Salt Shelf Life

[Anonymous]

I have been out of the hobby for a few years. I 'm finishing my basement after which I'll be starting up again. I have a few bags of salt left over and was wondering if the salt had a shelf life?


I tried doing a search but couldn't find anything.

 

[Len]

Good question. I suggest you contact the manufacturer to hear what they have to say. I would imagine that if the bag is still hermetically sealed, the shelf-life should be quite long. Open/exposed bags is a whole different ball game.

 

[fishfarmer]

Open/exposed bags is a whole different ball game.

Why?

 

[Len]

It depends on the humidity of the location the exposed salt is stored, the duration of exposure, and the air quality of the ambient environment. Salt mixes will absorb moisture (and whatever's in them) from the air. I live in Los Angeles, and would not trust the quality of my sea salt mix exposed to several weeks of LA air. FWIW, I've used sealed Instant Ocean bags that were several years old with little problem, but once tried an open bag that was only 2 month old. The result of that (unknowing) experiment was tank water that was cloudy for days with lots of precipitate.

 

[Henry1]

In Dec 2000, I had used salt kept for about 2 years with no problem.
Yes, some of the bags developed leaks and its content absorbed moisture and became wet.
I have had the same apprehension at that point in time but decided to bite the bullet.
After mixing, test results indicated noemal readings.
The startup went smoothly.

PS: The salt was not used initially as I need to postpone the intended startup.

cheers
Henry

 

[Anonymous]

i've never had problems with stored unopened bags of salt for long periods of time (my longest was 3 years). but i also had an opened bag that was sealed with a zip tie. the result - the salt was like a giant brick, too hardened to break apart.

 

[danmhippo]

JDM, if you intend to use up all old salt mix for startup, I would think it's OK. Eventually by the time you are going to put in delicate critters/corals, the old water would probably already been changed several times and whatever ions/compounds missing shoud've been already replaced with a series of water changes made from newer salt mixes.

That being said, I would not trust opened salt bags that has been sitting out more then 2 months as well. I too live in Los Angeles area and the air is pretty dry. Even in conditions like this, salt in the opened salt bag soak up enough moistures and the end result is a piece of salt block that are probably only good for water softeners.

I am buying premixed RODI from LFS now, and I now only buy small quantity of salt mix for emergency use only.