Old Salt

Finally getting the 40 hex set up again. Got the plumbing set up and running with fresh RO water, and was adding the salt. The salt was probably at least 5 years old, but had been in a the box on a shelf for that time.

While pouring the salt in to the aqaurium, the plastic bag inside the box basically broke up and the the whole thing fell in to the tank. I had noticed that the box had seemed damp, but didn't think much of it. Evidently the bag had cracked over time.

I expect the salt had been in contact with the box, so my question is, could there have been any contamination of the salt from the box itself? The only thing I've noticied that might be unusual is that when I started the protein skimmer it started foaming pretty heavily. I usually wouldn't be running the skimmer until I have a bio load, but I was just getting everything running and ready.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

It seemed notmal and granular when I opened the box, but it was pretty lumpy underneath. It fell out of the box in chunks, so it had absorbed a lot of moisture. I agree with CPD that I should start over, but I don't have my home RO/DI suystem set up yet so I had to haul water in five gallon jugs from my work RO system. And it only produces about 10 gallons before it has to regenerate, so that can take all week!

I'll probably regret it, especially as I'm going to stock the tank with a couple hundred dollars worth of live rock and sand and I won't really know if it's a problem until I add fish! But the box was up on a shelf in the entry way with no toxic materials around it, so I think I'll just tough it out and hope for the best.

Wish me luck and I'll let you know if it bombs!

Thanks for the input!