250000 litre pool conversion to reef tank!

[Tristren]

Holly Crap!!!
Have you guys ever had this happen?
Tank and sump almost full of roi water.
Dumped 5 gallon pail of salt in sump and all hell broke loose!!
Smoke detectors go off...alarm company phones...fire department on their way here!!!
Apparently a very exothermic and hydroscopic reaction going on!!!

What brand of salt is it?

 

[Albertastorm]

I want to go with low water changes.
So bought most expensive salt I could find.
Salt ....and water changes really are a insignificant purchase in the whole scheme of things.

 

[MSB123]

wow! I can't believe that this happened to someone else! I had it happen with a 500-gallon display and boy was that a mess- it was a few years ago, and i cant remember what salt it was. Figure it out? I never did-i just switched salt brands and now I use real ocean water.

 

[MSB123]

It wasn't that one, I think it was a cheap brand, hmm, what else have you added?

 

[Albertastorm]

wow! I can't believe that this happened to someone else! I had it happen with a 500-gallon display and boy was that a mess- it was a few years ago, and i cant remember what salt it was. Figure it out? I never did-i just switched salt brands and now I use real ocean water.

Lady from alarm company said it was a common occurrence???
Said I should vacuum out sensor on smoke detector???

 

[Albertastorm]

It wasn't that one, I think it was a cheap brand, hmm, what else have you added?

$175 Canadian a pail?
$50 US )))

 

[MSB123]

I did, I wonder where else this might of happened?

 

[Tristren]

FWIW I use Aquaforest, with limited water changes. Never had that reaction though I do know that some salt mixes "hot".

I'm just surprised that there enough people with saltwater tanks to have be a common thing for the alarm people...

 

[Albertastorm]

K ...so there have bin some really smart cookies on here worried about how fast the salt mix cleared
Why???

 

[Raptor72]

I want to go with low water changes.
So bought most expensive salt I could find.
Salt ....and water changes really are a insignificant purchase in the whole scheme of things.

I just want that bucket when you're done with it. [emoji3]

 

[ThunderGoose]

That's just... not right. I'm trying to picture the chemistry involved that would cause an exothermic reaction like that (what do you say @Randy Holmes-Farley ?)... When you poured did some of the salt mix form a dust cloud that got into the smoke detector or did the water actually warm up? Weird.

 

[ThunderGoose]

Ok, caught my husband before he's off to catch the train. He's a chemist. I told him what happened and he was like "yeah, of course."

So, here's his explanation - salt dissolved in water is in a lower energy state (it "likes" to be dissolved) that dried crystals. So when the crystals (high energy) enter water and dissolve they release some of that energy that they had in the solid form, this energy is released as heat. Have enough salt releasing energy and it's significantly large heat production. This is true of most things dissolving in water.

Next time, add the salt slowly!

 

[Albertastorm]

That's just... not right. I'm trying to picture the chemistry involved that would cause an exothermic reaction like that (what do you say @Randy Holmes-Farley ?)... When you poured did some of the salt mix form a dust cloud that got into the smoke detector or did the water actually warm up? Weird.

Yes salt dust.

 

[Albertastorm]

Ok, caught my husband before he's off to catch the train. He's a chemist. I told him what happened and he was like "yeah, of course."

So, here's his explanation - salt dissolved in water is in a lower energy state (it "likes" to be dissolved) that dried crystals. So when the crystals (high energy) enter water and dissolve they release some of that energy that they had in the solid form, this energy is released as heat. Have enough salt releasing energy and it's significantly large heat production. This is true of most things dissolving in water.

Next time, add the salt slowly!

Yes....will do

 

[Slarti]

Well who said a marine aquarium is boring and here we only setting it up?!

 

[Albertastorm]

Ok...everyone shows their apex all hooked up on a fancy orange board with holes in it!
This is how it looks before you have your probe mounts and fancy wall board!

 

[ourcoralreef]

Ok...everyone shows their apex all hooked up on a fancy orange board with holes in it!
This is how it looks before you have your probe mounts and fancy wall board!

Lol mine kinda still looks like that

 

[Blue Tang Clan]

Nice setup! Is that sump going to have a refugium in the middle and mechanical filtration?

 

[Albertastorm]

I just want that bucket when you're done with it. [emoji3]

It is a really cool bucket!!!

 

[Albertastorm]

Lol mine kind of still looks like that

HaHa mine will be like that for a while too

Nice setup! Is that sump going to have a refugium in the middle and mechanical filtration?

Thank you Sir Blue Tang Clan
Its going to have a great big ball of algae...with a 1200 watt led grow light...then a protein skimmer as shown earlier in this thread....some live rock....some of that fancy block with all the surface area...some sort of system to replace calcium and the traces!
Any suggestions are welcomed and appreciated!!!