Preserving salt water?

aab1 · Mar 23, 2015

I know this may seem strange but if I wanted to preserve salt water for years (prevent algae/bacteria/etc) what's te most natural preservative that could do this?

I know I've been told such a mixture doesn't need preservatives but I've noticed algae or green stuff appear after a while in tests and want to prevent this.

What if I were to add a bit of natural liquid soap to the salt water, would the same preservative also work, or would the soap itself act as a preservative?

Thanks

girlishcharm2004 · Mar 23, 2015

What's your concentration of salt water? I read somewhere that a concentration of 10% salt will preserve; however, I haven't tested that out.

The pH of soap can kill pathogens; however, I'm not sure how much you would have to add to significantly change the pH to one that's more hostile.

Seawolfe · Mar 23, 2015

I would make it hyper saline - I would be confident that a 20-25% solution wouldn't spoil. I think the max salt you can get in room temp water is about 35%
10% would probably be ok if the water were sterile to begin with.

Now if you're trying to preserve sea water (~ 3.3%) I would add 25-50% alcohol, but that would dilute the salt. We use formalin for plankton samples, but I don't think you want to go there.

Otherwise you could try canning the salt solution in jars - the heat and the vacuum would hold it.

Cindy2428 · Mar 23, 2015

Any minute organic material is prob causing your mold issues. I would think boiling your sea water for 20 minutes would effectively kill any micro organisms. You will lose some of your water but you will preserve the majority of your batch w/out additional chemicals

The Efficacious Gentleman · Mar 23, 2015

I have to ask - WHY do you want to do this? It must be an interesting reason.

aab1 · Dec 15, 2015

The Efficacious Gentleman said:
I have to ask - WHY do you want to do this? It must be an interesting reason.

Sorry for the long delay. I sell a product made of essential oil and salt water, with no emulsifiers so they remain separate and the end user then mixes this in rubbing alcohol which allows the mix to become emulsified.

I want to be able to have the product be shelf stable for several years.

I can try boiling the salt water, the concentration is now about 1/4 cup of sea salt to 1 liter of water, does anyone know what percentage of salt this results in? I can increase the salt concentration if that would help preserve it.

Otherwise is there any sort of preservative I can add to the salt water part to sure it's shelf stable for many years?

Thanks

Seawolfe · Dec 15, 2015

If you weigh the volume of salt you used in grams it would be easy to calculate the percentage in 1L of water.

If you boil the salt solution you up your chances it wont go bad, ditto for using sterile water to begin with.

Sorry, I dont know what would be good for a preservative - for the rest I'll quote myself

I would make it hyper saline - I would be confident that a 20-25% solution wouldn't spoil. I think the max salt you can get in room temp water is about 35%
10% would probably be ok if the water were sterile to begin with.

Now if you're trying to preserve sea water (~ 3.3%) I would add 25-50% alcohol, but that would dilute the salt. We use formalin for plankton samples, but I don't think you want to go there.

Otherwise you could try canning the salt solution in jars - the heat and the vacuum would hold it.

cmzaha · Dec 15, 2015

5 months ago I dissolved a chunk of Himalayan salt, actually it was a candle holder, which dissolved to approx 30% and it is still fine. I no longer wanted the chunk/candle holder and did not want to throw away such a big chunk, so I put it in a bucket of distilled water, after washing it in an alcohol bath. I just kept a record of how much water I added. 30% was the highest percentage I could get with my room temp water.

Preserving salt water?

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