Brown sediment in mixed water

[armetas]

I'm using Aquaforest Reef Salt with automatic water changes so mixed water stays in the container for a week till it is used. And I've noticed that after a day of mixing water has some brown sediment and more you keep your water in container - more sediment you can find. Any ideas why it is happening and does it have negative impact to corals or fishes?

@Aquaforest ?

 

[Butitor]

most salt that i used had same brown sediment when mixed and keep it three days or so. i like to keep it that way to make sure the water is clear and that brown sediment wont go inside my tank. not sure if it has negative impact to corals or fishes.

 

[merfish101]

I'm interested to know more about this as well. I am just starting to make water and am using the Aqua Forest products. I certainly hope it's not harmful.

 

[TheReefKeeper]

Mine molded I had black mold on the walls of my 80 gal. Auto water change whole tank turned cloudy and lost everything except zoas.
I went back to reef Crystals evverything is a lot better. The container is stained next time I mix I’ll take some pics of the stains. So this isn’t a salt I would hold for long periods of time.

 

[Anirban]

I'm using Aquaforest Reef Salt with automatic water changes so mixed water stays in the container for a week till it is used. And I've noticed that after a day of mixing water has some brown sediment and more you keep your water in container - more sediment you can find. Any ideas why it is happening and does it have negative impact to corals or fishes?

@Aquaforest ?

This is something new. Generally I have seen brown sediments in their component 1 if you keep it very long time as the iron in that precipitate out. But I have used reef salt and kept that water for almost 2 weeks but never found any precipitation. Generally no precipitation and quick mix are the two nice things i observed about the salt. Lets ask few others... @jsker @120reefkeeper

 

[armetas]

Water is heated till 24 Celsius and constantly water is moved with wave pump in the container. Same appears with different batches of AF Reef Salt

@Debora Dlugopolska @Aquaforest any input?

 

[armetas]

@Randy Holmes-Farley Maybe you know what and why it is happening.

 

[armetas]

RO water analysis here

 

[Debora Dlugopolska]

As I answered in Aquaforest Group on Facebook..
Your RO water are very dirty and it could comes from this.
Si level in Ro water should shows 0,00 - your shows 70.70 Si - it very high for RO water.
Try to keep 0,00 and then dissolve salt.

 

[armetas]

As I answered in Aquaforest Group on Facebook..
Your RO water are very dirty and it could comes from this.
Si level in Ro water should shows 0,00 - your shows 70.70 Si - it very high for RO water.
Try to keep 0,00 and then dissolve salt.

Ok as attention was brought - let's keep one place for discussion. The answer does not make sense to me.

Such sediment is more likely result to oxidation (just it is not know if it is dangerous).

In NSW there are Si and it is recommended in Reef tank to have this element.

And it seems that in RODI water there should be no Si, but after mixing salt - there should be. This sound strange.

Also it is unanswered what is this brown sediment and is it toxic?

Also - with other brands like Preis, H2O this does not happen - so is this really problem in the water?

 

[Reefltx]

I don't see this is Red Sea blue bucket. I've also used AF in the past, but never bothered to look.

 

[Anirban]

Ok as attention was brought - let's keep one place for discussion. The answer does not make sense to me.

Such sediment is more likely result to oxidation (just it is not know if it is dangerous).

In NSW there are Si and it is recommended in Reef tank to have this element.

And it seems that in RODI water there should be no Si, but after mixing salt - there should be. This sound strange.

Also it is unanswered what is this brown sediment and is it toxic?

Also - with other brands like Preis, H2O this does not happen - so is this really problem in the water?

Do you see any toxic effect when you use this water? Did you ever send you freshly mixed saltwater like your RO water for test to see if you have any unexpected level of mineral?

 

[Phiilip]

I use Red Sea pro, and I get buildup in my tank. I use RODI water with no adverse effects in my tank. I believe it's chelation of elements out of the solution and is common.

 

[ldeezy]

I use red sea pro and the same thing happens to me as well my storage containers build up what looks to be the same sediment in your pictures and my rodi is clean as can be. I always put it into the tank through a spare filter sock and have been doing this for a year with no issue(just my 2cents)

 

[120reefkeeper]

I have never had any build up etc.... then again I don't mix a batch and let it sit.

 

[armetas]

Ok, did one experiment: added air pump with an air stone. After 4 hours - no sign of brown sediment in the water. See pic.
On the same page - started experiment, just to show what is happening: took two white cans and filled with RODI water and put AF Reef Salt in one and DD H2O salt in another. Lets stay for few days and we will see the results.
So if after adding air sediment is gone, so how my water is bad? And if my water is bad why do corals grow in my tank?

 

[chefjpaul]

I dont get any either, I do keep my resivoirs very clean and any equipment used in them as well, again as mentioned prior, I dont let it sit at all.

I was under the assumption that AF & RSCP are to be used asap.
?????

 

[cracker]

I have had a brown film/ build up on the side of my mixing barrels using different salt mixes . Never saw any adverse effects.

 

[TheReefKeeper]

The brown spots is exactly what I had in mine but mine where black like mold.

Again as soon as I mix up again I'll take pictures of how it stained the container.

What happen to the tank was I noticed it never crystal clear. The tank is on a auto water change setup and week by week it kept getting worse.

I checked everyting.
I changed every RO filter before I set up the tank I have a 7 stage with 2 DI. The DI's where brand new so their was no need to change them. The other 5 where changed before I mixed anyting so

I completely disagree it was water quality!

I have a TDS hooked up and it's always 0 and very low going in to start with.

So with this said day by day it kept getting worse. Roughly 3 weeks went by and one morning I woke up it was very cloudy thought I was having an alge bloom so turned the lights off for the day no big deal. Next day it was a bit better so lights went on again. Two days later it was even worse than the 3 days prior so lights off again. I changed the carbon 3-4 times and ran my bubble king skimmer really wet. Been in the hobby 23 years so I'm pretty good at detection and problem solving. After a few weeks fish started to get stressed and got ick so I wasn't sure what was happening so I treated the tank with some kick ick. Fish got a lil better but water never really cleared. Long story short woke up one day and you couldn't even see across the tank or even see the rock in it and I lost all 7 fish and all coral few zoas survived.

Finally dawned on me to check the salt. Low and behold I opened the lid and found the walls full of black spots and what appeared to be black mold like the above pic but dark black.

I have done noting differant to today but scrub out the tub change the salt back to IO and do a 5 gal water change daily for a week until it cleared.

Tank is perfect today in fact very Perfect and I have around 15k in coral including Jaw Dropper and Jason fox HW to name a few.

This is not my first tank in 23 years it's probably my 10th so I don't buy it's the water!

Personally I wouldn't touch anyting AF again cost me about 2k in fish including my Achelies Tang (think I spelt that correctly lol)

I'll take pics and post them as soon as I mix up only about 30 gal left until I have to mix again.

 

[armetas]

Ok it is time for some testing results:

I've done few experiments:

1st - AF Reef Salt in my RODI water without heater, without movement (still and not heated water)
2nd - AF Reef Salt in my RODI water with heater and with water movement (moving water and 25 degree Celsius water)
3rd - AF Reef Salt in my RODI water with heater and with water movement + air pump (moving water and 25 degree Celsius water + air supplied)

So results are:

1st container - no sediment at all (even after a week)
2nd container - a lot of sediment in the water (after 2 days and it increases)
3rd container - a little bit of sediment (almost nothing). Air is supplied only 4 hours in total per day.

Also I've seen a lot of same issues with Reef Crystals salt

So for know I have the workaround how to keep AF Reef Salt for a week at least and have almost no sediment. But still question is unanswered why it is so and what does the air do to the water that there is no sediment.