Anyone heard of salt not dissolving?

[joubentwin]

I am setting up a 29g biocube but I have some of the salt mix that wont dissolve. I have tried putting the heater at 90 and having multiple powerheads. Still it just floats to the bottom. Most of it has now fallen down into to sump area in hard to reach places. Its been 8 days now and its still there... I wouldnt think that it would be much of a problem to just leave it there but I wanted to ask everyone's opinion before I start tearing things up to get it out. The salt mix is also about 8 mo old. What does everyone think?

 

[Codeman00]

Does this mean that you tried to mix salt in your display tank / sump? I recommend not doing that. Always mix your salt in a separate container so you don't get the crud coating on your glass and/or acyrlic. I'm not sure why your salt isn't dissolving but trying to make saltwater in a separate container would help allow you to stir it up to get it dissolve properly.

Don't leave the salt in there. Get it out otherwise your salinity will go up unexpectedly because the extra salt will dissolve.

 

[Rendos]

I don't see any problem mixing salt in the tank the first time you fill it. I would not do this once the tank has any livestock in it, but this should not be an issue on a new tank with nothing in it yet.
I don't know why it wouldn't be mixing either, but you should try to siphon the un-mixed portion out before adding any livestock.

There is more than salt in salt mix...maybe one of the other ingredients is not dissolving...not the salt. Was the salt hard or still in it's loose form?

 

[bshumake]

what brand is it? Some of them will percipitate out the calcium if they sit on the shelf too long.

 

[joubentwin]

The tank is new is the only reason I was mixing it in the tank just because i thought it would be faster. It is the big 5 gal container of reef crystals. I tested the calcium level yesterday and it was at 450 ppm. All the other perameters are good except the pH was only 8.0, which I added a buffer to in order to raise it.

I never though about the other ingrediants being the problem. Do you think that the mix is no longer good?

The salt was very hard, the o-ring on the container hadnt gotten put back on right the last time I used it before I moved. It sat there about two months like that. I figured moisture was the cause of it getting hard.

I wonder if I should just siphon all the water out, buy new salt and start over since my other tank is still up and running? I still have about 3.5 gal of the mix left though.