Cloudy salt mix and white slime ?

Steven777 · Aug 22, 2019

I mixed the salt yesterday (pour salt into RODI water in the tank). Today the water is quite cloudy (you might not see in the pic but it's cloudier than normal). And there's some white stuff on the water surface and around the powerhead. Is this common? I only have 2 powerhead placed in the middle. No surface agitation. Salt is Instant Ocean.

(black dust at the bottom is just some sand)

lapin · Aug 22, 2019

Steven777 said:
I mixed the salt yesterday (pour salt into RODI water in the tank). Today the water is quite cloudy (you might not see in the pic but it's cloudier than normal). And there's some white stuff on the water surface and around the powerhead. Is this common? I only have 2 powerhead placed in the middle. No surface agitation. Salt is Instant Ocean.

Yes

W1ngz · Aug 22, 2019

Just a little precipitation and normal impurities that were in the salt. The precipitation could possibly be more than usual if you dumped a lot of salt in a short time, in a relatively still tank. That would have created a 'hot spot' where some compunds dissolved faster than others, so things were out of the normal balance right around the big pile of not yet dissolved salt.

Steven777 · Aug 22, 2019

W1ngz said:
Just a little precipitation and normal impurities that were in the salt. The precipitation could possibly be more than usual if you dumped a lot of salt in a short time, in a relatively still tank. That would have created a 'hot spot' where some compunds dissolved faster than others, so things were out of the normal balance right around the big pile of not yet dissolved salt.

Good explanation. So I should keep thr powerheads running? Should I start the skimmer?

W1ngz · Aug 22, 2019

Steven777 said:
Good explanation. So I should keep thr powerheads running? Should I start the skimmer?

Definitely keep the powerheads going. The skimmer won't do anything to the salt, but starting it now will give you a chance to break it in if it's new, and learn how to adjust and manage it.

New skimmers sometimes over-produce bubbles in the first few days to a week. Make sure you know how to adjust it before you plug it in. Keep it set so the water level is as low as possible to limit the chance of flooding.