why is salt Worth 50 cents a kilo when added to a marine tank, worth $15 per kilo?

Question

Salt is evaporated from sea ponds, it is safe enough for humans to eat yet not safe enough for a fish tank. We are advised that marine fish tank salt is frree from any additives , yet so is non idisoed salted and salt free fom caking agents, is this the world's biggest rip off?

I am in australia so we dont have mined salt, or beat bogs , just lots of sun and evaporated salt from the sea

Answer 1

the salts i use here in the US are synthetic and are manufactured but they work fine i mean if you think about it if you just let sea water evaporate and take the salt left over and added back too fresh water it would actually be better to use cuz it would have all the essential minerals that it had when it was in the ocean so if you could just calibrate the gravity and pH you should be fine.

Answer 2

I am not a marine aquarist so I am not familiar with the salt used for mixing up water for marine aquariums. That said, I would think that marine salt would have all the trace elements that are necessary to keep marine fish healthy and happy.

I have never looked at the ingredients on a marine salt carton or bag, but that would be a good starting point. See if it is only NaCl or if there are many other things in there that regular table salt is lacking.

This is probably the wrong forum to ask this question in, too. If I were you I would go to a marine fish forum like www.marinefishforum.com or marinefish-uk.

Answer 3

Not all salt is evaporated from the sea. Sea salt, a salt obtained by evaporating seawater, is used in cooking and cosmetics. Its mineral content gives it a different taste from table salt, which is usually sodium chloride refined from mined rock salt (halite), and in some cases refined from sea salt. Table salt may contain anticaking agents and additives such as the dietary supplement iodides (Since the human body needs iodine in trace quantaties). Areas that produce specialized sea salt include the Cayman Islands, France, Ireland, Colombia, Sicily and Apulia in Italy, and Maine and Cape Cod in the United States. Generally more expensive than table salt since it isn't just mined it must be "evaporated" either thru sun and bogs or "burned" off, it is commonly used in gourmet cooking and premium potato chips. Since this takes considerable time, the salt is more expensive than is the mined salts.

Sea salts which are harvested posess higher phospate and nitrate levels than do "synthetic" sea salts, since most evaporation processes filter the salt thru peat bogs and marshes vs. the more expensive alternative of burning. This adds phosphates and nitrates and other minerals to the salt. Artificial salts like instant ocean contain the necessary major, minor and trace elements without nitrates and no phosphates.

Red Sea Salt for your aquarium is actually salt evaporated off directly from the red sea using a "burn off" process vs. a bog evaporation process and is used for marine aquariums.

Answer 4

could be,it wouldn't be the first.