Precipitation?

[TheReefAbides]

New reefer, so I’m trying to figure out what this may be.

I was trying to raise salinity, my LFS suggested adding fresh SW mix to my ATO. I added a low concentration 3 days ago.

Tonight when I came home from work, the DT had a lot of white specks floating about and what looked like it had basically snowed on the aqua scape. I dusted the rocks off with a baster and changed the filter. It has slightly improved over the last 3 hours. Looks worse in person, Hard to capture in video.

I have since cleaned the ATO and put fresh RO back in it.


Is it possible that this is just calcium carbonate precipitation? Forgive my ignorance. Wondering if I should just let this resolve on its own through filtering?

Thanks in advance

 

[TheReefAbides]

 

[mcarroll]

Did you add dry salt mix to the top off reservoir and remember to mix it up thoroughly?

 

[Gone Reefin’]

When you made up the saltwater, did you happen to add water to salt instead of reverse? That is a sure way to get precipitation. When you removed the mixture from the ATO, was it also specky?

 

[TheReefAbides]

i mixed it up in a separate container. I started with 2.5 gals of water then added aqua Forrest salt mixed with a pump and heater to 77deg. Did a two gal water change, then added the remainder of the SW to my ato reservoir. Tank was crystal clear from monday till this afternoon which is when I did the water change.

the reservoir did look to have some white crystals also.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I cannot see any reason to think the salt in the ATO caused a problem.

Precipitation of calcium carbonate, which is very common in different scenarios, does not typically show as a few isolated larger bits. That looks more like something got stirred up.

 

[TheReefAbides]

Thank you for the responses, I will continue to monitor and stay on the scheduled program of weekly testing, 10-15% WC and check the AIO compartment for build up that may need siphoned from leftover particles.