news... Can't wait for it to hit stores.. Thanks for the write up.

 

WOW!

Those are some great numbers for the Mg and Alk. I have been reluctant to try a new salt mix until I found one that offered a good mag level.

Thanks for doing the hardwork and sharing the results.

 

Great write up Matt. Thanks for taking the time to run all those tests. Can't wait for this salt to hit the market!

 

GREAT info Matt! Looks like I'll be switching salt from RC to RedSea Coral Pro!

 

Wow! Thats terrific start numbers. Now for pricing and realease date.

 

Thanks for doing this Matt!! I really can't wait to try this salt out.

 

I am impressed. So, is there any idea of a release date and any vendors that will be carrying it?

 

If my math is right it should start shipping this week or the next.

matt