Mixing Station - Does Salt Water Go Bad?

Scottiemac

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Maybe, maybe not. Easy enough to solve with food grade containers. 44 gallon brute is one of the more popular in our hobby. Gray but double check.

And the end of the day you can do a search here or whatever search engine you prefer and put in saltwater mixing stations. You will see plenty of examples with hobbyist storing water for auto changes and emergency use.
Food grade only means it's safe to eat food out of it. It can still leach chemicals into the water that are more or less harmless to us in small quantities.
 
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Sdoutreefer

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Food grade only means it's safe to eat food out of it. It can still leach chemicals into the water that are more or less harmless to us in small quantities.
Is there any sort of proof that food grade plastics do leach? It seems that if it is food grade, there would be ZERO leaching, whether it's solid food or liquid. There shouldn't be any sort of leaching, at least that's how it plays out in my little brain.
 

hart24601

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I keep a brute of sw for months with no issues. Have done this for many years now. No heater of circ.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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Is there any sort of proof that food grade plastics do leach? It seems that if it is food grade, there would be ZERO leaching, whether it's solid food or liquid. There shouldn't be any sort of leaching, at least that's how it plays out in my little brain.

That’s not true. Plenty of additives are approved for food and pharmaceutical grade plastics, including tin compounds.


 
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Sdoutreefer

Sdoutreefer

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That’s not true. Plenty of additives are approved for food and pharmaceutical grade plastics, including tin compounds.


Love it! Thank you Randy!! Seems I can always count on you to come through with some sort of citation or article :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:
 

Scottiemac

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Is there any sort of proof that food grade plastics do leach? It seems that if it is food grade, there would be ZERO leaching, whether it's solid food or liquid. There shouldn't be any sort of leaching, at least that's how it plays out in my little brain.
Here's from the NIH.

I plan to use plastic containers when my water change station is set up. With food grade the leaching is at a minimum, but some still exists.

My only point was that if it sits for a long time the water may absorb enough of the chemicals to actually be dangerous for fish and corals. Most people I know only keep about a month's worth of water change water on hand anyway, so no big deal.


A friend of mine was going to move off grid and wanted to get a huge plastic water container to prevent trips to town for refills. I was helping and we learned that you only want to keep about as much water as you'd use in a month or two in storage. It would probably still be safe to drink if any longer, but might taste and smell funky.

Edit: Oops - Randy got in here before I did.
 

Red_Beard

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Anything HDPE has been good in my experience. These 55 gallon drums are what i use. This has been sitting a few months now, but i have had some sit longer than a year now worries. I also havent cleaned it in a few years either... I have not seen any appreciable difference between that and fresh mixed.
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TheLegendaryBarlowe072

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IMG_4355.jpeg

Im sure you've seen lots of fancy mixing stations with AWC and manifolds and whatever. This is not that lol. Its a very simple gravity setup to mix and store salt. I have a heater old return pump in there for circulation, and I got a very very cheap pond pump from amazon that pumps the mixed salt through the floor directly into the DT.

Storing mixed salt has got to be okay beacuse I have no way to empty the last inch or 2 of water in my bottom bin so I just mix more on top of it. Fingers crossed lol. But honestly its fine.
 

knockout

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I never understood this idea of saltwater going bad, manufacturers may want you to think that way, if this was the case why it stays good after adding to the infestation an aquarium is, does the micro algae, bacteria, fish poop, rotten snails and fish food make it good, I keep 15 gallons churning at all times, I use the Redsea blue, only use as needed, I don't do regular water changes the only thing I care is that it reads 1.026 when I am going to use it.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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I never understood this idea of saltwater going bad, manufacturers may want you to think that way, if this was the case why it stays good after adding to the infestation an aquarium is, does the micro algae, bacteria, fish poop, rotten snails and fish food make it good, I keep 15 gallons churning at all times, I use the Redsea blue, only use as needed, I don't do regular water changes the only thing I care is that it reads 1.026 when I am going to use it.

There are reasons it can go bad. One is that some salt mixes add organics of various sorts (vitamins, metal chelators, probiotics, etc.) and those may be consumed or broken down in the mixing barrel.

Second is that the raw artificial is far more prone to precipitating calcium carbonate than is tank water due to things in the tank that reduce precipitation, such as organics, phosphate, and bacteria. That precipitation may also take out many trace elements along with it, such as iron.
 

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