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I like buying the 200 gallon bulk packs of salt but it seems like my salt gets humid or lumpy faster than it should. 

 

My typical process is to open the 50g bag and then transfer to a huge zip lock.  I realized that salt crystals are getting stuck in the zip strip and preventing a good seal.  I'm sort of embarrassed that I waited until now to find a better solution.  I have used 5g buckets before but the salt somehow got humid in there too.

 

Anyways, I had a leftover commercial food storage container from the creative pico contest so I decided to see what would fit in there.  Turns out a 50g bag of Instant Ocean or Reef Crystals fits perfectly into the 6 quart container! Here's a link to one on Amazon, but I just bought mine locally for much cheaper.  Also Sam's Club has a 2 pack of these with lids for $14.

 

28304561049_c1b109b17f_z.jpg2018-02-04_03-38-41 by aaron M, on Flickr

 

- Note I mixed up a bit of salt before dumping it into this container so a new bag would be slightly higher - though who opens a new bag without using some of it?

 

Anyways this may or may not help anyone but having damp or lumpy salt sucks and never seems to dissolve right so I figured that I would share a cheap solution.  Another benefit is that these containers are all food safe so you can trust them. 

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I wish I had thought of this idea when I was buying bags of salt...lol.. Keeping those bags sealed well was a pain.

 

I have been buying the 5 gallon bucket of IO the last while and so far their bucket seems to keep the salt in good shape.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I switched to ESV because of moisture issues. I live in a basement apartment, so it stays a bit humid all year. The salt would turn to solid blocks and eventually the chemisyry would be too far off to be usable and half the bucket/bag would be wasted (25g mix). I tried multiple bags, what I thought were well sealing buckets (they were definately difficult to open) with tons of large dessicant packets that I dried out regularly, but I couldn't find a good solution.

The last one I stashed out of the way and forgot about for a while(beyond the point of usability). It turned into a liquid slurry that leaked out of the bag and left an oily residue on the floor that wouldn't wipe up.

 

Keep us updated on how well that stores the salt long term. I wouldn't mind switching back to a dry salt. AF was working pretty well for me and mixed up as clean as the ESV. The price point is a little nicer and I wouldn't have to buy on line.

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Well time will tell...   Hasn't been too long but so far so good.  

 

I keep my salt in my basement as well - which is pretty humid (I'm usually near 50% in winter).  

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I watched a video on the different salts and IO and RC reacted to small amounts of moisture and hardened before the other brands tested.

 

So it's not you or your method of storage?

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Don't know why I didn't think of this before, but Gamma seals should close up abucket tight enough to keep most of the moisture out if you thrown in some big dessicant packets with it. You can get them for 2gallong buckets as well as for 5-7gallon.

 

You'll be better off searching for 2 gallon screw bucket lid if looking for the smaller ones, the name brand one can go for $20+ a lid for 2G buckets.

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Cool stuff! This used to happen to me all the time with kent/instant ocean/coralife, ect. Clump clump clump.

 

What is really weird is I bought box of Fritz RPM, brought it home, realized it is ALL in 1 large bag... thought "oh shit, this is going to be 1 large clump"... but it hasn't clumped at all and I forgot to seal it for a few weeks, nothing, just stays perfect.

 

I don't understand why but I am using this salt forever for that reason alone (plus my mix bucket doesn't get that brown scum anymore). My LFS sells it for $45 for a 200g box, don't ask me how they sell it so cheap.

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