Fresh saltwater cloudy

[henergizer]

I've never ran into this problem before. I'm at the bottom of my Salinity salt bucket.

Mixed up approximately 6 gallons of fresh saltwater from room temp/cold RO water. Currently still mixing with a mixing pump but its extremely cloudy.

It's been mixing for about 4 hours now. Will let it mix for another 2-3 and see if it clears up.

Would you do a water change with this cloudy water? Should i start heating it up?

Salinity is at 1.025.

 

[Coral reefer]

Double check calibration?

 

[henergizer]

Double check calibration?

I'm calibrating with RO water and calibration is good. I know, bad practice, but that's all I have right now.

I'm wondering if I dumped in the salt way too quickly at one spot rather than pouring it all around.

I guess to be safe, I'll just dump the remaining salt and water and make a brand new batch

 

[ofzakaria]

How are you mixing? Using a pump?
What's your salt?
Unless salinity is too high that the salt is.not mixing fast, the cloudiness must settle at the end. Some salt require at least 12 hours to settle. Depending on the salt purity the mixing time vary. I would not worry too much just out of 4 hours of mixing...I would wait.

 

[henergizer]

How are you mixing? Using a pump?
What's your salt?
Unless salinity is too high that the salt is.not mixing fast, the cloudiness must settle at the end. Some salt require at least 12 hours to settle. Depending on the salt purity the mixing time vary. I would not worry too much just out of 4 hours of mixing...I would wait.

I empty out jugs of water into a plastic mixing bin, start up the pump, and then USUALLY slowly add salt (maybe 30 seconds before I empty the whole cup of salt). The water is usually cleared up after 2-3 hours and then I heat it up to temp before doing the water change.

Only thing different this time was I unloaded the whole cup of salt all at once.

Im using the last remaining bits of AquaVitro Salinity. The salt is over a couple of years old, maybe 6 or 7, but it has been ok for the last year my reef has been up.

I'll definitely let it mix some more and see how it goes. I have a new bucket of Red Sea blue bucket that I can open and I don't mind trashing the remaining 5gal worth of Salinity.

 

[Chromis]

You need to toss it and start over if it’s been cloudy for 4 hours. Try mixing the salt in more slowly next time.

 

[ofzakaria]

I empty out jugs of water into a plastic mixing bin, start up the pump, and then USUALLY slowly add salt (maybe 30 seconds before I empty the whole cup of salt). The water is usually cleared up after 2-3 hours and then I heat it up to temp before doing the water change.

Only thing different this time was I unloaded the whole cup of salt all at once.

Im using the last remaining bits of AquaVitro Salinity. The salt is over a couple of years old, maybe 6 or 7, but it has been ok for the last year my reef has been up.

I'll definitely let it mix some more and see how it goes. I have a new bucket of Red Sea blue bucket that I can open and I don't mind trashing the remaining 5gal worth of Salinity.

Also some times the bottom of the bucket carry more contaminate and bigger salt particles.
Like mike suggested make sure your salinity measurment is accurate, if it is, nothing u can do other than wait.

 

[henergizer]

I ended up tossing the water and made a new batch with new salt.

Thank you all for your help.

 

[JVU]

Only thing different this time was I unloaded the whole cup of salt all at once.

My guess is that this could be the cause. I’ve had it happen before.