I am using Coral Pro Salt, my first bucket. It has helped my tank tremendously.
I am down to the last 40 gal water change with this bucket (155 gal bucket) and my water has turned cludy after adding the last of the salt. The water is RO, with .01 tds, 78 degrees, 1.025 salinity. I have been waiting for it to clear up. It has been a week and a half of aerating and letting a power head run, but it is still cloudy.
There is a white powdery dust on all glass sides and equipment? What is this? What caused it? And is it safe to use?
Assuming, NO, as I don't want my dt tank to become cloudy too, or harm any inhabitants . What a bummer and a waste of time and money
thanks in advance for any suggestions on what has happened here.
Using a giant volume of salt a little at a time with a multitude of opening and re-closing's of the bucket, you will have humidity, which will give you some precipitation. Keep your hands and tools DRY when your salt is open. CLOSE your salt as soon as you're done scooping it. If this becomes a problem with more than one bucket, I'd say you need to do your salt scooping in a less-hunid environment.
Or switch to buying smaller volumes of salt so you can use the whole package at once (or at least much more quickly). It's more expensive this way, but also a better way to go if you need it.
I don't understand the comment about the cloudiness on the glass....are you mixing in a glass tank
other than the aquarium?
I use a beer wort stirring paddle. While the water is spinning good i add the saltonce its all added i stir it up in the reverse direction. Let is sit for about 15 minutes. Stir it up again and check salinity. If its all good i add it to the tank. Mixed with room temp RO/DI water.
The best mixing tool - better than a pump. 
At least with instant ocean products you should be ready to go
in about 5 minutes as long as you measure your salt pretty accurately – .5 cups per gallon of RODI.
(I tested this and mixing methods pretty thoroughly.)
This is pretty much how I do it too. Except , I heat it up to the tank temp and aerate for 24 hrs before adding to tank. And I also thought it was good for a long time , ha, but have to admit I never use it if it sits longer than a week. I have one specific 40 gal glass tank i have always used for only "new ro water " for wc
Heating and continued stirring – especially if you use a pump – will cause problems. Heat your RODI
if you must but don't heat your saltwater.
Ideally mix with a paddle. It's
at least as fast as a pump, probably faster since most folks won't do anything but flop the pump on the bottom of the bucket. Very lame mixing setup in testing. Only slightly better than air stones.
I use a 5 gallon food grade white bucket and a powerhead at the bottom mixing the water.
See comments above re: pumps on the bottom....and videos below for much better ways to mix that will give you better results.
Paddle mixing:
Pump mixing:
My old
A Water Change A Day... thread has more... (quite a few folks joined in, so it might be an interesting read for some!)
you can add some carbonated water, which will dissolve the calcium carbonate
I think a pretty low pH is required to dissolve calcium carbonate.....something pretty close to a calcium reactor I think.
It's a neat idea, but hard to imagine this working. Curious to hear if someone tries it.
(If it was just one 5 gallon bucket of saltwater like at the very end of a bucket of salt, I'd stop worrying, use it, and move on to the next battle...no question.)
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