Problems with Instant Ocean Reef Crystals

markahsf

New member
Hi guys,

Today, I did my weekly 15% water change but I noticed a problem. When I dumped the water into my tank, I noticed my water was cloudy because the salt mix did not dissolve completely. I am worried about my fish and everything else in the tank.

Now, I will let you know how I mix my water. I do the same thing every week with the same salt and this has never happened to me before.

I gather my RO water into a bucket and I use a 50 watt heater to get the water to about 75-77 degrees and then I mix my water until I achieve the desired salinity of 1.026.

I then store the water in a jug until the next day when I do my water change so just so everyone understands that, I mix my water the day before.

The day of my water change, I heat up the water until it is the same temp as my tank and do my water change.

If I knew the water had this much undissolved salt in it, I would have waited but I was in a rush and didn't bother to check since this routine has worked with no problems before.

I store the salt under my sink. It is in the bag and not the bucket and I don't cover it or anything. Could this be the problem? More importantly, will the tank inhabitants be ok?

Thanks in advance.
 
What are you using to mix your water? I run a powerhead to mix my water for 24 hours prior to a water change.
 
Reef crystals is all I use and never had a problem. But I put an 800 gph powerhead in my 5 gallon bucket of ro water, and mix in salt and leave the powerhead and heater if needed for a day or so? Works great.
 
Secret tip to clearer mixing water, esp. with reef crystals, wait until it is dissolved before you heat it. The calcium salts are what is making it cloudy and they dissolve better at lower temps.
 
Secret tip to clearer mixing water, esp. with reef crystals, wait until it is dissolved before you heat it. The calcium salts are what is making it cloudy and they dissolve better at lower temps.

+1:bounce2:

Since I've been mixing RC at lower temps my power heads are coming out of the mixing bucket clean. They used to have some white powdery residue on them.
 
Secret tip to clearer mixing water, esp. with reef crystals, wait until it is dissolved before you heat it. The calcium salts are what is making it cloudy and they dissolve better at lower temps.

Yup. This has helped me as well since I started doing it.
 
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