somewhat urgent, Need help with my salt

[hunt]

I have a problem, i was doing my usual water change, but when i opened my salt container i only had a little salt left (it usually would have been enough for 10g of water. It was all clumpy and i didnt think much of it, i just broke it up. I then mixed the usual ammount of salt (it usualy takes about 5 scoops of salt in a 5 gallon bucket to get the salinity around 1.020-25. This time it was only at 1.010. So i added more salt and then i noticed that there are a ton of little white specs floating around (ehich wasnt usual) i again didnt think much of it and thought it was just small clumps that would dissolve. Its been about a half hour of me mixing the salt (i know you guys say to leave it for 24 hours, but ive been doing it this way for 3.5 years now with no problems) and it usually takes about a half hour to be done mixing it. The little white specs are not dissolving and the salinity has barely gone up. Im i going to need to start over with more salt or should i let it sit longer? And Will not sealing the container all the way cause problems, because that may have been what heppened.
Thanks
Hunt

 

[jaxfishgirl]

I would definitely let it sit longer and see if it dissolves.

 

[section143]

There was a thread about this not to long with using the salt from the "bottom of the barrel". Everyone had different views on using it but imo it sounds like the last bit of salt may have possibly gotten wet or exposed to air. Like jax said just let it sit for awhile and see if it dissolves and test again

 

[meowzer]

one of 2 things, you got moisture in it, or since it was the bottom of the bucket, some elements were separated and in that bottom part
 
You should let your water mix for 24 hours anyway......after that test your water....are the pieces floating? if so, you can skim them out
 
if the water test fine, I'd use it....just don;t add the sediment

 

[hunt]

I dont think i have anything small enough to skim it all out. Ill let it sit a while and see what happens. So, can i avoid this problem later on by mixing my salt every once in a while?

 

[meowzer]

Keep your lid on tight, and it would not hurt to stir the alt....IDK if it would make a difference though, LOL....maybe it would keep stuff from separating
 
Do you not have a fish net? That would work....I use one to skim stuff off my new sw (like if a cat hair gets in it HAHA)

 

[hunt]

I have three differant nets and there all diferant sizes, but the specs are literally specs, there a little bigger than a grain of sand. They do work great for hair though.