this is a dumb question

[Pallen81]

haha, trust me.

Sooo, whenever i've premixed saltwater before... I've had no problems with the salt dissolving until this last batch. My water has been mixing with the salt for 4 days now and there are still big undissolved salt chunks floating around. I checked the salinity - 1.0025. so I put a little bit more RO water to try and help dissolve the salt. It mixes in a 5 gallon bucket with a heater and small powerhead.

Why isn't it dissolving? What gives?

 

[Reefscape]

all its going to be is compacted salt that has been sitting in barrel..If i get this, all i do is turn of the pump and heater and use something to manually break apart the chunks of salt that has not dissolved. Once your happy its all broken up, switch back on the heater and powerhead and continue circulation. Checking pH as you go....

Niko

 

[Pallen81]

mmm.. there are no chunks of salt... no big ones I mean.

just little grains of salt floating around in the bucket. covering everything with salt dust and just blowing around in the powerhead current. its circulating well but I dont know. its delayed my water change by 3 days.

 

[Reefscape]

possible you may have a bad batch of salt then....

Niko

 

[Pallen81]

I used half of the bag to mix already and had no problems. Strange...

I did put the salt into the bucket without my powerhead on. (never did that before) the salt just stayed at the bottom til I moved it with my hand. then I turned the powerhead on, I didn't think it would be that sensitive. its just salt. I just did a different routine and its not working i guess. I wont do it that way again.

 

[llcoondaddy]

Heat

I noticed when I add a pot of heated water (not quite boiling)to the mix it clears right up. I am a newbie but thats what I do and it seems to work well.

Hope this helps.

 

[Pallen81]

I noticed when I add a pot of heated water (not quite boiling)to the mix it clears right up. I am a newbie but thats what I do and it seems to work well.

Hope this helps.

hmmm thats an idea...

 

[BIGgourami]

if the bag sits in a high humidity place (like under the tank, by W/D, etc) teh salt tends to "spoil"

 

[AngieW]

Keeping in mind I'm totally new at this so I might be talking out my...well, you know, but I was reading some article last week (I've read a lot trying to figure this stuff out) and it talked about the calcium in the mix forming a precipitate after it reaches a saturation point. Just another possibility to throw in the mix

 

[Pallen81]

if the bag sits in a high humidity place (like under the tank, by W/D, etc) teh salt tends to "spoil"

The bag is under my tank about 4 feet away from my sliding door. and its getting humid on the East Coast.... The bag is in a plastic storage bin.

Could it be ruined? I never heard of this.... my whole apartment gets humid!