Bad bucket of salt?

[redspot321]

Hi my tanks been up for a year now. Everything has been perfect until recently. I ve been doing water changes every two weeks religiously.

I recently had a huge dyno outbreak and now my xenia no longer pulses, and my zoos will not completely open, and my BTA is moving around the tank.


What would cause this sudden problem? I have done several 30% water changes over the past three weeks and things dont seem to be getting better.

Bad salt? All water parameters look great.

 

[lovekills]

First off make sure you're doing your testing early in the morning before the lights go on. So if there is anything wrong with your parameters, it hasn't already been consumed. What salt? Reefractometer?

 

[Konadog]

Is there a reason to suspect your salt, is it a new bag, or did you change brands? Did you change your water source, or did the city do something different in your area? Add anything new to the tank, or disturb anything in the tank lately?

If you think it's the salt, get a different bag from a different source and do a few water changes to see if it makes a difference. You can call the city to see if they changed chemical additives, or are doing any construction in your area.

Hope these ideas help.

 

[redspot321]

Well it all seemed to go bad when I got a new bucket of salt, not a new brand. Ive had my water tested at two local LFS and parameters are exactly the same as mine.

My RoDI is testing at 10ppm with two different tds meters. I guess I should try testing in the morning before the lights come on.;.........

Im running out of I deas.

I was just wondering if anyone out there ever got a bad batch of salt.

And Ideas?

 

[lesniewv]

I just switched because of what I consider two bad buckets of crystal sea. SPS took a dive recently, and I've been battling STN for a while. The turning point was the diatom growth I had with a newly mixed batch this weekend. The towel was used to wipe the inside of a thirty gallong trash can 12 hours after the water was mixed. It's same on both sides.....that can't be good!

 

[gophia]

Hi lesniewv, that browning on your towel is probably bacterial growth due to leaving water in the trash can for long period of time. The excessive bacterial bi-products (rich in nutrients)are probably the cause of your water quality issues and not the salt.

I don't see how any salt brand would leave a brown residue on your towel.

HTH

 

[wrott]

I would stop doing WC and make sure Ca+Alk are stable over 2-3 weeks at a time. Are you skimming adequately? Usually diatoms will recede after a week or 2. Have you fed the BTA?

 

[hawkfish21]

I was using Tropic Marin and had the same problems. I switched to Kent and all has been well. Plus I save over $20 a bucket for salt.

 

[lesniewv]

Gophia,

The post clearly states that the salt was only sitting for 12 hours. To further add to the discussion, the water is RO/DI, brand new prefilter and carbon filter, 6 month old RO membrane and 6 month old DI. Water was aerated and heated starting at 8 pm and I attempted to do the water change at 9 am.

Skimmer doesn't matter, cause I don't skim clean water that is made up for water changes. In my opinion, this should not occur after 12 hours. I also noticed there was excessive brown sand like material in the latest bucket I opened on Friday night. I tried to get a pic, but it didn't come out well.

The new IO I purchased is pure white and did not cause any diatom growth like the crystal sea after 12 hours. I'm officially making the switch.

 

[gophia]

sorry lesniewv, I should have been more clear. What I meant to say was the bulit up was probable the result of water being in the trash can over a prolong period of time and not just that one water change you did.

Do you allow that trash can to dry put between waterchanges and/or clean the tash can between water changes?

In anycase there should not be any "brown sand like materialf" from the salt. If possible I would still like to see a pic of the "brown stuff"

 

[MIKE NY]

I make it a habit to test every new bucket of salt.

 

[redspot321]

what do you do to test? Have you ever found anything wrong?

 

[MIKE NY]

I use Salifert kits and I test for Cal, Alk, Mg etc.......I'm using regular Tropic Marin now because it has been the most consistant with levels I want to keep. The only problem with it is it's alittle low in Mg. I had a bucket of Oceanic that the cal tested at 700....it always tested high in the 500 range, but at 700 and other problems with it....I switched.

 

[redspot321]

its funny if you read through, people have switched to salts others have dumped for being inconsistant.

Maybe theres problems with all of them?

 

[MIKE NY]

LOL..sure seems that way. I have switched a number of times over the years.