Help! My bucket of Kent Salt is one solid rock

[XeniaLee]

My huge bucket of salt has turned to one solid rock. I tried using a stainless steel kitchen knife to scrape off the surface, so I could mix up a bucket of water for the tank, but it's going to take a LONG time.
any ideas?

 

[Frankie]

Hello X,
You can try breaking off a chunk but your going to have a hard time getting the right salinity.
This may even effect the quality of the salt if it was exposed to moisture and this is why if is solid. Not to sure if you should use it.

 

[redneckgearhead]

Hello X,
You can try breaking off a chunk but your going to have a hard time getting the right salinity.
This may even effect the quality of the salt if it was exposed to moisture and this is why if is solid. Not to sure if you should use it.

I would agree with this. It might cause you some serious headache.

 

[chipmunkofdoom2]

I would get a new bucket.

Salt mix, unfortunately, is not a homogeneous mixture, meaning that the different particles can separate. One square inch of salt mix could contain vastly different substances than the square inch right next to it. It's best if you can shake up your salt mix before mixing, and when it's a block, while it still might be usable, you don't know what you might be getting in that chunk you break off.

 

[nightfire76]

try to stick it all into a larger tube and fill it with water,while you end up having all of it in water and it be way high in SG when it is all watered down you can take from that and fill some into another bucket and fill water to it to bring it back to the correct SG...meaning if ya just take all that salt and dump it into a big tub and fill it with water with a powerhead it will all mix like normal and then from that you can make batches....i dont see that messing with the levels much since ya not breaking chunks of it off but rather using all of the salt

 

[Frankie]

Nice thinking nightfire
That is exactly what he can do. Make a slurry with all of it.

 

[nightfire76]

lol i was hoping my wording wasnt too confusing lol mama told me i could be in politics some day lol

 

[Frankie]

Actually there are people that make slurries out of salt for a more consistent mix.
I read an article on it a few months back but cannot remember where. It may have been on zeovit.com

 

[nightfire76]

yeah if ya sit and think bout it i can understand why it would make more sense doing it that way rather then just doing scoops of it

 

[XeniaLee]

Wow! thanks so much for the input. I love the slurry idea. It DOES make sense that the mix would be more consistant that way, plus it will be easier to use when I need to mix up batches.
coolness!!!