Newly Mixed Salt Got Very Dark...throw Out?

honda2sk

In Memoriam
I just finished mixing my 45 gallon Brute container with brand new rodi water and new instant ocean saltmix that I just opened. I have it mixing with two maxijets for 24 hours now. The water is weirdly dark. I have a container right next to it with rodi freshwater and its clear as day.

I have mixed saltwater many times with this container for over a year now. Do you think one of the maxijets could have leaked some kind of oil or something? I have a cover so nothing could have dropped in it.

So its either the two maxjets leaked some crap, the saltmix was bad, or I cant think of anything else. Should I just keep on letting it mix? Is it bad to use? Its 45 gallons of brand new mixed salt so I hate to throw it away but I will if you guys say i should.

The only thing that was different with this batch was I dumped in a LOT of salt with very little water (less then 5 gallons) so the salinity was like 100mS while the bucket was filling with water and now its down to 60mS so its still a little too salty but could this have caused the darkyness? its not black. just like a little muddy looking.
 
Your salinity is still very high, i would bring it down to normal and let it run for a few hours. I had similar results mixing tropic marin salt in a five gallon bucket and only using a little salt and letting it fill up, so i threw it away.....good luck
 
If you initially mixed a bunch of salt in a little bit of water you already precipitated out some of the elements including calcium carbonate. I imagine you have a thick white coating on the inside of the container. or is that brown too??

You never want to mix saltwater in concentrated amounts even for a short amount of time

I would toss it all for this reason alone, especially if it is brown on top of that, although i cant imagine where the brown came from if you have used this container often in the past
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10449756#post10449756 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by flyyyguy
If you initially mixed a bunch of salt in a little bit of water you already precipitated out some of the elements including calcium carbonate. I imagine you have a thick white coating on the inside of the container. or is that brown too??

You never want to mix saltwater in concentrated amounts even for a short amount of time

I would toss it all for this reason alone, especially if it is brown on top of that, although i cant imagine where the brown came from if you have used this container often in the past

the water is for a fowlr tank. do you still think i should throw it out? i have a very slight coating of white on the bottom but thats been there for almost a year now and whenever i empty out the container i just wipe it off but its very little. its the dark cloudiness that disturbs me, although since i posted last night it has begun to clear up a bit, since ive let the pumps run overnight. on that note, do maxijets leak any kind of oil or lubricant? could that be it?
 
Is it black-dark or gray-dark?

Always add salt to water, not vice versa. My guess in a lot of things, calcium and carbonate mostly, precipitated out of solution and clouded up the water. Letting it mix more will not necessarily solve the problem, you cant "push" them back into solution.

I would probably toss the water, or use it for small water changes so that the difference in measurements doesnt shock the tank.
 
Back
Top