Salt mixing tips

[HappyHooligan]

I do 5g PWCs.
Could I add all the salt I'm going to use to a 6qt pot and get the water super hot, almost boiling, to help salt mix better and then add it to the 5g bucket.
Then let it sit for a day or so, check salinity, bring to correct temp and conduct the water change?
Will really hot water negatively affect the salt?

 

[neilanh]

I don't know that it would, but that seems like overkill to me. I fill up my 30g can with water, add heater & a powerhead, then let it get up to temperature. Add salt and 24 hours later it's ready to go.

 

[HappyHooligan]

seems like overkill to me

lol, now that I re- read my original post, I think your right.

But maybe if you were caught off guard and needed an emergency water change. Would it maybe mix better and do the water change after an hour or so?

 

[neilanh]

Can't speak to that having never tried it. I tend to keep 30g of SW on-hand at all times for those emergency scenarios.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

I don't think heating it up is going to really help it mix any better. In fact, by making a super saturated salt mixture (5g worth of salt in 6 qt or water) I'm pretty sure you'll end up with a lot of elements precipitating out and never dissolving once you add it to the additional water. That's the reason you always add salt to water, and not water to salt... you don't want super high concentrations of salt.

Agree with Neilan... having 25%-50% of your tank's volume of stored saltwater is really good habit.

 

[match55]

OoO heating up to boiling point will kill some of the good stuff in the salt mix I believe.
I just add a heater or sometime a powerhead to mix the salt.

 

[ccCapt]

Kurt got it.
If you added 6 qts of water to enough salt to make 5 gals of saltwater the concentrations of calcium and alk would be so high they would precipitate out of solution and not redissolve. You would end up with saltwater that's very, very low in calcium and/or alk and it will have lots of undissolvable particles.