Sea Salt Scum

[mr_X]

does anyone get this crud on top of your newly made salt water? i get it every time with instant ocean. i haven't tried anything else because none of my livestock is complaining. it eventually settles to the bottom, but i'm wondering, is this just crud, or is this un-mixed essential ingredients? should i skim this off before it settles, or leave it?

 

[FinalPhaze987]

Ive never had it that bad. I use Kent and used to get alot of precipitate, but thats because i mixed it wrong..How do you mix your salt? by slowly adding the salt to ro water or adding ro water to the salt?

 

[Kasey]

To date I've been using store bought distilled water and hand mix my instant ocean.

I let sit for a couple of days with a heater and powerhead.

My water is always crystal clear and I have no crud on the surface.

Could it be your container?

 

[mr_X]

i have the 55 gallon container, which is spotless clean. i let the R.O.D.I. fill it, then i add salt by the scoop. actually, i can tell just about when i've added the right amount of scoops, because the brownish crud rises. i too, let the water sit in the drum with an airstone, a heater, and a mag7, overnight. by the next day, the crud has settled to the bottom(i don't know if any mixes in with the water) and the water above it is clear. i've even ran carbon in the 55 gallon drum while all of this is happening. it doesn't remove the crud.


my question still is- is this stuff something i want to remove, or is it just un-dissolved essential things they've added at IO?
i could easily scoop this stuff right off the top with a small net.

 

[Kasey]

But I use IO and I haven't gotten any crud.

Could you try a different batch of IO and/or a different brand of Salt?

If you got no crud with a different brand, its the IO. If you got it with a different brand, it's your equipment.

If you got no crud with a different brand, try another batch of IO. If you don't get it then, it was your batch of IO.

If IO put some essentials in, it should all dissolve, other wise it would rise to the top of your display and get shot into the sump and filtered out.

Maybe call IO and ask them about it - might even get a credit/coupon if there customer service is feeling in the Holiday spirit!

 

[mr_X]

i've used about 30 different containers of instant ocean, all with the same results.
i could try a different brand of salt. i haven't yet, because my tank has done so well, why fix it if it isn't broke?

yeah, i'll give them a call and see what they say.

how much saltwater do you mix at one time?

 

[Kasey]

7 gallons with a 1/2 cup salt for each gallon in a 13 gallon rubbermaid garbage can

 

[mr_X]

1/2 cup of salt gives you a .025 salinity? 1/2 cup in a gallon gives me about a .021 :?

 

[Kasey]

My salt is at .0245

I do a heavy 1/2 cup per gallon, let the powerhead mix it good overnight. Check the levels and adjust accordingly using the AquaCalculator program (which works great)

 

[Anonymous]

You know, this is probably gonna sound gross, but it looks just like when you've just rinsed the shampoo from your hair. So, I can't help but wonder if it's a combination of dust and grime that collects on the interior of your mixing container and maybe, just maybe, is sloughed off skin cells and the like that collect at the surface with that little bit of "skimming" that occurs with the addition of copious bubbles.

Just a thought.

Way back when, way back when I.O. was a more consistent product, way back when I kept my own saltwater systems, way back when I had my bidness, I used to get a lot of precipitate from Instant Ocean, specifically. The water in the area where I was is VERY hard, very high alkalinity, because it's all percolated through nothing but limestone. Just add sand and gravel and you've got concrete!

The difference in specific gravity may speak as much to the condition of the source water as anything else. Relative humidity is an issue, too. (Consider what serious bakers go through in order to recreate an exact dough recipe, for instance.) Consider weighing the salt instead of volumetric measurements.

 

[cklayko2000]

I had the same issue with IO, I switched to oceanic and it went away. The crude never seemed to bother anything but it made me uneasy...

 

[mr_X]

seamaiden- as stated above, the container is spotless clean to start with. i keep a lid over it as well, because we have 2 cats and i don't want a barrel full of hairballs. i still haven't called IO. i'll do that after the holidays.

 

[rbursek]

I get a little brown residue in my 30 gal mixing tub from RC salt, but not on the surface.
Bob

 

[jhemdal1]

We see that quite a bit when we mix up 16,000 gallons of IO, but in our case, it settles to the bottom of the resevoir. I'm not positive, but I think it is a contaminant seen in the MgCL, probably iron. We would see this when we mixed our own salt from component parts depending on what source of MgCL we were using....if I recall, the German product was best. It is a harmless precipitate in any event. I suspect the reason your's is floating is due to aeration in the mixing bucket, although the bubbles in your photo are reminiscent of some sort of organic - could your bucket be leaching something as well? It wouldn't hurt to skim it off, we siphon it off the bottom of our reservoir every couple of batches.
I used to know the people at Aquarium Systems, but now that they got bought out, the names are all different. You might check and see if Rand Kollman still works there. He was the one who clued me in on the residual ammonia that is found in many salt mixes (on the order of .25ppm when first mixed up).


Jay Hemdal

 

[Anonymous]

although the bubbles in your photo are reminiscent of some sort of organic

That's what I noticed, it reminds me of skimmate.

If everything else is fine, Mr. X, is it just that the scum itself bothers you? In other words, is it broken, so to speak?

 

[mr_X]

actually, why add it to my tank if it's indeed scum. i was thinking it could possibly be some essential additive they add at the plant, which is a little harder to dissolve. i don't want to strip the water before i put it in the tank.
i do waterchanges to replenish essentials, as well as remove some organics.
i've seen this in more than 1 mixing container, so it's not the drum.

as far as "if it's not broke"...my new tank is not without it's algal issues. not as severe as most new tanks i would think, but none the less, i still have some issues here and there. i was thinking that removing this stuff, if i don't need it, might help with that as well.