FWIW, nitre is a carbonate...and softened water is water that has had the carbonates largely removed...meaning, it has room to absorb some...so you might want to consider washing your pans in soft water. I assume you filter your syrup, so you are trying to remove carbonates from your syrup, so using water that has had carbonates removed would be more harmonious with your efforts.

I got nothing today too...;-[

Cheers,
Russ