Does roughening the surface of the briquette or drilling holes in it make crystals form faster?
Not significantly. Does it matter if the salt used is iodized or un-iodized? No. While all the other photos in this article are of crystals grown with un-iodized salt, the following picture shows crystals grown with iodized salt. They look pretty good to me. Does it help to soak the briquette in water for 15 minutes before placing it in the growing liquid? No. I tried this and the growth started later than briquettes placed in the growing liquid dry or soaked with growing solution. The reason is that before the growing liquid can be drawn up and evaporate to form crystals all the water stored in the briquette has to evaporate first. This takes more time than starting dry and much more than starting with the briquette soaked with growing solution. Will growing the crystals with no water work (only ammonia, bluing and salt)? Yes, but the crystals didn’t grow as large or as fast as with some water in the mix. Will epsom salt work as good as table salt? I thought it would work better becau
