Red Sea Coral Pro residue questions

[Nachopapa]

I switched over to red sea coral pro after the tropic Marin dust up and lack of supply. Over the last few months I’ve noticed some residue when mixing. However this past last batch was horrendous. It is brown, caked on residue in my buckets and clogging my power head for mixing. So my two questions are

1. what the heck is this stuff?
2. What if anything is it doing to my tank chemistry?

I just ordered some tropic and will switch back.

 

[lapin]

I have been using it for almost 10 years and have never had this happen.
If you post up the batch number perhaps others can compare results with the same batch.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

It’s mostly calcium carbonate. High alk mixes are very prone to precipitation. I wouldn’t worry about it. My IO mixing barrel had loads of it accumulating for years.

 

[Nachopapa]

I have been using it for almost 10 years and have never had this happen.
If you post up the batch number perhaps others can compare results with the same batch.

Unfortunately the batch has mostly worn off but it starts with 42. I bought it a month ago fromBRS.

 

[Nachopapa]

It’s mostly calcium carbonate. High alk mixes are very prone to precipitation. I wouldn’t worry about it. My IO mixing barrel had loads of it accumulating for years.

Thank you for the information and I’m glad it’s just calcium carbonate.. I guess it just brings out the “yuck” response in me.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Thank you for the information and I’m glad it’s just calcium carbonate.. I guess it just brings out the “yuck” response in me.

Red Sea warns to not heat or mix too long for this reason.

 

[Nachopapa]

Red Sea warns to not heat or mix too long for this reason.

After thinking about this for a day this is a strange comment. Because I put the mixinto my tank after a full day, it will be continually heated and mixed forever (78 degrees and 3 power heads). The residue you see in my pictures is after being still for a day or two (power head removed) after adding on water change.

So it was resting rather than being continually mixed or heated, so I’m confused, how red sea recommends not heating or mixing too long? It will continually be mixed and heated until removed from my reef tank via water change.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

After thinking about this for a day this is a strange comment. Because I put the mixinto my tank after a full day, it will be continually heated and mixed forever (78 degrees and 3 power heads). The residue you see in my pictures is after being still for a day or two (power head removed) after adding on water change.

So it was resting rather than being continually mixed or heated, so I’m confused, how red sea recommends not heating or mixing too long? It will continually be mixed and heated until removed from my reef tank via water change.

No, it’s just that the simplistic analysis is not a full enough representation of reality to allow the extrapolation you are making.

Nearly every chemical principle in reefing has been simplified forhobbyists. Chemical reality is more complex and often confuses even manufacturers.

In this case, it is reality that raw seawater is far more prone to precipitation than is reef tank water or natural seawater because there are materials in a reef tan that tend to reduce or prevent precipitation that are not present in sufficient quantities in new salt water to provide that effect.

Most notable among these are organics, phosphate, and even whole bacteria. these can bind strongly to fresh calcium carbonate surfaces to prevent them from acting as seed crystals for additional precipitation, breaking the feedback loop that drives precipitation.

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

Been using Red Sea Coral Pro and Blue bucket for 15 years. I can tell you exactly what causes this.

Your RODI water needs to be about 68 to 72 degrees when it's fresh. Mix the salt in the cool water and let it mix good. Then you can heat it. You won't have that problem.

The issue you that you're experiencing is when you add RSCP to warm water. You'll always have a bit of residue left from salt, but not that much.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Been using Red Sea Coral Pro and Blue bucket for 15 years. I can tell you exactly what causes this.

Your RODI water needs to be about 68 to 72 degrees when it's fresh. Mix the salt in the cool water and let it mix good. Then you can heat it. You won't have that problem.

The issue you that you're experiencing is when you add RSCP to warm water. You'll always have a bit of residue left from salt, but not that much.

Red Sea published a video showing precipitation as it warmed by stirring too much. Any individual's results will vary a lot based on the CO2 in the home air.

Mixing time, Red Sea Coral Pro, and Precipitation Plausable? Mythbuster style

According to many, including Red Sea, you do NOT want to mix your Red Sea Coral Pro for more then a couple hours. In fact in this video by Red Sea the person mentions no need to mix for more then a couple minutes once the water clears up. Then the video goes on to what I want to test now, over...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Hurricane Aquatics]

Good info and I remember this. I can tell you I use 5 gallon buckets. I pour 2.5 gallons of cool RODI in the bucket. I add the salt, I use a rubber kitchen utensil to stir for maybe 5 minutes. I add the rest of the water.

Then I insert a powerhead and a heater. It mixes and comes to 80 degrees over about 1.5 hours. I use it.

Done it that way forever and never had any issue. Now I know there might be people with much larger systems that need to mix in bulk. However, I would mix it the say you intend to use it and only for the time it takes to come to temp. Then use it.