To Use or Not to Use? Caked-Up Salt Mix

[Mono]

I have a few boxes of Instant Ocean that I stored in a closet.

I guess it was a lot more humid in there than I thought.

Many of the bags have caked-up and are rock hard.

I have to drop them on the floor a few times to break them up.

Obviously, I need a new storage closet.

But it kills me to think about throwing out a few boxes of unused IO.

Should I use them or just bite the bullet and throw them out?

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

Generally the elements that combine in the presence of moisture are calcium, alkalinity and potentially magnesium. The salt should be fine so long as you test and dose calcium, alkalinity and magnesium to the desired levels after mixing.

 

[Mono]

Generally the elements that combine in the presence of moisture are calcium, alkalinity and potentially magnesium. The salt should be fine so long as you test and dose calcium, alkalinity and magnesium to the desired levels after mixing.

Yeah, that's what I kind of thought.

But I before I do something really stupid, I like to check on what other reefers have learned.

I don't need to make every mistake myself.

Thanks.

 

[Dkeller_nc]

There's an easy way to check. Simply dissolve up a quantity of ASW with the solidified IO and test the water with a good alkalinity kit. If it's within your desired range, just let the precipitated calcium carbonate settle to the bottom of your mixing container and use it. Because the primary material that welds the salt mix together is calcium carbonate, you can be reasonably certain that if the alkalinity is OK then the calcium level is as well.

From the standpoint of preventing this, it's worth noting that plastic bags aren't total moisture barriers. Putting the salt in a plastic bucket that has a rubber o-ring in the lid (if it wasn't purchased that way to begin with) will provide a longer-term barrier to moisture penetration, but water in the air will still migrate through the polyethylene bucket wall eventually.

The only way to absolutely prevent moisture penetration from an outside humid environment is to package the salt mix in glass mason jars, as glass and steel (the lids) are absolute barriers to water vapor. But for obvious reasons, that's not very practical.

 

[dwest]

My latest batches of IO have been caked up too. I just do what you did by dropping on the floor. Then I use them to make salt water for my tank. I’m not going to worry about it.