I didn't know this...important info. What happens if you don't heat it first?

For what it's worth, I dumped 8 cups of salt into 15 gallons of room temperature water and had no residue whatsoever. And alk was about 11, not 13 for me.

since this salt is on the pricey side is thier somewhere that might give us a good price on a group buy, if the price droped to the70 dollar range id buy 3 or 4 boxes

Well, since buying it locally for 89, or whatever it was, is probably better than getting a group buy for 70, then shipping it. and since I only use 2 boxes a year, the price is nothing compared to everything else.

id probably use 6-8 a year so for 89 a box i wont be buyin any

many years in this hobby, I had never heated or airated water before mixing salt
i will buy this RBS anyway if it is indeed the best

A box of this stuff says it mixes 150 gallons. What is inside the box? Is it three bags..each to do 50 gallons?

its one big bag...I dumped mine into some old pails I have...

Did you measure your Mg as well?

I don't heat my water or airate my water either, and have never had a problem. With RBS I was told to take the bag out of the box and them mix it (by rolling it around) before using it. It is supposed to mix the salt with the elements better (in case it has settled). I don't know if this actually does anything, but I've been doing it right before I pour out the salt into another salt pail for storage and have always had good parameters when testing. (not quite as high CA readings as Aquatrro though, mine tends to sit around the 400ppm at 1.024)