Instant Ocean salt question?

The_Boyz1

New member
Does Reef Crystals salt expired? I have a 1 full bucket and opened 1/2 bucket left over from my old setup about 10 yrs ago. Can i still use it or just buy new bucket. Thanks.
 
I'm no expert but I think the principal risks would be separation and clumping. If its not clumped up, I would give it a good stirring in case things have migrated into layers over time and use it. If your nervous, you can mix up and test a batch for the basics, salinity, alk, calc and mag. If those look right, I would think everything else would be similarly in line.

Matt
 
Me personally I wouldn't risk it for the price cost of a bucket. My fish, corals etc are way to valuable. Just my opinion.
 
Your true answer will come from the company 800.322.1266

This should be the right answer but, I suspect the company will look at it from a 'risk management' perspective and tell you that, if you have any concern, you should buy a new bucket. You're not going to blame them for telling you to discard the salt given the age of the salt but, if you use the salt because they said it should be o.k. and believe that something went wrong because of the salt, you'll likely blame them for telling you it is o.k. to use it. In short, I would expect a very 'conservative' response from the manufacturer. They have little/nothing to gain by giving you the thumbs up to use it.

I understand Neoz's point as well. What's 30 or 40 bucks in the grand scheme of a reef tank? However, I also think this mentality likely costs reefers millions a year. How many people add supplements each year thinking, I'm not sure if this stuff is doing any good but, it may be doing some good, doesn't seem to be doing any harm and only costs, x dollars a month, a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to the overall cost of my tank. All those small decisions can add up over time.

Ultimately, it may be worth the 30-40 bucks just to avoid the thinking/worrying about it. I just have a general aversion to throwing away potentially perfectly good stuff (but that's my own issue).

Matt
 
what are you using the saltmix for?

what are you using the saltmix for?

Sound nuts? It's not a dumb question.

That saltmix should be fine for many marine aquariums if it's not hardened/clumped/exposed to moisture etc.
I would NOT use it on a high end SPS system, however... in which case I don't even think one would be asking this question here.
 
I'm planning to used that salt mix for cycling my 32g Biocube and planning to do a SPS tank. But with al the feed back im getting, i better go get newer bucketnof salt. Thank you all for the help.
 
Maybe dumb, what would go bad? It' s salt.... mix it up. Cubes in my experience have no effective way to manage nutrient export . Basically a glorified bucket of water ,with horrible dimensions. Good old water changes is what you have. Stable they are not. Sps is going to survive, not thrive. Mine , and many other cubes come full circle very quickly.
 
Maybe dumb, what would go bad?

Moisture and gas intrusion through the packaging causes chemical reactions in the mix that are not easily reversible (ie CaCl and Na2CO3 will dissolve and precipitate as NaCl and CaCO3).

Basically what this means is that even if you mix it to a correct salinity, various individual components will be way off (and you'll probably have some precipitate that won't dissolve easily).
 
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