As an introduction to this article an obligatory question: What is natural seawater? If we leave aside the solid particles, gases and colloidal matter present in marine water, and we concentrate only on the dissolved organic matter, the result may be surprising for a few:

The rather complex name of this article probably best describes the complexity of matters when it comes to seawater buffering capacity in the reefkeeping practice.

Chlorinity, salinity and density are the basic physico-chemical properties of seawater, depending primarily upon the concentration of the following essential constituents of seawater: