Yellow salt after mixing overnight?

[Recty]

Anyone use Instant Ocean and had their salt water they are mixing up turn a color?

Yesterday I filled up my 5g bucket with water, dumped in 2 cups of salt mix and turned on my powerhead to mix.

Today I look at it and the water is tinted yellow. It's not real dark, definitely see through still to the bottom of the bucket, but it's all tinted. My wife and kid are in Oregon right now so it's only me in the house. There is nothing that was done in that area of the house by me yesterday, so I'm almost 100% certain nothing got dropped into there...

Any ideas what would cause this? There are no shelves around or anything that would have been holding something that fell off and into the bucket.

I should also note that I'm about 1/3 of the way through the mix right now. I've used probably a good 30% of the bucket of salt mix with no problems... so it's not like this is a brand new bucket, the first month of use I got out of it was totally clean clear perfect when mixed.

 

[eums]

I would mix another batch and cover it with something like plastic wrap to see if you can reproduce the yellow water.

Also are you using RODI? TDS of the water used?

I moved away from IO salt some time ago due to the crud that formed at the bottom of the mixing container and how the corals reacted. Using more expensive salt now (esv) but it mix's in 15 min and the corals don't seem to react at all to a 20% water change.

 

[Recty]

Yep, I started another batch mixing at lunch, so tomorrow I'll see what happens. I did put a cover on the bucket, not airtight but a cover sitting on it just to rule out something falling in.

I've never had any issues with IO salt before. My tank now is a FOWLR but I've had a 75g reef for a long time that I grew SPS and LPS in with no problems.

I do think it's weird that the bucket I mix salt in gets a white coating over time.

 

[Deyoe1118]

I had almost the same issue happen a week ago and called IO multiple times with no call back. Mine was mixed in and formed a "calcium like" substance on all of my like rock. Lucky I do not have fish in yet as all of my paramaters are now out of wack...I did a 50% water change with new water and used a different salt...very upset at what happened and IO for not calling me back...

 

[Monkeyfish]

Was there a batch number on the salt you guys used? When did you buy it? I'm curious because I just received a box of IO salt which I've been using for years. I'll have to test the new water before adding it to the tank!

 

[palmer373]

I used IO salt for my first year of reefing, no problems. I switched to Reef Crystals because a friend said it was better quality and he noticed an improvement in fish and corals withing a month. Both are good but I dont get the white coating with RC like in IO.

 

[mixedreeferhead]

used IO and Reef crystals for over 6 years now.....no issues

 

[Flaring Afro]

I had almost the same issue happen a week ago and called IO multiple times with no call back. Mine was mixed in and formed a "calcium like" substance on all of my like rock. Lucky I do not have fish in yet as all of my paramaters are now out of wack...I did a 50% water change with new water and used a different salt...very upset at what happened and IO for not calling me back...

I assume you had it in a bucket overnight too and didnt just stir a bit and dump? I've been using instant ocean and haven't had these issues. Maybe it was a bad batch or something.

To the op, is it possible something might have gotten into the salt itself? Like if it's in a bag is it sealed or is it just sitting open?

 

[Recty]

It's in a bucket with a sealed top on it, the bucket it comes in with the top it comes with. It's the 160g worth of salt in a 5g bucket package.

I would say absolutely no chance that anything got into that bucket, I always have the lid clamped down tight and it sits in a back room.

If anything was contaminated, it would be the water and salt mix that had been mixing, but the chances of that happening are basically impossible, as no one else has been in the house but me for at least a couple days now and I havent been on that side of the house where I mix my water plus there is nothing moving over there that could have dropped into it and I have no pets.

I'd really suspect it was the salt mix, it almost has to be but there's a very very very slim chance something got into the water when it was mixing. I'm just not sure how it would happen with the circumstances being what they are. If my family was home I'd be a lot less likely to blame the salt.

I'll be going home tonight and I'll see if the new salt I started yesterday is clear or not.

 

[ReeferBill]

Yellow saltwater?

Yellow saltwater?

I think you should pour that yellow water down the drain because someone could have used the mixing bucket for something, like the wife cleaning some floors. My friend wiped out his whole tank because he did not rinse out the bucket he used after his wife washed the floors. I do not want to see that happen to anyone.:wildone: