old marine aquarium water = icemelter

[Gary Majchrzak]

commercial icemelt pellets/flakes = calcium chloride, magnesium chloride and/or perhaps rock salt (halite) or a combination of these.


Why waste old tankwater by flushing it down the drain?

 

[chrisqueenz]

I actually have tried that and it does work

 

[daveverdo]

Part of the process of spreading salt on ice is that as the salts dissolves the process releases heat (exothermic) helping to melt the snow/ice. By being already dissolved in the water pouring on ice/snow it has no advantage from the chemicals in it. Because it is warmer than the snow/ice it will melt some of the snow.

Dave

 

[SkiFletch]

Gary, where were you 2 hours ago when I was scraping the ice off my driveway with a shovel...? I have my horse trough still full of old seawater in the basement... Could have hooked that up to the garden hose, pumped it up the stairs and been done with it. Oh the timing.

And yes Dave, that may be true, but if it's coming from inside your house, it's already warm

 

[Conesus_Kid]

Actually, dissolving salt into the water (ice), lowers the freezing point of water. That's why it's also used in making ice cream.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/atmospheric/road-salt.htm

 

[aquadonkey]

I do that!

 

[Randrew215]

I boil my pasta in tank water to make it cook faster. I <3 colligative properties.

 

[Tonynlo]

A friend of mine tried it last week and it froze. I guess, depending on the temperature, old tank water could be a practical solution but I wouldn't trust it on stairs or a sidewalk.