Wet salt mix

[chibils]

I have one of those big boxes of Instant Ocean, and just used up the last of my current one. I go to open the box, and to my surprise, the salt mix has solidified into a brick of salt. The box had gotten wet, but given that the salt inside was wrapped in a plastic bag, I didn’t think twice about it. Is there any reason not to use the salt? I mean, it gets wet when I dump it in the trash can for mixing, so why not? Thought I’d ask before going for it and nuking my tank by accident.

 

[Justin Ranke]

I never had a problem when I did it in the past. It's just a huge pain.

 

[skrappy]

Probably depends on how wet it got. If the bag was fully sealed then it probably got hard from age and will likely be fine. If a bunch of water got in then it could have messed with the different anhydrous chemicals in the bag and when you go to use it you could have alk or calcium be wildly off. I learned this lesson many years ago when I first got in the hobby, I put instant ocean salt in a bin and then filled it with water, when it was done mixing there was a ton of white powdery precipitation and the numbers were all off, then I did some research and re-learned some long forgotten basic chemistry lessons. Just be sure to test the water you mix with it before you use it.

 

[chibils]

I’m hoping it just hardened from age. I’ve had the box for a while. I just assumed it leached through the plastic somehow. I’ll make sure to test it before using.

By the way, any good ideas for breaking it up? I’m not making 200 gallons at a time, so I was planning to dump it in a bucket from a previous salt mix I had. That’s tricky when it’s in solid chunks.

 

[skrappy]

Drop it on the floor like a bag of ice from the gas station.

 

[enderg60]

Drop it on the floor like a bag of ice from the gas station.

This is the way. Larger chunks will still dissolve, it just may take an extra day.

Also hammers are great therapy.

 

[chibils]

That’s what I was thinking. Couldn’t come up with a better way to get it back to grain-sized crystals instead of big chunks. I guess it all dissolves the same though.