Is this the Red Sea Coral Pro? This is my favorite salt to date. I dump in all my salt at once with just a little rio powerhead in the bottom for mixing in my large brute. Never had any issues like you described. I do 40g changes every two weeks on my system. The only thing I have run into was a little low on alk but now I throw in a couple spoon fulls of kalk in my top off every so often and the numbers have evened out. Well now Im rambling but just trying to give you the most info on my system as possible. Hope you figure it out though.