Noob salt mixing question

[moyer!]

I am deciding on what salt to use for my system. I have a mixing station built that I used to mix water soaking my pukani the last couple months.
Question being what makes salt precipitate in a mixing station? From mixing to long. If I am just circulating heated water, how does that differ from running the water through the sump and back up to my tanks?

 

[Potatohead]

You typically want to mix salt in a little bit cooler water, around 70 degrees. Then once everything is in solution you can bring the temp up to normal 78 or so. Even if you are mixing "properly" you will always have some precipitate with most salt brands, it doesn't mean you are doing anything wrong, but most chemicals are not 100% pure and you will have some impurities. It should be a pretty small amount though.

 

[moyer!]

I’ve read that Red Sea will cloud up if you mix it to long. Is that if you don’t raise the temp in time? I am looking at either hw marine or Red Sea salt. I think I have myself all over the place at this point lol

 

[Tautog]

I’m using Reef Crystals, very reliable, cost effective, and the big commercial coral sellers use it. That’s enough for me. Save your money for corals, not salt, expensive salts don’t make better reefs.

 

[Florida Sunshine]

I have 60g of pre-mixed salt water and 60g of RODI on hand pretty much at all times. When I do a water change I take out 30-40g of the salt water to do the change and then add RO/DI and salt so I am back to 60g. So basically there is 20-30g of the last batch left over and it will continue to mix until my next water change. A couple of years ago I emptied and rinsed my containers but there was surprisingly little there to clean out and I have never had a problem from it.

 

[JC Slater]

I used reef crystals for about almost 2 years with my current tank. Last 6 months or so I have switched and been using Fritz RPM. RC left quite a bit of white precipitate/residue in the buckets. Sometimes it looked like it would flake off when mixing a fresh batch. Yeah I rarely cleaned them. lol. Anyways, Fritz doesn't leave anything behind in the bucket. It mixes clear within an 1/2 hour to an hour. It says on its box to mix at 72-75 and then raise temp to 78 to add to tank. I think RC suggests mixing for 24 hours before use. I mix my Fritz salt and in an hour and a half Im changing water.

RC seems to be really high in ALK and lower on CA and MAG. Fritz's Alk is around 8.xish (what I keep my Alk around) and Mag I havent tested but heard its rather high, so there fore Im not dosing Mag, only 2 part.

I finally got my own RODI system and planning on building a mixing station in my garage. Stoked about that! LFS RODI water was testing 60+ TDS when I finally asked them to test it after battling some algae for a month.

Good luck!

 

[TinyChocobo]

I've always used reef crystals in the past but I'm using regular old Instant Ocean right now until I have some more corals that the added benefits of reef crystals over regular IO make sense.

That said when I mix salt ahead of time I tend to mix it, heat it up, and then use it. If I store it - I stop the mixing and the heat until I'm ready to use it.

 

[Potatohead]

I’ve read that Red Sea will cloud up if you mix it to long. Is that if you don’t raise the temp in time? I am looking at either hw marine or Red Sea salt. I think I have myself all over the place at this point lol

That's mainly the Coral Pro version. I have heard the same thing, I don't know why it's any different than just putting it in the tank, I agree with you there.

Truthfully, salt is mostly salt. Choose one with parameters you want to run (most people about 420/8-8.5/1350) and find a salt close to that, and then stick with it. Choose one you can get in a pinch if you need to.