Does Salt Go Bad?

[pesto]

I am using "Red Sea Coral Pro" salt and it is about three months old. Preparing the water for my water change, I ran a circulating pump for 24 hours to mix the salt. After the 24 hours, the water remained cloudy and when I transferred it to the tank the salt was still granular. Is this ok or does salt go bad?

 

[afboundguy]

3 months should be nothing. I've had salt for over a year with no ill effects. Only problem you could run into is that it settles and the salt at the top of the bucket might have different alk/calc/mag than the salt at the very bottom...

 

[coralcor]

3 months should be nothing. I've had salt for over a year with no ill effects. Only problem you could run into is that it settles and the salt at the top of the bucket might have different alk/calc/mag than the salt at the very bottom...

thats why i always shake the bucket of salt up before i use it... evin if its only been a week

 

[DoctaQ]

did you by any chance add water to salt? because then your alk and ca will stick together, you should add salt to the entire volume of water

 

[pesto]

That may be it! I added the salt as my water change bucket was beginning to fill. I did not wait for the bucket to be full. I then added my pump to mix it.

 

[DoctaQ]

well you ought to test your params then because your alk mag and ca could be low depending on the size of your water change

 

[pesto]

Parameters checked and all good . . . dodged a bullet. Thanks!!!

 

[sciknen]

For some reason my salt always hardens up really bad..

 

[eric-c]

My salt hardens up as well, nothing a screwdriver can't help with. Take a chunk of it and when it hit the water melts like ice.