Salt Precipitate - Go/No Go?!

[907_Reefer]

I've been mixing SW in a 32 gal brute for a few weeks while moving our tank, getting ready to re-add all livestock and rock from temporary (6 day) tote-life. At any rate my mixing pump had shut down for a period of somewhere under a week, when I found it there was a good amount of precipitate on the heater, pump, brute walls and all in/on top of the water. Restarted the pump, running for another 2 weeks and no luck disrupting the participate..

I've read higher levels such as KH can increase this, as well as extra heat (potentially from a failing mix pump).

Any concerns with using some of the precipitated water such as additional precipitate building in the tank?

I have been using Red Sea Coral Pro salt for some time, and have only been mixing 5 gal at a time for each WC, this is my first mass-production..

Side note, is it strange none of my salt buckets have a batch number printed? (Blank..)

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

That’s normal and not a big concern, IMO.it will never redissolve unless you acidify the water.

yes, heat and high alk and pH all contribute to calcium carbonate precipitation.. My IO mixing container had lots of buildup.

 

[907_Reefer]

That’s normal and not a big concern, IMO.it will never redissolve unless you acidify the water.

yes, heat and high alk and pH all contribute to calcium carbonate precipitation.. My IO mixing container had lots of buildup.

Thanks Randy!

Time to make a mess in my new fish room :D

 

[MNFish]

Coral pro says not to mix more than 4 hours and is usually supposed to be used right away to help limit this issue.

 

[907_Reefer]

Coral pro says not to mix more than 4 hours and is usually supposed to be used right away to help limit this issue.

Thanks, I hadn't read that. Would make it a pain to try to store any SW with this salt then...

 

[MNFish]

Thanks, I hadn't read that. Would make it a pain to try to store any SW with this salt then...

That is why I don't use it, I like to have some water always on standby. Not that precipitation is harmful you just need to clean more and can make the levels a little more inconsistent in my opinion.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Coral pro says not to mix more than 4 hours and is usually supposed to be used right away to help limit this issue.

yes, although the precipitation is not as easy to initiate in all situations. One thread had a Reef2Reef member trying to show the effect that Red Sea claimed in a video and failed. he found it quite hard to initiate precipitation, perhaps due to elevated CO2 in his home.