Storing salt water?

[Reef.]

Red Sea put out a video a few weeks ago about mixing and storing their salt. Long story short, they suggest using the salt within 12 hours of mixing it, and have some guidelines / comments about storing for longer periods. They also address the stuff that accumulates. Here is the link to the video (hopefully):

Thanks for the link, the 12 hours use after mixing was only for the Coral pro, the normal Red Sea was 7 days. The video has a few recommendations, like not storing for more than 7 days (blue bucket) and not mixing for more than 2 hours, I feel BRS video on mixing suggests most salt needs around 24 hours of mixing, think I’ll stick with that advice, and they also did a storage vid, and again their suggestion is salt water can be stored for much longer than what Red Sea suggestions for their salt, 12 hours for the Pro salt and 7 days for the Blue bucket.

 

[sreefs]

Yes it was reef crystals, a sales rep. would come to the the annual sale at That Fish Place, in Centerville Pa. The place had reps. from many vendors with great sales and special offers! The vendors would have tables set up all over the store which was over 80000, sft. they called it the largest pet store in the world. They had people come from at least 5 states to there annual sale! I would buy salt to last most of the year. It could be the sales rep. didn't know what was in the salt to cause the brown film or they stopped adding the non caking agent. This was at least 8 years ago.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Red Sea put out a video a few weeks ago about mixing and storing their salt. Long story short, they suggest using the salt within 12 hours of mixing it, and have some guidelines / comments about storing for longer periods. They also address the stuff that accumulates. Here is the link to the video (hopefully):

FWIW, some folks here tried to reproduce that precipitate issue Red Sea shows and failed (could not get precipitate), so it does not always happen. Maybe due to local pH differences due to CO2 levels in various homes.

Sadly, the Red Sea stated advice is fraught with technical issues (like mix without aeration) and when a rep was asked about it, the answer was nonsensical.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yes it was reef crystals, a sales rep. would come to the the annual sale at That Fish Place, in Centerville Pa. The place had reps. from many vendors with great sales and special offers! The vendors would have tables set up all over the store which was over 80000, sft. they called it the largest pet store in the world. They had people come from at least 5 states to there annual sale! I would buy salt to last most of the year. It could be the sales rep. didn't know what was in the salt to cause the brown film or they stopped adding the non caking agent. This was at least 8 years ago.

OK, their folks need to get their story straight. I don't think there are anti-caking agents in it, and I suspect the brown scum relates to the vitamins and metal chelators they add, but do not know for sure.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for the link, the 12 hours use after mixing was only for the Coral pro, the normal Red Sea was 7 days. The video has a few recommendations, like not storing for more than 7 days (blue bucket) and not mixing for more than 2 hours, I feel BRS video on mixing suggests most salt needs around 24 hours of mixing, think I’ll stick with that advice, and they also did a storage vid, and again their suggestion is salt water can be stored for much longer than what Red Sea suggestions for their salt, 12 hours for the Pro salt and 7 days for the Blue bucket.

I think that unless you are trying to keep very high alk in a salt mix, it can be stored for as long as you want to use it (except those mixes with vitamins or other organics that will go bad).

 

[Apropor]

Good thread. I use two fishies salt but going to switch to Red Sea pro. I had great results from Red Sea before.

 

[sreefs]

Randy you could very well be right. You know a whole lot more than I when it comes to anything related to chemistry and what would cause the brown residue!

 

[Wagtribe]

Is there a recommended time limit to mix SW for long term storage? I mix 50 gal. at a time and run circulating pump for 6 hrs. a day to keep water moving. Is this harm the content of mixed SW?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Is there a recommended time limit to mix SW for long term storage? I mix 50 gal. at a time and run circulating pump for 6 hrs. a day to keep water moving. Is this harm the content of mixed SW?

That's a fine plan.