salt is rock hard

[sadie]

It's been really humid lately and my salt turned to a block.  I bought a new box of salt and I'm now keeping it in an air tight container.  I was gonna chuck the old salt (small box maybe cost me 11.00) but my husband said I should use it.  Can I?  He said smash it with a hammer in a plastic bag,but I don't know, seems like maybe it would change or something...🤔

[Natereef]

I wouldnt use it. Its probably absorbed some impurities in the air in your home along with the moisture. You can use it to hatch brine shrimp if youre doing that. Or use it for dipping corals. I wouldnt put moist salt in my tank 😛

[sadie]

okay, I didn't like the idea, but didn't really know why.  Thanks.  

[Tired]

That's only because of the possibility of contamination, though. Hitting salt with a hammer would not, in fact, harm it in the slightest. It's salt. Whacking it (assuming you don't get particles of your whacking tool) won't change it. 

[sadie]

I was more thinking that if it's hard, moisture got in and if it got wet, not sure if it would still contain all the needed beneficial stuff.

[Tired]

Everything should still be in there. It's all going to be inorganic materials for the most part, things that would dissolve in your aquarium without degrading. If you kept it wet long-term, it might eventually do something, but I still doubt it. 

[Murphs_Reef]

Mine turns into a block all the time... I just snap a bit off and drop it into a bucket of RODI, mix for 8 hrs and go.. 👍🏼

[mcarroll]

On 8/13/2019 at 10:03 PM, sadie said:

It's been really humid lately and my salt turned to a block.  I bought a new box of salt and I'm now keeping it in an air tight container.  I was gonna chuck the old salt (small box maybe cost me 11.00) but my husband said I should use it.  Can I?  He said smash it with a hammer in a plastic bag,but I don't know, seems like maybe it would change or something...🤔

There will be some alkalinity loss (which shows up as a white powdery precipitate in the bucket after mixing), but it should still be usable.   Dose the precipitate into the tank along with the new water after the water change.

 

If you want to see how much alk is in the precipitate, you can get an idea of how much by running an alk test on the mixed water and compare that to what the alk "should be" for that brand of salt.  (Google it.)