I started using the Equo‘s Essenza Reef salt right after its preview a few months ago. Today we are here to share what we found out (versione italiana)
When I begun to get closer to this marine salt’s trial I was a little hesitant as none of the marine hobbyist I know, whose tanks I can appreciate, had ever tried it. On the other hand Equo has been surprising me day by day with its convincing products that have also received many positive comments by other aquarists following their reviews on DaniReef, and by some retailers.
Those facts made me extremely curious about trying this new marine salt, which is not actually new, but it certainly was for me.
Technical Features
Equo is very specific on its Essenza Reef salt features (click here), let’s have a look.
Equo guarantees that every 1.050 kg in 30 l of RO water, at 24°C, will result in a 35 ‰ salinity, that is 35 grams per liter.
The density will therefore lie in the 1024 – 1026 range, with pH 8.1-8.5 and dKH: 8-11.
Other values as follow:
| Chloride (Cl) mg/L | 17300 – 17800 |
| Sodium (Na) mg/L | 9300 – 9700 |
| Sulphate (SO4) mg/L | 2250 – 2550 |
| Magnesium (Mg) mg/L | 1400 – 1450 |
| Calcium (Ca) mg/L | 430 – 450 |
| Potassium (K) mg/L | 360 – 410 |
| Bromine (Br) mg/L | 20 – 40 |
| Strontium (Sr) mg/L | 9 – 10,5 |
| Boron (B) mg/L | 4 – 6 |
| Lithium (L) mg/L | 0,14 – 0,18 |
| Rubidium (Rb) mg/L | 0,11 – 0,14 |
| Iron (Fe) mg/L | 0,06 – 0,2 |
| Fluorine (F) mg/L | 0,8 – 1,1 |
Other trace elements contained:
Ag, Al, Ba, Bi, Co, Cs, Ga, Ge, I, Mn, Mo, Ni, Se, Sb, Sn, Ti, U, V, W, Zn, Zr.
Premises
Reviewing a new marine salt with our scarce equipment is not easy. We moved on two different pathways.
First, we measured values with the available test kits, calcium, magnesium, carbonate hardness or kH, nitrate and phosphate, all using Elos test kits.
We then observed the aquarium to see its reaction to water changes. Keep in mind that I always used Elos marine salt and Aquaforest (review) for the past two months.
Unfortunately I have to start by saying that my tank has been through a lot lately. An uncontrolled proliferation of dinoflagellates, unicellular flagellated algae, forced me to cut down on water changes and to continuously treat the tank with Fauna Marine Ultra AlgeaX. Later I actually had to restart from scratches, with new a tank and rocks.
The package
The sales package we chose is the handy and cheap 25 kg bucket, very well sealed with a smart mechanism. The salt inside is loose, not sealed in the usual plastic bag. Nevertheless, the salt didn’t seem to be affected by this configuration, even after 6 months after opening and closing the bucket at each water change, the salt still appears dry. We’ll discuss this later in more details.
There are several available package sizes:
- 25 kg bucket, the one we purchased, for 85 euros (3,4 €/kg)
- 25 kg bag, € 82 (3.28 €/kg)
- 10 kg bag, € 48 (4,8 €/kg)
- 4 kg pack, € 22 (5,5 €/kg)
- 2 kg pack, € 12 (6 €/kg)
You can see for yourself that the most convenient format is the 25 kg bag, but we preferred the more practical bucket.
I advise against the smaller 2 and 4 kg packages, unless you have a nanoreef, as they bring up the price per kg making the 25 kg formats much cheaper. For its useful packaging we consider the 25 kg bucket the real Best Buy.
We already mentioned that we liked the bucket closing mechanism. The lid is divided in 3 sections, and you just need to pull up the outer section to easily get to the content.
This system probably doesn’t seal the content perfectly but it’s really handy.
