Aquavitro Salinity mixing issues

Hooberminch · Feb 14, 2020

I recently bought a bucket of the aquavitro salinity from my LFS, and I am unable to mix it without salts precipitating out of it. I’ve tried numerous different temperatures (55,65,78), and will add in variable amounts at a time without any success. I have tried mixing with a pump running in a 5 gallon bucket as well as mixing by hand and even adding barely any salt in at a time. I am unable to fully dissolve it no matter what. The smallest amount in will make the water cloudy. Even after mixing for a week, there is still a precipitate on the bottom and whether the batch is a week old with a pump and heater running on it or if it’s fresh the alkalinity is under 6, magnesium under 1000, and the calcium is under 300. I use a BRS RO/DI filter and my TDS is 0. Does anyone have any suggestions?

reefwiser · Feb 15, 2020

The salt could have separated out during shipping. Might need to mix the dry salt so the different parts are mixed better.
seal the lid and shake the bucket top over bottom. I used one of these bucket tippers

Vestil CAN-A Steel Manual Pail Tipper, 70 lb. Capacity, 12-1/2" Width x 30" Height x 14-1/4" Depth This lets you mix the salt by tipping it back and forth.

Hooberminch · Feb 16, 2020

Thanks for the reply, I will definitely try that. I also emailed them so hopefully I hear back soon!

GoVols · Feb 16, 2020

Hooberminch said:
Thanks for the reply, I will definitely try that. I also emailed them so hopefully I hear back soon!

You have to mix it a a low temp and only mix it for about one hour, then use it ASAP.
Or it will precipt. and it's alk will drop. Not a mix that you want to store.

You'll still see a some cloudiness, in your display, but it will clear up fairly quick and you'll always get an greyish matter at the bottom of your mixing containers.

There's also something it that mix (like borate) that will throw your test kits off, when trying to find the test endpoint color. That's the #1 factor of why I stopped using Salinity. I called Seachem in 2011 about the test kit issue. Seachem said to use their test kits, but I don't want to use their test kits.