does salt go bad

well i did a water change and i let the water aerate for 24 hours with a heater, 1 power head and a small powerhead with a filter on it. now before i added it i looked at the water to make sure it was all dissolved well it was, but after my water change all looked normal that was at 10:30ish est, now my water looks cloudy and little white specs are on my black sand bed. i only ask cause the salt did clump up while in storage so i broke it up. its about a year old. im concerned cause i have a CuC set to arrive on thursday and would really hate for them to all die, also i plan on getting my first fish sometime in the next month or so.

tank is cycled its about 2 months old now, should i wait a few hours see if it clears up, or go buy new salt and do some water changes. i plan on throwing out the other salt anyways really dont want this happening when i have fish in there.

also when i test with my hydrometer and refractometer they both read 1.20 or 30ppm

 

i think i will stir the water in the tank and see if the white specs dissolve if so ik it was salt, if not idk what it could be maybe calcium carbonate or CaCo3. cause im think the salt may have gotten moister in it some how (even tho it was in a sealed bag bought a 150gallon box) and when it dried may have disassociated out a little. if so i can go in with turk baster and suck it up.

 

It's my understanding that calcium (and possibly other elements) won't rehydrate once they've been hydrated and then dried. Red Sea Coral Pro starts with dehydrated sea salt but must add some synthetic elements for that very reason. It may be safe to assume that's what you are experiencing, given that it was clumped. I'd suggest another WC with good salt (vacuum out the precipitated particles while removing water), then let it clear up.

BTW, a sg of 1.020 may be fine for fish, but it should be 1.023 or higher (1.025 - 1.026 is optimum) for inverts, including your cuc.

 

Im going to up it today

 

I dont think the calcium carbonate wont hurt them from what I understand but I hqave my bucket filling up now for a wc, my salt lvl did go to 1.025 after 12 hr. And not as many white specs on the sand bed, also it does doissovle after be hydrated and dehydrated they can dissolve with right amount of heat and aggitation.

 

You are not supposed to aerate salt water when you're mixing it or mix for over 4 hours, according to my red sea pro salt mix instructions

 

im using Instant ocean salt, got new salt today and did a 5 gallon water change (its a 29gallon) will do another one tomorrow before the CuC arrives

 

I was buying reef crystals in the box (4 plastic bags). Humidity here is high (Singapore) and after 6 months the salt would end up like a rock and not dissolve right. The big problem though, was the alkalinity was really low compared to fresh salt. I switched to the buckets now to try to prevent the problem and not order as much in one shot. You did right by replacing it.

 

once the salt clumps it's junk. I now keep mine in a home depot 5g pale with a lid. Keeps it nice and fresh.

When I went to do my first water change, the bucket of IO that got as part of the tank sale was clumpy. couldn't even hit 1.020.

 

i did a water change i got the refractometer says its 1.022 and a hydromater saying 1.023, ik its still not ideal for inverts i do have another water change underway hopfully i can get the water change done before the CuC arrives today, i plan on trying to make the water change water about 1.026 that should hopefully bring it into the range i need of or should i just make my water change water 1.025? also my nitrates are a little high (probably the bad salt i bet or my crappy api test kit have a red sea due in sometime 2morrow) i know nitrates are bad for the CuC but can the survive a few days as i slowly reduce the nitrates through water changes?