Is my salt still ok to use (split from closed thread)

[Oldreeferman]

Ok so I mixed 5 gallons of the salt that was hard and the water is cloudy.. it's been mixed for about 12 hours now... I don't recall ever having cloudy water after a mix... can someone explain why?

Thx everyone

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I realize this is an old post but thought id chime in since i also had a hardened bag of Reef salt & what i discovered. It was IO reefcrystals, i had it kept in a sealed 5gal bucket with a screw on lid ( unopened new bag) but i guess the bag must of had a pin hole maybe, or a bad batch?
Anyway, i didn't need it for about 6 months & when i did that was when i found it had hardened.
I opened it & went thru the trouble to sive & then break up all the hardened chunks & tried to remix it all back together evenly but when i mixed a few gallons & let it sit over night the salinity was lower then usual of the 1/2 cup makes 1 gal of approx 0.25 so i added more till it matched. Then i tested it the next day for important minerals & the magnesium was low and my batch was also a bit cloudy. I added mag & used it to test if it was ok in my tank & i had one coral that was not happy at all so if its a fish only tank its probably ok but doubtful on a reef tank with corals..... at least not any delicate types. I switched to a new bag i had & it mixed fine & everything was happy when i did the WC so i guess either a bad batch or a hole in the bag? I buy online so have no clue how old the bag was but think ill go thu a different seller in future.

 

[Sk8r]

What you may lose is buffering ability, if I remember correctly. Check your alkalinity over the next number of weeks if you are using 'old' salt. That is where a problem is most likely to show up. You might need to add buffer.

 

[five.five-six]

Biggest problem with hard salt is that a lot of the calcium and bicarbonate have combined into calcium carbonate “fine sand” The tank’s alk and ca will dip a bit.

 

[wilsonline]

I got a box of IO on sale. All 4 bags were hard. I just got in the hobby so I had no idea that was something to concern about. But yeah, the water came super cloudy and never cleared up. I had to let it sit so all the CaCo3 could sit so the water was finally kind of clear. Kh and Ca were kind of low, but not that low, like 7 dkh and 420 ppm Ca. I keed my alk around 7.6 dkh so no biggy. Actually better like that bc the other box of IO mixed at 9.8 dkh whick is way too high for my tank.