Thank you very much for chiming in sir, I was hoping I’d get a response from you as I follow your responses on other threads as well as many of your writings on reef chemistry. You don’t know it but you’ve helped me out of many situations through the years, thank you for what you do and sharing your knowledge. To answer your question, I do not use tap water. I use 0 TDS RO/DI from a spectrapure unit that I monitor closely. As soon as it reads any TDS at all, I change the filters and the resins, perhaps that’s a bit drastic but at least that way I know my issues aren’t from dirty replacement water. I’ve been reading up a little more on the subject and it appears I may have a theory on why this is happening. As you mentioned about the high pH causing precipitation issues, I also have been reading that prolonged exposure of newly mixed saltwater to warmer temperatures further exacerbates the precipitation issue. BRS did a pretty good informative video on it that I just saw. Couple that with the fact that I’ve been using the lid on my brute container to cover the bucket to prevent splashing which inherently prevents aeration and since the instructions on the bucket mention allowing the salt to mix for 2-4 hours before use, I’ve been allowing the water to mix overnight to ensure stable parameters. I think all of that combined is causing the issue I’m having with this salt. I think I need I to change two things. 1) After adding the salt to my bucket of RO/DI, I’ll mix the salt for 2-4 hours UNCOVERED and UNHEATED. This should give me the best shot to prevent precipitation from a pH standpoint. 2) Rather than mixing overnight, I’ll be sure to use the water immediately after this “mixing period” is up and I am getting stable parameters with my salifert test kits. In fairness, this salt does mix cleanly and quickly at first but I’m also typically apprehensive of using newly mixed saltwater so quickly. However, if the parameters are where they should be, I see no issue of using it sooner than I usually do.
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