Using Dessicant in your Salt Bucket

[reefsmurf]

I'm thinking of getting some dessicant from Michael's craft store to stick into my IO salt bucket. I don't use it very fast with a small tank, and didn't want it to start clumping like my last one. Anybody else do this or am I just nuts?

 

[stevenp]

Couldn't you just toss in a baggie/container of Dow Flake and accomplish the same thing? Calcium chloride is commonly used as a drying agent.

 

[NateHanson]

It has to be a better desiccant than the salt itself. I'd guess that dowflake wouldn't out-compete the salt for the water molecules, since there is CaCl in the salt mix too. Maybe silica gel is a better desiccant than salt. Try it, and let us know. I think it's a good idea.

 

[reefsmurf]

Yup. will do. Apparently you can reuse silica gel by reheating it in the oven to 250 for 2 hours. Might as well do that while baking the remaining dowflake Too bad I don't have much dowflake left..

Stevenp: some people use "rice" as a cheap alternative as well, but what Nate said.

 

[Nonmouse]

Umm... Why are you that worried about it clumping in the first place? I've never had any trouble crumbling it back up, and you're going to be dumping it in water, anyway.

I guess that'd be a vote for "just nuts"...

 

[reefsmurf]

Because when it clumps the alkalinity and calcium seems to suffer alot (I had 4dkh and low calcium readings). Plus it's a pain to break it up, it can *really* harden into a rock.

 

[NateHanson]

ditto that. I had a bucket get so hard that you had to mine the salt out of the bucket with a claw hammer.

 

[stingythingy45]

Yup. will do. Apparently you can reuse silica gel by reheating it in the oven to 250 for 2 hours. Might as well do that while baking the remaining dowflake Too bad I don't have much dowflake left..

Stevenp: some people use "rice" as a cheap alternative as well, but what Nate said.

Huh....never heard of baking Dow Flake....only baking soda to raise PH.

 

[reefsmurf]

Oops. that's what i meant

 

[Liam]

i have never had a problem either,so another vote for nuts,sorry

 

[stingythingy45]

Oops. that's what i meant

Ok,I was thinking that maybe something new came out.
Things change pretty fast in this hobby.

 

[willray]

What are you storing it in?I've never had a problem with clumping or hardening using the twist lock cover buckets.

 

[reefsmurf]

In the original IO containers, but they are not twist lock.. just snapon.

 

[Dave]

I don't have a clumping issue either, You could try filling a media bag with rice. Always work for the salt shaker when camping

 

[Miller]

Upgrade to a larger tank so you use more salt. Not the cheapest or easiest solution.

 

[JayM]

Barry has a point. I buy my IO by the box, and most water changes use up just about 1 of the bags that the boxes come in. Since a bag isn't open for more than 4 weeks, it never gets the chance to clump.

Come to think of it, now the water changes probably will use up a whole bag and then some.

 

[Greg Hiller]

I've had buckets clump on me. It happens sometimes when I open them in particularly humid weather. I also think it can happen when the weather was humid when they were packing the stuff at the factory (wherever it might be).

The clumping is annoying, but as mentioned, you can adjust for it by adding more baking soda and calcium chloride.

 

[reefsmurf]

That makes sense. However, my old IO bucket salt has hardened so much that I have to really scrape and pound on it with a piece of PVC pipe to loosen it up (it doesn't even break into chunks anymore!) and it's became a real pain