Warning! Potential Problem with Kent Salt.

[Ruth]

That doesn't make sense to me. If it is going to percipitate out in a mixing bucket aireated and heated it is certainly going to continue to percipitate out in your tank aireated and heated.

[Beverly]

Maybe it's the mixing container (rubbermaid trashcan) that causes the problem, though when we used a glass aquarium years back, there was precipitation after a period of time, too. I think in a tank all kinds of chemical reactions happen with various components of the saltwater, and unless one chemical component is seriously out of whack, there won't be any precipitation.

Really, I don't know. I'm only guessing. But these have been my observations.

If we have leftover saltwater after a water change, we just dilute the leftover water more RO/DI water. Precipitation does not occur then.

[Matt]

Beverly,

Last night, I also tested the Kent from the recent group order and got a dKH of 9. I also used an Aquarium Pharm test kit, and it doesn't have the .5 resolution you mention. 1 drop of reagent = 1dKH. Are you interpolating between two drops, or did you use 2ml of water and halve your input drops?

Matthew

[Ruth]

Still doesn't make sense. I know people (myself included at time that keep mixed up salt water, heated and aeriated) in case an emergency water change is needed. I also use a rubbermaid trash can and have never noticed anything percipitating out. I have noticed changed on freshly mixed water in the first 24 hours but not after that. I mean most of the trace elements, calcium and alk. that goes into our tanks comes from our salt water. The only other chemical to cause a reaction are those that we add and I don't think we would want to be adding anything that is going to make calcium, alk/DKH, or mag. percipitate out (those being the most common things we test for and really all I test newly mixed salt water for). What have you noticed that has percipitated out after 24 hours? Just curiious and trying to understand this.