Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Not if you were here in WA Fishfood... the salt Big 'B' sells here isn't even sea salt, it comes from salt lakes out near Lake Grace in the wheatbelt. These lakes catch the run-off from surrounding wheat farms... so god only knows what Monsanto produced nasties are in it. The bag I bought (before I realised where it came from) has a lot of sand/mud etc in it, you can't see it by looking into the bag, but if you dissolve it in a bucket you end up with quite a bit of silt/sand etc in the bottom.

P.S. I've got half a bag sitting here if anyone wants it!...

Does anyone know of suppliers selling good quality sea salt here in Perth?... Most places have the same stuff as Big 'B', or other brands that just say "Pool salt" and no details. There is a brand called "Triangle" starting to sneak into a few shops around the traps, says it's bagged in Maddington, but I can't even find any details for them on the Googly.

Cheers.

I have a bag of the bunnings stuff that my wife bought that i haven't dared to use because you told me about the problems you had with the barra. I've been using it to kill weeds in the paving instead.

I've been getting salt from woolworths, it''s their own brand and it says sea salt on the bag. I think it's a 10kg bag. At my local store they usually only have a couple of bags on the shelf at a time in the pool section.

How much are they charging for 10kg?

P.S... I heard an ad' on the radio for a particular large chain of retic stores that said they were selling 25kg bags of pool salt, I rang to find out if it was sea salt... they don't stock it???

The Woolies "no name" salt... is the same stuff... as are virtually all the pool salts....

They're all made by Cheetham.... which makes virtually all the salts... food, industrial, pool salts etc.... here in Australia....

I'm not sure because I haven't bought any for a while but I think it may be somwhere between $5-10

Yeah the Woolies stuff is about $6... for a 10kg bag....

Whereas the Sunray... is about $8... for a 20kg bag...

And the same stuff...

As to the Sunray pool salt coming from Lake Grace Yabbies.... well it might.. as one of the sources...

But Cheetham uses natural sea water and lake brines to produce all of their "solar salts"... from 10 different solar salt fields... which are then refined in 3 major refineries throughout Australia ...

In other words... salt from the various sources... are all blended, mixed, refined.... at one of the three refineries...

P.S ... I couldn't find any reference that Cheetham uses salt from Lake Grace at all... they might... but it's not a primary source that they quote...


Cheetham salts are all manufactured to ISO standards... under full HACCP control....

http://www.ridley.com.au/Product/CheethamSalt.aspx

The only difference between the various "brands".... is generally the coarsness of the final product....

Some might have additional wash/filter stages...

But generally the suggestion in the "forum" linked to... should be taken with a grain of salt IMO....

The amount of salt... and any contamination... we introduce into our AP systems... is 1/5th of bugger all...

By the way... heres the MSDS.... which clearly shows... that "salts... are salts"... ...

http://www.aquasonic.com.au%2Fmsds%2Fso ... loride.pdf

As to it being Sunray or Cheethams... I wouldn't have a clue. I can't remember the brand name and the bag is at work... and quite honestly I couldn't give a flying you-know-what as to what brand name is on the bag... all I know is it definitely says it's harvested from salt lakes at Lake Grace... and when when I dissolve it in a bucket I end up with sediment and sand etc in the bottom that definitely isn't salt.

I can assure you there is nothing wrong with the salt Bunnings sells in WA, I have been using it for longer than FF and have never had any issues whatsoever. I have never noticed any foreign matter in the bags either.

Well not exactly Yaabbies.... unless your Bunnings sell a brand of salt that other stores don't...

What you said was...

Yep I've used it for years as well.... and never seen any degree of "foreign matter"

And if you look at the MSDS link... you'll see it is listed at the "Aquasonic" site... a major aquacuture supply business...

And if you didn't know... Cheetham Salt... is owned by Ridleys.... the producer of, amongst other things.... Ridelys Aquaculture Feed...

That's exactly what I'm saying... and it's already been discussed before, some time back, and established by other members that the salt sold by Bunnings here in WA is not the same brand as the salt sold in Bunnings stores on the East Coast. As you and other East coast members have said a number of times before, yours says “Sunray Sea salt” on the bag... our says something along the lines of "Harvested from salt lakes in the Lake Grace region of WA"

Whether you, or any or anyone else, has used the Lake Grace salt in question and not found impurities in it... I don't really care... I have!

I don’t know why you're intent on trying to start a pissing contest with me today Rupe… on a number of threads… and again, I don’t really care!... but you won't be getting one from me.

No pissing contest intended Yabbies... just assumed that Bunnings everywhere sold Sunray salt...

Seems to be the case in any other state..

Apparantly WA is different...

It's understandable when you consider a pallet of freight from VIC or NSW to Perth is around $400-$450, more from Qld... and most carriers allow a maximum of 1000kg on a pallet, so 40 bags, at $10+ each for freight... and they are sold over here for about $9-$12

..and WA sure is different, the sooner we dig the moat... the better!...

A moat wont help Yabbies... Kiwis have been crossing "moats" for years...