Turkish Blend usually engenders a connotation of fine tobacco or strong coffee but the term is coming to mean something very different for one flavor of Tropic Marin’s popular saltwater mixes. Mysterious coral problems started arising from the reefing community several months ago but it’s only this year that reef keepers and coral farmers started connecting the dots behind some degree of stony coral ailments following the use of Tropic Marin Pro Reef.
Some American aquarists guided by the use of ICP water testing have noticed unusually high levels of certain elements in some buckets of Tropic Marin Pro Reef but not all of them, and it was only after inspecting the buckets that they discovered some but not all of the buckets are produced in a facility in Turkey. Going by ‘Turkish Blend’ in some reefing circles these batches of Reef Pro have varying degrees of clay material and a gritty residue hinting at the use of lower quality ingredients which could explain the spikes in what should be trace levels of certain elements.
The cause of the coral problems have not been pinned down yet, nor has the root cause, but after months of negative comments about the Turkish Blend of Tropic Marin Pro Reef the company issued a very carefully worded statement announcing a ‘recall’ without using that word: “As a precautionary measure, we have decided to interrupt the production and distribution of Tropic Marin Pro-Reef salts, blended in our facility in Turkey, until further notice.”
We find it peculiar that Tropic Marin is addressing the issue as not meeting their “exacting optical standards” (ie it’s not clear enough) several times without mentioning the tangible harm many reefers have reported the Turkish blend of Pro Reef has caused their reef tanks and corals.
To be completely fair to Tropic Marin, there’s not one salt blend that’s escaped the issue of inferior raw ingredients causing harm to corals, name any salt mix and they’ve invariably experienced this kind of fumble. The irony is that at least in America, any time reefers have encountered aquarium seawater troubles Tropic Marin has been the go-to replacement salt for its decades long track record of not having similar issues, at least until now.
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