Cloudy New Water

[wsboyette]

Just mixed up a barrel of seawater using RO water and some ancient years-old seawater mix, and when I pumped it into the tank, it was extremely cloudy, even murky. The bag of mix (Reef Crystals) was about 15 years old, but I had quizzed the mfr on this and they replied it should be OK as long as moisture hadn't caused it to form clods in the bag. Though there were no clods in the mix, it felt moist despite the fact that the bag had never been opened. Been some years since I last maintained an aquarium, but I do not recall newly mixed seawater being so unclear - isn't it usually very clear ?

 

[Sasquatch]

depends lol, some mixes add clay to stop clumping and it settles out as a brownish powder, if you mixed it in warm water it may not have mixed correctly, if it was that old and salt being hygroscopic its probably just bad salt

 

[NC2WA]

This water is going into a new tank or established tank with fish and corals??

 

[wsboyette]

This water is going into a new tank or established tank with fish and corals??

It's an empty clean tank; was just going to add about 3/4 of the water needed before aquascaping and stocking.

 

[Somethings Fishy]

i would do a water change with NEW salt, spend the extra couple bucks to make sure your setup is ready to go....good luck

 

[Krish]

I'm thinking bad salt as well and possibly not allowed to mix thoroughly before adding it to the tank or did you just use the tank as the place to mix it? If so, give it about 24 hours with some flow in there and see if it clears up. If it does, I'd check your salinity etc to make sure everything is fine. 15 year old salt is a long time!!! I would have never had the guts to try that


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[wsboyette]

I'm thinking bad salt as well and possibly not allowed to mix thoroughly before adding it to the tank or did you just use the tank as the place to mix it? If so, give it about 24 hours with some flow in there and see if it clears up. If it does, I'd check your salinity etc to make sure everything is fine. 15 year old salt is a long time!!! I would have never had the guts to try that


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No need for guts - nothing to lose - it is an empty tank.

 

[Krish]

No need for guts - nothing to lose - it is an empty tank.

Well if it is an empty tank then why are you so concerned about it being cloudy? I mean you do plan to add livestock to it right thus the reason for adding salt or did you add salt for some other reason like in just testing out the salt to see if it is infact still good to use? In any event, I personally wouldn't use 15 year old salt especially if moisture was found in the bag. I've had issues with Instant Ocean newly bought that moisture got to it that I had to toss out so I'd imagine you are probably in the same boat. May clear up, may not. Guess time will tell, but i'd just keep flow in there to make sure it is mixed up good and leave the top off of the tank to airate it properly.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[wsboyette]

I am setting up this tank, and was just putting the water in first to avoid unnecessary drying out of LR & LS. I was concerned that the water would never clear up because It was made with old salt.

 

[Krish]

I am setting up this tank, and was just putting the water in first to avoid unnecessary drying out of LR & LS. I was concerned that the water would never clear up because It was made with old salt.

Cool. Well, as mentioned, it may or may not clear up. Like I said, I had issues with new salt that moisture got to that I had to toss out because it wouldn't mix properly so just keep that in mind. If after atleast 24 hours it still hasn't cleared up then I'm thinking it probably won't going by a past experience and I'd look into getting new salt.

Good luck with it and the new setup!

 

[wsboyette]

Thanks !

 

[NC2WA]

IMHO, I would empty all of this water and start with a fresh batch of saltwater..This way you take out the possibility of something *bad* happening to the tank now or in the future.