Is Dowflake still safe?

DrHank

DrHank

Well-Known Member
I had read that recent changes in the manufacture of Dowflake have resulted in too much residual Bromine in the product. This is the link that I'm referring to:

Reef Central Online Community - Tetra Caclium chloride

Perhaps someone more knowledgeable (Boomer) will chime in with a better explanation. I still have a full bag of the old Dow flake but am concerned for those who dont.
 
DrHank

DrHank

Well-Known Member
That's why I posted it. Look at the Tetra product. Better than risking the new stuff.
 
prow

prow

Well-Known Member
i think its because they used to sell Bromine and got it by extracting it from their CaCl. now they dont sell bromine and it stays. so in all their CaCl products food grade or not is going to have very elevated levels from now on. bad or good, hard to tell not much is know about bromine, it is unnatural though.

is this what you were getting at?
 
DrHank

DrHank

Well-Known Member
Yes, it's no longer extracted causing levels to increase. They (Dowflake) don't sell a food grade. From what I understand, Tetra does.

The pool supply companies who sell it either don't care or prefer it that way. Neither do the snow and ice melting companies. Remember, Dowflake was never manufacturered with the intent of use in an aquarium. It was just analyzed and found to be sufficiently safe. Now that the Bromine is not being extracted, it has too high a level of Bromine to be safe.

That is my understanding of the issue. I just wanted to make sure that folks were aware of the change. I would hate to see anyones tank suffer because they didn't know of the change in manufacturing of Dowflake.
 
Boomer

Boomer

Reef Sanctuary's Mr. Wizard
Dr and Prow have it right :D They announced this months ago and we are past that in product of these DOW's but we do not know if anyone (us) is actually buying new bags of DOW with the very high Bromide. Most suppliers still have the old stuff. One wold need a lot number and then call or contact DOW to see if it is the new stuff. NSW has like 65 ppm Bromide .

Here was my RC Chem forum reply, with a slight re-edit

Bromide is a natural minor component of seawater @ 65 ppm. Bromide does not convert to bromate unless it goes through a double oxidation and you only get that with a strong oxidizer, such as ozone. @ 100 ppm was fine in the old DOW but now going to 6000 and 8500 ppm is way to excessive. 60-85 x the past amount.

Their range of Bromide will be 6000-8500, depending on which DOW it is. Dow that we use is usually 77-80% Calcium Chloride or 770,000 - 800,000 ppm. That means the bromide will now make up .65 -.85 %. That does not sound like a lot but it is, especially when we do not know much about bromide. To bad when Randy did his ICP assay on Dow he never checked the Br levels. There is also no way "we" can measure bromide there is no test kit.

Although bromide is no different than chloride, for the most part , it is quite different than chloride if one is using ozone. Bromide is 50,000 x more thermodynamically available than chloride, when it comes to oxidation, with zone and producing a bleach. It is the production of hypobromous acid and bromate produced by ozone for the reason behind treating all ozonated water with GAC.

I know of no studies on what or how elevated bromide levels would affect marine life.

The addition of any sup's other than kalk add unwanted ions. It is not just chlorides but Potassium, Sodium, Sulfate, etc. How great it would be if everyone could get by with just kalk or only a calcium reactor ( which also add unwanted ions but is much more limited than others like two-parts ).This is all discussed in our on-line magazine articles. In short, a 30 % WC /M will produce almost a flat graph where all ions are in balance to more normal NSW.

What you posted here Cham, with the bromide, is an addition to what they said before. Before, it is as others are doing to use in this hobby. These "salts" are not to be used in aquariums. In some recent talks, I had with Church & Dwight, they told me flat out, "do not use baking soda in an aquariums", it is not intended for that purpose". They, like others now, are just trying to cover their butts.
 
prow

prow

Well-Known Member
there we go some data and wow, thats a pretty big jump up in Br. some good data there boomer. good job investigating and follow up:thumbup:
 
gettanked

gettanked

Member
Here is something to think about.

More and more hobbyist is switching from commercial products to DIY products.

Do you think it might be possible that the commercial product manufactures are pressuring their suppliers to make their negative claims?

Have you noticed that a lot of product manufactures are making negative claims about their products not to be used in the aquarium trade?

Could it be a wolf, wolf, scare tactic?

I think the first manufacture I heard of was a Magnesium manufacture that claims their product should not be used in the aquarium trade any more.

Do you remember the Caribbean play sand that was sold at Home Depot?

Was it or was it not, the same sand sold in the aquarium trade?

Now it’s Dow Flake calcium!

Theirs a lot of propaganda going on nowadays!

Are they true or are they false?

It makes me wonder!

Inquiry minds would like to no!

What’s your opinion?

gettanked / Garry
 
Boomer

Boomer

Reef Sanctuary's Mr. Wizard
No, the are just covering the butts so they are not liable for deaths in tanks due to their products being used which are not for tanks :)
 
C

cheeks69

Wannabe Guru
RS STAFF
Well thanks for starting this thread Dr.Hank ! I'll be running out soon of the Dow flakes now I have to find Tetra :drool:
 
Witfull

Witfull

Well-Known Member
your screen name almost got you banned, PM me if you want a new one, its borderline and thin
 
Witfull

Witfull

Well-Known Member
sorry, that was supposed to be a PM to a new user. had multi windows open.

you arent banned,,,,but the person the PM was intended for has.
 
hma

hma

Well-Known Member
DrHank said:
I had read that recent changes in the manufacture of Dowflake have resulted in too much residual Bromine in the product. This is the link that I'm referring to:

Reef Central Online Community - Tetra Caclium chloride

Perhaps someone more knowledgeable (Boomer) will chime in with a better explanation. I still have a full bag of the old Dow flake but am concerned for those who dont.
Click to expand...

Hello Doc... only one short comment. NOBODY in Germany use TETRA Produkts for Seawater-Aquariums, in freshwater OK, but NEVER, NEVER in Seawater.:closed:
 
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