Bad salt mix

fc_uk

Reefing newb
So, I have recently purchased Red Sea Coral Pro salt on one of those massive pro bags.

Every time I makeup new water for a water change, the new salt mix is cloudy. I've stirred it until my arm falls off; I put a 1200 gph pump in it while my ro/di has filled the container it's in. I've done both (manual and pump) at the same time. I continued the use of the pump for two hours after I stopped adding water (it takes my ro/di about two hours to fill the container.

Heck, I've even let the freshly mixed water sit for days and the water is no longer cloudy, but I can see all the particulate sitting on the bottom of the container. If I stir it ... guess what?

Bottom line: something is in this salt that does not dissolve.

Anyone else notice this? I am about to dump this entire bag in the ocean and run out and buy different salt.
 
Are you adding water to your salt mix or adding salt mix to the already made up water? This makes a big difference!

Yes, it does! I wait until I have produced between 0.5-1 gallon of water, then I add the salt. My water changes are 5 gallons weekly, so we are looking at about 1.75-2 cups of salt to get the salinity right, depending upon the mix.

I use Salinity, same thing. For some of the salts it is normal. It will clear in the tank and not hurt anything.

Well, that is my hope and that is what I have been going with to be honest. I've got a 75 gallon dt with a 20 gallon custom sump. Salt gets added to the sump, where I let the skimmer and gfo mix that around for a while. About 20 minutes later I turn the return pump back on to the dt and it makes the cloudiness a lot less. My concern here, and the reason for this approach, is the corals in the tank. Some have gotten quite upset and significantly retracted when I have not done this.

For my salt I mix with a pump for an entire day. I don't let it sit by itself without a pump...

Good point. The full story here is I did that more of an experiment just to see what should happen. In real life I am a chemist. My thought was: lets see what time and brownian motion do to the solubility of the mix (answer: absolutely nothing). So as not to be wasteful, I pushed the 5 gallon mix that had sat for about 3 days through a 0.22 um lab grade filter, which is sterile by default.

Sounds like a bad ionic balance.

And this is my real concern. The salts, ions, etc in the mix at the levels they should be present at should be soluble in water (assuming a proper salinity mix) within 1-2 hours max. Now, if you don't reach that solubility within that time frame, then something just is not right.
 
You should also add the salt to the amount of water you want to make, not add the salt and then let the container fill to the desired level. I'd also try mixing half your salt amount for an hour, then add the rest to see if you have any changes.
 
This is a very interesting thread. I have never had this problem when I mix the salt for my water changes and I only use my hand to do it, I don't stop moving my hand until I feel the salt is well diluted to make sure it won't settle on the bottom of the bucket. When I mix mine it only gets cloudy for 20 minutes after that the water is crystal clear. By the way, I use Instant Ocean.
 
When you have too much of your trace elements in that little of water, you are precipitating out calcium if I am remembering correctly. You have to start out with as much water as you need and slowly add your salt. Hope that helps in the future. :)
 
From my experience with RSCP, if you exceed the saturation point it ends up precipitating stuff and your solution ends up all wrong.
Next time, produce your target RO/DI water volume first and then slowly add the salt mix.

Introduce solute to the solvent until the desired saturation is achieved.
I have heard that a long time ago at school in one of the classes, I forgot which one. Maybe it's chem lab.

Also, RSCP powder is not made up of identical particles.
It is made up of different particles packaged in a homogenous mix. Sometimes, some packages undergo stratification so the top part of the package contains different particles than what is on the bottom.
 
I know this is an old thread but I'm experiencing the same problem. In my case I filled a bucket with 5 gallons RO/DI, then plugged in a small powerhead and slowly started added 2 1/2 cups of RSCP salt mix. it was cloudy at first but crystal clear in the morning. I brought it to work and plugged in another small power head and heater to bring up to temp and aerate. I also added about a 1/2tsp of SeaChem Marine Buffer to make sure PH and everything was right. After about 6 hours the water was super cloudy. I unplugged and waited until the next day and the water started to clear but white stuff was settled on the bottom of the bucket.

Is this going to be safe to add to the aquarium or should I dump it?
 
What does the white stuff look like? Clumpy? Dust balls? Maybe it's dust? I'm guessing the skimmer would get rid of that stuff. But can't say I wouldn't be worried about its safety.
 
It literally looks like salt on the bottom of the bucket that just hasn't dissolved. I let it sit another day and now the water is crystal clear other than the salt looking stuff on the bottom but the salinity is still coming in at 1.026. It's definitely not dust with a new bucket and it's been covered. My best guess is it has something to do with the Marine Buffer I added and that causing some kind of reaction.

Any thoughts that I can just use the clear water on top and leave the other at the bottom? nothing has gone into the bucket that would be bad for the tank so I can't imagine it being harmful just didn't want to use cloudy water.
 
I don't think you should have to put PH buffer, though. Is your ph THAT far off? PH will adjust depending on the light/darkness, too. I've never used buffers, so I have no clue if this is a side effect. Try making another bucket without the buffer and see if the same thing happens.
 
I probably don't need it I guess I just always used it as a precaution to make sure the ph stayed at the right level. I've made two other batches now without it and it didn't get cloudy so that's probably what did it.
 
Was the water warm when you added salt and then cooled off? It may have been a super solution and precipitated the excess salt after it cooled.
 
Was actually the opposite. It was cold when it was mixed. The next day it was heated up as it was being aerated and that's when it turned cloudy.
 
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