Anyone have experience storing saltwater mix using AF Sea Salt?

[CayoHueso]

Does anyone have experience storing saltwater mixed using Aquaforest Sea Salt?

I have a 20 Gallon AIO, and the most time consuming part of my weekly water changes is mixing just a few gallons of saltwater. It mixes very quickly, which is convenient. But when it comes to mixing just 3-5 gallons at a time I find myself unable to get the mixture just right, so I'm constantly returning to the bucket every 15 minutes and either adding salt or RODI water and then waiting 15 mins to retest. And once I do get the salinity right, then I'm waiting two hours for the salt to fully dissolve and mix properly before I start the water change.

I'd love to have a brute trash can with saltwater ready to go. Aquaforest says to use the saltwater mix within 5 days. That wouldn't be very effective for me, seeing as I only use about 2-3 gallons per water change. In my experience keeping a 5 gallon bucket mixed with a pump running, it did start to show what looked like precipitate on the surface after just 24 hours. But that may have been the result of adding the salt too quickly, I'm not sure.

I'd like to stick to the same mix, rather than switching, if I can. Anyone have experience (good or bad) storing mixed saltwater using Aquaforest Sea Salt for long periods of time? Any advice on how best to do so?

TIA!

 

[Daftendire]

I bought a 200g bag of AF reef salt on black friday and was worried the same thing. I haven't had any issues storing it longer than recommended - a few weeks at a time for a mostly LPS tank. I think the storage guidelines is mostly to keep the aminos and vitamin c from degrading in quality.

 

[Pistondog]

BRs did a video on the af reef salt among others, it did drop alk some after a couple of weeks

 

[CayoHueso]

I bought a 200g bag of AF reef salt on black friday and was worried the same thing. I haven't had any issues storing it longer than recommended - a few weeks at a time for a mostly LPS tank. I think the storage guidelines is mostly to keep the aminos and vitamin c from degrading in quality.

@Daftendire what's your storage container setup (size, pump, pump ghp)? I was thinking that the precipitate I saw in the 5 gallon bucket may have been because I was using too strong of a pump in too small of container. That maybe the water was too turbulent, causing it to precipitate out.

 

[Daftendire]

It's a cheap brute 35g trashcan with a tunze 6015 ac power head and eheim heater. When I mixed up 150 gallons of salt in my new tank, I remember seeing a white film on the surface but that eventually went away. You could probably pour your fresh salt through a filter sock if it bothers you