leaky Posted September 8, 2002 Share Posted September 8, 2002 Hey everyone, How's your tanks doin. Mine is mighty fine, BUT, ...Well its the first batch of salt I have got that just does not seem to dissolve fully. I run 2 gallons in a bucket with the amount of salt needed overnight with a powerhead.... Usually I wake up and all the salt is dissolved, Not this batch though, It has salt on the bottom , and floating on the edges at the very top, I have done three water changes with this new salt and I get the same thing. When i add the new water I just make sure none of the remaining salt at the bottom goes in the tank. This is new to me so any opinions on weather or not I should continue to use this salt or not would be great... Thanks.... Link to comment
Korbin Posted September 9, 2002 Share Posted September 9, 2002 I just had that same problem for the first time about an hour ago. I just sucked the floaty bits out with a siphon. Are you using Instant Ocean? Were you at the bottom of the bag? I was at the last bit of salt in my bag. Link to comment
printerdown01 Posted September 9, 2002 Share Posted September 9, 2002 ummm... It should dissolve, if given enough time. If it isn't dissolving over-night, I wouldn't use that brand of salt... It is possible that the company just produced a bad batch, but I would switch brands all together if my salt didn't dissolve within 12 hours or so! I use Coral Life and have no complaints, they actually advertise that their salt is "highly soluble." It disappears with in an hour! Link to comment
leaky Posted September 9, 2002 Author Share Posted September 9, 2002 Well it must be just a bad batch, I've been using Instant Ocean which i have been using for 2 years now, What is it that makes salt a bad batch??? Link to comment
printerdown01 Posted September 9, 2002 Share Posted September 9, 2002 Company tries to mix the salt as accurately as possible... but they are never perfect... Thus, different salts come out with different properties.... It is possible that this was past the acceptability limits and just slipped by quality control or something.... Anyone else have any other possibilities/explanations?? I can tell you salt isn't mixed to extreme accuracy... Link to comment
ross76053 Posted September 9, 2002 Share Posted September 9, 2002 My very first bag of Instant Ocean was sorta moist. Not knowing any better, I tried to mix it, and the result was the same as above - clumpy stuff at the bottom and around the edges. Don't think it was the salt, but the minerals that seemed to clump together. I was told not to worry about it, but I wound up getting another bag anyway and all was fine. Ross Link to comment
Dave ESPI Posted September 9, 2002 Share Posted September 9, 2002 I have used Tropic Marin fer 6 years. Thousands of gallons worth. Never one problem. I used some IO in an emergency a few times.... never again. I ALSO recently made the HUGE mistake of using Crystal Sea..... they say it has no phosphates.. BS. I had a slime algae outbreak to choke a horse..... I was ####ED ! I switched back to TM a week later, slime was gone in 12 days. Link to comment
spoondigity Posted September 9, 2002 Share Posted September 9, 2002 I imagine Instant Ocean makes a heck of a lot of salt. Their sales seem higher than any others so they must be producing out the wazzzoooo. Anything made in such amounts is bound to have a runt in the pack. Or maybe it was somehow related to how that bag (batch of bags) was shipped or stored in your LFS. Link to comment
Korbin Posted September 9, 2002 Share Posted September 9, 2002 My Instant Ocean salt that didn't dissolve fully was sort of moist and clumpy when I first picked up the bag. That's probably the problem. My explanation: The salt got moist, and the most easily soluble components (calcium carbonate or whatever) dissolved out. When the salt dried back up, it clumped up. When you go to mix it in water, the most soluble components that dissolved out the first time concentrate in that batch of water, causing them to precipitate. :| ...right. right? Link to comment
JROC Posted September 9, 2002 Share Posted September 9, 2002 I have to agree 100% with > Dave ESPI I have used a bunch of different salt over the years, and Tropic Marin is light years better than any other. I used IO on my 55 gallon for about a year, the tank went along well. I then switched to TM and within 3-4 months there was a significant improvement. I use TM for my nano now and have never had any problems, and it dissolves in about 10 minutes. Link to comment
Sahin Posted September 9, 2002 Share Posted September 9, 2002 It may not neccessarily be a bad batch, perhaps its just a bad bag? ie at the LFS or supplier it got wet/was placed in high moisture area etc etc. I use Reef Crytals salt and it dissolves right away. There was a time when one small bag I got didnt dissolve properly and the salt felt slightly wet or something like that. Perhaps the bag you have was exposed to high moisture and temp or one of those? Get from another source. Link to comment
