I have heard of people using a little bit of a commercial product called Salt-Away in rinse water to thoroughly remove ocean mineral residue and prevent that whitish buildup on camera housings. The effective ingredient is sulfamic acid, which is sold as a cleaner at places like Home Depot. When sufficiently diluted it is safe, non-toxic, harmless. The Salt-Away label says it is effective even at 1:500 proportions.

I'm taking a trip soon with a Kraken rinse bag so I'll have a chance to try it on just my own gear when rinse and soak options are limited. To save weight and space I might take the crystal version instead of liquid Salt-Away. An old film canister full would probably last me the whole two weeks. Four ounces of the 99% reagent version is about $12.

Has anyone here used it? Here's the wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfamic_acid

I would not use that unless you had a seriously encrusted item, like something recovered from the ocean and allowed to dry out. Damage to orings and the finish would be my concern.

Simple fresh water soak and lightly working the buttons is enough to keep a housing and other great in good shape.

Use an Lp inflation air blower on a tank to help dry stuff off.

The problem is not removing salt deposits, the problem is that the water you are soaking in has dissolved salts in it and you are adding to the salt by adding another type of salt. It will help dissolve scale, but the whitish buildup on housings etc is not a buildup of mineral scale. It is formed by allowing rinse water to dry out on the surface. As the water evaporates the salts become progressively more concentrated until they begin to etch the anodizing of the housing.

Anodizing is just developing a thick adherent Aluminium oxide coating on the housing and the colour is from dyes incorporated into the coating. The coating resists corrosion , however strongly acidic or basic solutions can begin to dissolve it and may also react with the dyes.

The solution - as Dave says - don't let water evaporate to dryness on the housing. Blow off droplets and wipe dry when most of the droplets are blown off. This can also remove excess water from inside the buttons and help prevent corrosion of the button/lever shafts and springs. No additives needed.

I’ve noticed many times that Nauticam housings seem to show discolouration much more than Subal. All the Subal housings I’ve had still look good as new even after hundreds of dives.

I can’t imagine Subal owners by default are more careful with post-dive care. Quality of the anodising?

1 hour ago, TimG said:

I can’t imagine Subal owners by default are more careful with post-dive care. Quality of the anodising?

Normal Subal housing are silver gray. I guess the black anodising is more susceptible to discoloration.

P.S.

I'm that guy with a completely whitish Nauticam housing 😁

4 hours ago, TimG said:

I’ve noticed many times that Nauticam housings seem to show discolouration much more than Subal. All the Subal housings I’ve had still look good as new even after hundreds of dives.

I can’t imagine Subal owners by default are more careful with post-dive care. Quality of the anodising?

That is probably from hard water deposits. I don't have hard water where i do most of my diving and my housings don't seem to accumulate those deposits or discoloration.

Good question, and I suppose the answer would have to consider the effect (short and long term) of Sulfamic acid on O-rings.. Perhaps someone from the housing makers will have done those tests?
Personally, apart from the final rinse that I give at the resort, I dump my housing (and all other housing/torch/...) in hot water in a clean tank when I return home from a dive trip. Usually two rounds.
Also, that little bit of whitish patina -- I don't think it's harmful, and is a visual cue about the experience for the housing.

Kind regards,

Ajay

Sulfamic acid is a quite strong acid: Ka = 0.101 in water at 25C. In addition to the o-ring concerns, I would suggest being careful using it on metals that do not have a coating that is resistant to acid solutions. The use guide for the solid sulfamic acid product sold at Home Depot (Aqua Mix Sulfamic Acid Crystals) contains the following:

On 10/13/2025 at 3:04 AM, TimG said:

I’ve noticed many times that Nauticam housings seem to show discolouration much more than Subal. All the Subal housings I’ve had still look good as new even after hundreds of dives.

I can’t imagine Subal owners by default are more careful with post-dive care. Quality of the anodising?

Subal housings are powder coated I believe, so I expect the paint is not subject to etching like anodizing is.

On 10/13/2025 at 7:23 AM, Dave_Hicks said:

That is probably from hard water deposits. I don't have hard water where i do most of my diving and my housings don't seem to accumulate those deposits or discoloration.

I believe Rome has hard water, however I don't believe the white look is a deposit, if it was it could be removed. Salt and hard water are both alkaline and become more so as the water evaporates and this etches the coating. But deposit or etching the prevention is the same, don't let water evaporate to dryness on the housing, even after rinsing. Aluminium is somewhat soluble in alkaline solutions and also acidic solutions. A coating of aluminium oxide forms on the surface however this can be porous and subject to attack eventually. Anodizing improves resistance but is not perfect and with strong enough alkali it is soluble as well.

I think the whitish discoloration is inevitable on a Nauticam and just a sign of use. I have religiously rinsed, dried, blow dried, used distilled water, rain water, kept my rig in a container or bag full of fresh water, wiped dry with soft micro fiber cloths and still the places that tend to hold water will eventually turn white and in time the entire surface of the housing will take on the white discoloration.

I now use Balistol on a micro fiber cloth and cotton swabs. I do not spray the housing but just the rag or swabs. I do not get the Balistol on the ports or windows or down in the controls or O-rings, just a surface wipe. After application I allow to dry and then gently wipe any excess away. This leaves a resistant coating that will last several dives.

For as much as a Nauticam housing costs they need a better corrosion proof finish, maybe epoxy paint over the anodize or a more durable anodize :(.

Edited yesterday at 04:01 PM1 day by Nemrod

My old EM-1 MkII Nauticam housing was 6 years old and did around 290 dives, it's treatment was a long soak after each diving session, drained and blown dry in crvices etc and wiped down to dry with microfibre towel. It's got wear marks from shore dive entries but it's still black, just some slight discolouration - like a gloss differential more so than a colour change. Probably helps that Sydney Tap water is quite soft?

My new OM-1 housing has a different sort of Satin finish compared to the older OM-1, be interesting to see how it lasts.. One thing I see though is the white paint used for labelling the controls disappears quite quickly.

Not sure I'd want to be playing with mineral oils around plastics though.

Can someone put a picture of a Nauticam housing that has turned white or partly white? Is it really white or more like grey which is the typical color of aluminum with a protective aluminum oxide layer. Is it possible that the white color is just due to the dye leaching out of the oxidized layer?