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How to Open Stubborn Bucket of Salinity Salt

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I bought a new, large bucket of Salinity salt several months ago, and stored the half-full bucket of another salt above it. Now, it's time to use the Salinity salt. But I can't get the lid open! I follow the instructions, push in the red tab, and try twisting the lid. No luck. Have any of you tried some novel approaches, short of using a Dremel tool?
 
Bring the hammer to your bucket...I brought a bucket to the garage to try and get it open and I almost lost a toe.
 
What Mike and C said above but I use a rubber mallet. Hit the ribs (lines) on the side of the lid so it'll turn when you hit it. Make sure to press the latch with your other hand while you hit the lid so it'll turn.
 
I had the same problem. I ended up winding several long rubber bungie cords around the lower part so that I could grip it without slipping. While I held the bucket a friend turned the lid. Before attempting to turn the lid we also tapped all around the lid with a mallet so that the gasket would release more easily. It was really really tough to get the lid to start turning.
 
Yup, it can be a bit hard to pull the lid by hand. Easiest way is to use the back of the hammer and pry the lid a bit. It will open like a charm.
 
FWIW - My tank was having Mag issues so I contacted Seachem about the salt mixing process etc. There have been many suggestions on how to mix the salt but their advice was:

"The thing with the mixing is that it seems to be on a person to person basis. Some seem to have better luck mixing it slow while others can mix it more quickly. I am beginning to believe more and more that this has to do with the surrounding environment that the salt is being mixed in. Personally, when I mix, I may use the salt within a couple hours or I may let it sit for a few days. I fill my 30 Brute with RODI, plug in a Koralia 1050, add the correct amount of salt and toss the lid over it ( its in the garage so I try to keep it covered to keep bugs out of it). I have been doing this for about a year and a half and have never had a cloudy batch. Really it seems to clear up after about 30 minutes to an hour. I mix at room temperature which varies greatly in the garage, anywhere between 50 and 80 degrees."

I have since ditched the heated water, 1/2 cup every 1/2 hour procedure and results seem fine. No cloudiness and minimal precipitates. I use room temp (anywhere from 50-65*) RO water and heat after water returns to clear.
 
+1 on not using a heater when mixing salinity salt. Boomer on RF first suggested it to me when I mixed too much too fast in heated RO water and got all kinds of precipitation.


...back to opening it. I lift the red tab on the up position and whack it with a hammer and chisel toward the open way to get them open.
 
Stick a screwdriver up in between the bucket and lid and pry a little bit. You will hear air sucking in when you pry the seal a bit and you'll be able to open it by hand after that. I've probably opened 200 buckets this way :)

I think what happens is that during shipping they stack these things really high and the bottom ones get compressed. Another way is the drill a small hole to let the air in, but then your bucket is no longer water tight.
 
tuberider said:
Pull up on the lid and the vacuum will break ;)
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That ^^^^


I slowly add salt to cold water with a large PH mixing it. Once all salt is in, I turn the heaters on. Thus far every batch has mixed perfectly and just as slow/quick as IO for me.
 
If you have an extra lid handy, use a drill bit and drill the stubborn lid. Then toss that lid and replace it with the extra lid. If you don't have an extra lid, drill the lid with the smallest drill bit and then seal the hole with wax.
 
Coral reefer said:
Cold water makes a difference for sure. Can't say it any better than gresh. Big powerhead. Slowish mix in, don't just dump it all at once.
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Might be just me but I'm having the same results when mixing it slowly and just dumping it all in at once... Anyone else just dump it all in? :)
 
Dumping any ASW mix in as a mass in not a good idea... it leads to localized precipitation.
 
To add to that, Salinity is probably the most anhydrous of all the salts so it reacts very quickly and produces a considerable amount of heat.
 
Hell yah... Dump a cup into a pie pan of water, its pretty cool :D (wear eye protection)
 
I used to heat the RO/DI water before mixing in salt but have not been doing that lately. I now use room temperature water and a large powerhead. I pour about a quart container of salt into ~4.5 G water over 15 seconds. It's usually clear within the hour.

One thing that I have noticed--If I am using freshly made RO/DI water it takes a lot longer to clear than water that's more than a week old. I'm not sure what to attribute this to. Some things I have read say that the is CO2/carbonic acid in freshly made DI water that dissipates over time. This seems wrong to me as I would assume it was removed by the DI stage (and the Spectrapure site seems to confirm this)
 
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