leaky Posted September 9, 2002 Author Share Posted September 9, 2002 that must be the problem, as the salt bag had alot of clumpy parts in it... Thanks all.... Link to comment
Sahin Posted September 9, 2002 Share Posted September 9, 2002 The salt should have a nice consistency to it, and free form, not clumps etc. IMO this bag must have been put in an area with high moisture or heat thus changing its properties. I would take the bag back to the LFS and show them the clumps etc, it may not be thier fault at all, but at least they'll know and probably give you some store credit etc. Link to comment
moorediddy Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 I know it's almost a year late, but I'm having the same problem. I just bought a box of Instant Ocean that was "on sale." I guess I should have known better, shop was probably trying to get rid of 50 year old salt, because it was clumpy and when I dumped it into my 10g with 200gph powerhead, there was still some salt in the bottom of the tank after 24 hours. Today I added some more, and it looks like a snow storm after 4-5 hours. What should I do? Scrap the water and start over? Because I have a feeling it isn't going to dissolve anymore. -moore Link to comment
SteveC Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 Hey moorediddy, nothing wrong with resurrecting old threads when they're useful. It's like a blast from the past! I had a similar thing happen with a batch of Reef Crystals (same manufacturer as IO - Aquarium Systems) only I got little grains of white stuff that never dissolved even after a week in the bucket with a powerhead and a heater. The salt was also moist when I opened it, like Ross's IO batch above. I took that batch back and got a new one, which was fine. My guess is that the moisture caused the calcium or other minerals to crystalize or combine into some kind of insoluble compound. So the effect is probably that your water will not contain some of the trace elements that you paid for. I'd take the salt back and get a replacement bag or bucket. It was probably mixed up just fine at the plant, but somewhere between the plant and your house moisture must have gotten into it. Probably just not sealed well and kept in a humid storeroom or something. After that incident I switched to Tropic Marin but the same thing could probably happen with that, too. Though the packaging does seem to be better than Reef Crystals, so maybe it's less likely. Hope that helps. Link to comment
SteveC Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 An obvious question might be, why would moisture have a bad effect on salt mix, which is supposed to be put in water anyhow? Well, it's been a long time since my college chemistry class, but I seem to remember that materials behave differently when they're actually in solution than they do when there's just a little bit of water (or, I assume, other solvent) present. Link to comment
fishbabies Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 I use the intake of the powerhead I use to mix salt like a vacuum to get everthing that hasn't dissolved... Link to comment
onthefly Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 Water as a solvent....and water as a reactant/ingredient are two totally different critters!!!!!!! That is why many things (which will eventually end up in water: food, chemicals, etc) are often sold with desicating silica packets in them!!! Dry salt should dissolve 100% very quickly, that is the nature of a salt and a chemical criteria.....quickly dissolved by water! If slightly moist, you could form some carbonates which are much less soluble in SW. Class dismissed! Link to comment
moorediddy Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 So my question still remains.... Should I scrap the water that's in there now and start over with new salt? Because it still hasn't dissolved. I have particles on the waterline sticking to the glass, and quite a bit on the bottom, still whirling around like one of those "snow globes." I guess there's not much question to it, if I have that much that's not dissolved, I'll have to scrap it. The LFS better trade out the salt mix for me though, because this is ridiculous. Salt Mix + 10g of water all wasted. -moore Link to comment
SteveC Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 This makes me think that maybe I should put one of those packets in my salt box. Maybe just tape it to the underside of the lid or something. Link to comment
ross76053 Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 So my question still remains.... Yes, take that crap back to the LFS and get your money back. Scrap the water you have now and start over. Link to comment
tinyreef Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 ...and the french finally enter the war. ross! good to see you again on the boards. Link to comment
moorediddy Posted July 24, 2003 Share Posted July 24, 2003 Yeah, thanks Ross. I'm dumpin the water as we speak, and about to go give the LFS a piece of my mind. -moore Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.