[Seattle_Aquarist]

Originally Posted by Brugmansia

I am concerned about sodium in whatever product I use to remineralize my R/O water. This is the first heavily planted tank I have set up. I know from a life spent in hortuculture that most plants are sensitive to salt.

Any insights on the various formulas re plant health? The tank, a 90, will be high tec, with a medium fish population eventually. I don't want to buy a big jug of something that turns out to be unuseful.

Hi Brugmansia,

Here is some information on Kent R/O Right:

Kent Marine will not disclose anything beyond the MSDS which simply has:

Ingredient Name - (CAS Number) - %
CALCIUM SALTS (10043-52-4) < 0 - 20
CARBONIC SALTS (144-55- < 0 - 20
MAGNESIUM SALTS (7786-30-3) < 0 - 20
SODIUM SALTS (7647-14-5) < 0 - 40
SULFATES (7757-82-6) < 0 - 20

I even emailed tech support, in short their reply:

This is the extent of what I am able to give out except that a major part of the salts in the product is sodium chloride as this is the highest occurring salt found in nature. The specific ingredients are held proprietary. I am not even allowed to see the breakdown formula.

Sodium chloride is just plain salt, not something we typically add to a planted tank.

I use Seachem Equilibrium; here is the information on it:

Guaranteed Analysis
Soluble Potassium (K20) 23.0%
Calcium (Ca) 8.06%
Magnesium (Mg) 2.41%
Soluble Iron (Fe) 0.11%
Soluble Manganese (Mn) 0.06%
Derived from: potassium sulfate, calcium sulfate, magnesium sulfate, ferric sulfate, manganese sulfate.

Elemental potassium is present at a concentration of 195,000 ppm (19.5%). Archaic fertilizer laws force us to list potassium in terms of equivalence to a material that is not present (K2O) rather than the more scientifically sound method of simple elemental equivalence.

Please note, no reference to sodium chloride.

Question? Just ask!