How to mix saltwater without having any residue in the mixing container??

justmee

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Does any know how to mix saltwater without having any white or brown residue in the mixing container?? Is it even possible to not having any residue after mixing saltwater?? Please share if you know how, thanks!
 

elysics

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Some salts are dirtier than others. I think brown stuff isn't from mixing wrong, but from chelating agents being added to the salt that fall out when mixing and take out stuff that shouldn't be in the water. If you get salt that is clean enough to not need chelating agents, you probably won't get brown stuff.
 

Jay Hemdal

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Definitely warm the water up to use temperature, and add the salt slowly, like the others said. Are you using IO salt? We stopped using that and switched to Omega Sea because we were getting a brown ring around the mixing tank. I suspect it is related to high iron in the mag chloride.
Jay
 

chipmunkofdoom2

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Some people claim that it's the salt mix and that a "higher quality" salt mix won't cause precipitation. However, there are accounts of nearly every salt mix leaving reside for some aquarists, even the top shelf brands.

You could add a sediment filter, like the one on your RO system, and run the water through that. This will reduce the amount of precipitate. It may not prevent it though.

I personally wouldn't worry about it. Randy's article on precipitation states that this is mostly calcium and magnesium carbonate. The author rarely cleaned out his saltwater mixing bins and didn't mention any negative effects as a result.

I would not add a heater. Higher temperature encourages precipitation. You'll either get precipitation on the heater or more precipitation in general on the bottom of the container.
 

j.falk

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I always get the brown residue when mixing IO Reef Crystals. I don't worry about it.

BRS has a video on the precipitation levels of various popular salt brands if you are looking for more information on it.
 
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justmee

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Definitely warm the water up to use temperature, and add the salt slowly, like the others said. Are you using IO salt? We stopped using that and switched to Omega Sea because we were getting a brown ring around the mixing tank. I suspect it is related to high iron in the mag chloride.
Jay
No, I don't use IO salt... I use Tropic Marine and Aquavitro.
 
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justmee

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Some people claim that it's the salt mix and that a "higher quality" salt mix won't cause precipitation. However, there are accounts of nearly every salt mix leaving reside for some aquarists, even the top shelf brands.

You could add a sediment filter, like the one on your RO system, and run the water through that. This will reduce the amount of precipitate. It may not prevent it though.

I personally wouldn't worry about it. Randy's article on precipitation states that this is mostly calcium and magnesium carbonate. The author rarely cleaned out his saltwater mixing bins and didn't mention any negative effects as a result.

I would not add a heater. Higher temperature encourages precipitation. You'll either get precipitation on the heater or more precipitation in general on the bottom of the container.

No, I wasn't worried about any negative effects... I'm just tired of cleaning my mixing bins. :-D
 

ChuzUThisDay

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I've always used the basic IO salt and after a few months of mixing and storing in a blue 55gal barrel, I noticed the brown crust in the bottom. I kept a powerhead and heater in the barrel so that the saltwater was always ready to use and wondered if the heat led to the fallout.
 

theatrus

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Fifthed?

RC when I used it was always brown sludge city. I even tried to be fastidious with sterilizing the mixing containers with star-san, but it only did so much (too much air contact).

Tropic Marin doesn't have the problem and doesn't precipitate anything out. HW was very similar.
 

92Miata

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i use tropic marin pro reef salt mixes clear in no time witjout heating up my water
Tropic Marin mixes clear because its alk and CA are really low. Most of the 'sludge' is chelating agents and calcium/magnesium carbonate precipitation. You don't get precipitation if you've got low numbers.
 

theatrus

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Yup, I run my systems at around 8dKH. I used to "amp it up", but its a lot riskier on the high end as opposed to be on the low end.
 

jmichaelh7

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so you guys are mixing the salt with out heat , and then heating it later before wc?

You still have to add or remove salt when the heat is adjusted to correct temp though right? So either way the heater is going to be used during mixing
 

jose hernandez

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I heat the water to 77 degrees then turn the heater off add the salt if I need to do a quick water change I’ll mix if for a couple of hours if not I’ll let mix overnight my mag 5 pump keeps the temp pretty steady
 
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