Problems with Kent salt

[christyf5]

I bought a couple buckets just before Christmas. Cracked the first one open pretty much right away. Everything was fine with it. I just opened the second one weekend before last. When I moved my tank I made up about 48gal of new water with it. Didn't really notice as I was a bit frazzled but after scoping out the tank in its new digs after it was all put together, the water looked a bit cloudy, not quite clear. I figured it was just a byproduct of the move. Then last weekend I did my regular 15g water change and noticed that I couldn't see into the bottom of the bucket after mixing the salt. Usually it clears up within about 5 mins. This stuff still wasn't clear after an hour. I tested all the params I could test for and everything came out about normal (I thought). Alk=12 Ca=450 hmm now that I think of it I couldn't find my mg test kit (probably still packed). I did the water change anyway as it looked fine and has had no adverse effects on my tank. There was a fair bit of color loss which I had attributed to the move as things are perking up again. Anyway, I bought a bucket of IO. Sure enough its not just me, it mixes up right quick.

So I was just wondering, if anyone can remember that far back if they had any issues with kent salt in january or so. It was weird as I had bought two buckets, one was fine the other not so much. I didn't check lot numbers or anything.

[BMW Rider]

There was the low alk problem about a year or so back. Maybe you got an old bucket from that batch. Since that event, I've quit using Kent salt.

[Chowder]

If I remmember correctly my bad bucket of salt (low dkh) from last Christmas was cloudy as well. Ended up using it as a ice melter. I too have since stopped using kent salt and products.

[Salmon King]

I run into the same problem with Instant ocean.I put it in my tank and ended up doing another water change because the tank went cloudy.When it happens now I just dump it.

[christyf5]

Its just occurred to me that all of my inverts (snails, urchin and abalone) are pretty much in the same position as they were last weekend. they haven't moved an inch.

How does one know when they've kicked off? The urchin is still swirling his little tentacle-y bits so he's ok. Sometimes he isn't much on movement. However usually the snails are motoring around.

The tank does clear eventually, I thought maybe I could get away with just using a cup to two cups of IO (not standard measuring cups) but it still went cloudy. Guess I'll be using that Kent to kill weeds in the driveway

[Jason McK]

I stopped using Kent because of the amount of crap left in the mixing bucket. I talked to a friend who used a maxijet with the filter to mix his salt and needed to replace the filter it got so clogged. It's just too dirty to use.
I mix salt over several days so by the time I am adding it to the tank it would be clear but still my bucket required scrubbing each time

Aside for the dirt all levels were fine