Hi guys,
First of all, I am based in Scotland UK so this is not an addition to the USA-Turkey situation.
I have been really struggling with 2 of my tanks for the last few weeks to a month and after a few ICP tests and other checks for pests, dipping etc I have been losing SPS slowly but no idea why. Today I decided to pay far more attention than I usually do to my salt water mixing station. It was running quite low so topped it up with RO and added my usual 5 or 6 scoops of salt to it for mixing. After a few minutes of mixing and the worst of the clouding disappeared I noticed quite a few pieces of random plastic floating on the top of the water and then lumps of white stuff at the bottom that was not mixing or dissolving. I will attach photos. I only managed to take a photo a little while later after an hour or so mixing when only one of these large lumps was still not dissolved. I managed to fish out the floating plastic pieces relatively easily. I have never found any foreign objects in my TMPR salt and certainly have never seen anything like these lumps before. They are whiter than the salt itself. Almost like a pure white lump of finer grain than salt. Having struggled with an issue in my tank I am of course now really concerned it is my salt. I then added a little salt to one section of my sump as my salinity has crept down to 1.024 today and there were loads of these lumps again. Picture attached. I have a third tank that I use the same salt on but a different bucket and it is doing fine. These two tanks, my office reefer and my frag tank both have AWC setup with a DOS from the same saltwater storage tank and both tanks I have lost a lot of SPS corals over the last few weeks.
Can anybody shine some light on this? Has anybody noticed this at all? These buckets were purchased late on 2021 as I buy them in bulk and put them into storage. I will attach a photo of the numbers on this bucket.
I have used this salt for over 2 years now and I have to say didn't have to clean my salt water mixing container once for over a year but now it is getting this staining in the bottom within a month which I also find strange.
Thanks in advance for any help guys.
This was floating in the tank along with a few others.
One of the large lumps still to dissolve after an hour of mixing.
Lumps from small amount of salt added to sump chamber.
Batch number on bucket lid.
Other bucket info in case it helps in identification.
First of all, I am based in Scotland UK so this is not an addition to the USA-Turkey situation.
I have been really struggling with 2 of my tanks for the last few weeks to a month and after a few ICP tests and other checks for pests, dipping etc I have been losing SPS slowly but no idea why. Today I decided to pay far more attention than I usually do to my salt water mixing station. It was running quite low so topped it up with RO and added my usual 5 or 6 scoops of salt to it for mixing. After a few minutes of mixing and the worst of the clouding disappeared I noticed quite a few pieces of random plastic floating on the top of the water and then lumps of white stuff at the bottom that was not mixing or dissolving. I will attach photos. I only managed to take a photo a little while later after an hour or so mixing when only one of these large lumps was still not dissolved. I managed to fish out the floating plastic pieces relatively easily. I have never found any foreign objects in my TMPR salt and certainly have never seen anything like these lumps before. They are whiter than the salt itself. Almost like a pure white lump of finer grain than salt. Having struggled with an issue in my tank I am of course now really concerned it is my salt. I then added a little salt to one section of my sump as my salinity has crept down to 1.024 today and there were loads of these lumps again. Picture attached. I have a third tank that I use the same salt on but a different bucket and it is doing fine. These two tanks, my office reefer and my frag tank both have AWC setup with a DOS from the same saltwater storage tank and both tanks I have lost a lot of SPS corals over the last few weeks.
Can anybody shine some light on this? Has anybody noticed this at all? These buckets were purchased late on 2021 as I buy them in bulk and put them into storage. I will attach a photo of the numbers on this bucket.
I have used this salt for over 2 years now and I have to say didn't have to clean my salt water mixing container once for over a year but now it is getting this staining in the bottom within a month which I also find strange.
Thanks in advance for any help guys.
This was floating in the tank along with a few others.
One of the large lumps still to dissolve after an hour of mixing.
Lumps from small amount of salt added to sump chamber.
Batch number on bucket lid.
Other bucket info in case it helps in identification.