how to ruin a bucket of salt

[ScubaSteve]

Rock solid, yes. I've had that happen a few times. Phosphates, no. Phosphates don't travel in humidity, so the moisture that made your salt hard didn't bring phosphates in. The phosphates would have had to have been there in the first place. The only other possibility is the moisture allowed bacteria to grow, which then died and broke down to produce Phosphates. But this is unlikely as the bacteria likely wouldn't grow in those conditions and they'd need a phosphate source to grow and survive anyways... So again the phosphate would have to be there in the first place.

I'm gonna say bad batch.

[lockrookie]

What I do t understand is my mixing container is cleaned and pump cleaned after every water change I use ro di water so the only explanation is the salt. I will test my theory with a new batch and new bucket of salt and tak pics of the bad batch. Later today

[paddyob]

Salt is fine. Hard, but fine.

Algae is non related. You should have no issues salt related.


Salt in bags gets hard regularily. With no bad effect. Lid off a bucket is essentially a bag.

Good luck.

[lockrookie]

this is what im looking at in my water

[paddyob]

Surface algae.

My 20g gets it due to lack of surface skimmer.

[lastlight]

That looks like my freshly mixed reef crystals not sure what the problem is?

[lockrookie]

Originally Posted by paddyob

Surface algae.

My 20g gets it due to lack of surface skimmer.

that would be fine if this was a tank i kept running all the time this is a tote i mix fresh salt water for water changes lid covers it while it mixes cleaned after every use

Originally Posted by lastlight

That looks like my freshly mixed reef crystals not sure what the problem is?

lol you should know you mixed a few recently lol not reef crystals just regular IO tho im thinking its a bad batch. when i started up this new batch the salt mixed completely different. the old bucket just dropped to the bottom and disolved. the new bucket clouded the whole container as its mixing.

time will tell il be checkingit through the night to see whats up

[Realshow]

this is a very interesting theory. i also have started using an old bag of salt i have had for years . i had been using spoonfuls of salt this old salt in my freshwater tanks
however the saltwater tank was using instant ocean before but now i am using the old hard bag of coralife salt and my phosphates have shot off the chart.
coincidence? maybe.
im gonna mix up some of this salt and test it in the bucket.

[lastlight]

Originally Posted by Realshow

im gonna mix up some of this salt and test it in the bucket.

If you happen to get a zero reading don't trust it. I've heard that the bucket can actually use the phosphates up before they are detectable by the kit!