Regular sea salt cloudy

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Ghxst

Ghxst

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IMG_9074.JPG I picked up a 200gal box this weekend and went to make a water change and it was one giant 50lb block! I scraped enough to make 5gal and after 12 hours of mixing it's still cloudy. Is this normal? I'm afraid to put it into my tank.

Thanks for the help!
 
Generally there should not be any issues but if possible return the salt and get a new one. AF salts are without any caking agents so when they come in contact with moisture they turned into solid block.
 
Thanks for the reply! I went to the retailer and they are all solid blocks. I will make another batch and check.

Does this salt need 4,8,24 hours to mix or? I haven't added a heater yet so I know it isn't a heat issue. Any help would be appreciated!
 
I've noticed when my salt turns into blocks I get cloudy water with particles floating around in it.
 
Ghxst said:
Thanks for the reply! I went to the retailer and they are all solid blocks. I will make another batch and check.

Does this salt need 4,8,24 hours to mix or? I haven't added a heater yet so I know it isn't a heat issue. Any help would be appreciated!
Click to expand...
You can use it immediately and it does not need any long mixing time. Normal water temperature close to 75-78 is fine.
 
Jimbo662 said:
I've noticed when my salt turns into blocks I get cloudy water with particles floating around in it.
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This is exactly what's happening. Even though it's cloudy there are brighter white particles showing.

I ran a fresh but still cloudy batch through ICP, I'll post up results.
 
I need to post the ICP results, I didn't see anything alarming. Will this make my tank cloudy if I use it?
 
Hello manufacturer representative!! Cloudy water is okay from this salt then? Or you don't see the turbidity I am concerned with? If it's the second I will make some more and take a picture with a black background if you need. I can assure you there are visible white particles throughout. If you look at the pump compared to the cord you can see what I am talking about, the water is not crystal clear like my previous salts. Also closer to the bottom the particles stick to the cord as shown. Is this normal?

My concern is if this water will stay cloudy in my display and/or leave residues on my equipment or worse damage the corals. I have these concerns because I do not know what the white particles are and do not want my equipment to become clogged over time or corals to die. For obvious reasons I am sure you understand my concerns and want total assurance before adding a new product that doesn't appear to be normal on the first try. I appreciate your help in the matter!
 
Oh and as promised the results! Calcium appears low, 50 lower than the test card in the box. Is that the white material floating around?

IMG_9826.PNG


IMG_9827.PNG
 
I have a small question. I don't understand how the values come in negative (or lower than 0) or how you measure it? Is it that its lower than their calibrated machine value?
 
Aquaforest could answer that as well, maybe? They have the same ICP machine. I have always used negative as an undetectable amount.

Here's hoping to get some answers! I haven't done a water change in a long time.
 
Ghxst said:
IMG_9074.JPG I picked up a 200gal box this weekend and went to make a water change and it was one giant 50lb block! I scraped enough to make 5gal and after 12 hours of mixing it's still cloudy. Is this normal? I'm afraid to put it into my tank.

Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

If it was a block, the salt is bad. Return it. It should always be sugary smooth.

If you ever get salt in a block, or big hard clumps, don't use it and return it asap. Sounds like the store got an old, bad batch.
 
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Aquaforest said:
What is your salinity?
Did you add something to saltmix?
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1.023, I made the batch to test on ICP and wanted it to be the same as the report card that came with it.

No I didn't add anything, I understand why you would ask but I wouldn't be asking if I added anything to it. I used a clean food grade bucket, a pump and heater I use only for water changes.
 
Forsaken77 said:
If it was a block, the salt is bad. Return it. It should always be sugary smooth.

If you ever get salt in a block, or big hard clumps, don't use it and return it asap. Sounds like the store got an old, bad batch.
Click to expand...

It's dated October 2016. When I went to return it they were all hard. The vendor said it would be fine. It's clearly not. It looks like I am stuck with a 50lb salt lick at this rate.
 
My own salinity is 1.025. right now it's 1.026 since I haven't been able to do a water change so even at 1.023 at 30% it would be fine. I really wanted to try the aquaforest program from post on here.
 
Ghxst said:
It's dated October 2016. When I went to return it they were all hard. The vendor said it would be fine. It's clearly not. It looks like I am stuck with a 50lb salt lick at this rate.
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Yea, he got stuck with a bad batch and is passing it along to his customers. I had the same thing happen with the AF Probiotic salt that I got from Drs Foster & Smith. When I called to get an RMA# the lady said they had gotten a bad batch and a lot of customers called to return that salt and needed it returned and would ship me a fresh batch, which she did. She said they return all of the bad salt back to the distributor of AF, Deepwater Aquatics, for credit. So your guy could've returned the salt, he just chose not to.

So unless you have a hammer and chisel, and want to put it down for snow & ice, I'd toss it and take the loss. I haven't been overly impressed with 2 of the 3 AF salts. You don't need to use their salt to use their other products though.
 
Ghxst said:
My own salinity is 1.025. right now it's 1.026 since I haven't been able to do a water change so even at 1.023 at 30% it would be fine. I really wanted to try the aquaforest program from post on here.
Click to expand...
We always recommend to make salt changes SLOWLY - start from 10% (even 5%).
As I wrote before: you can use this salt but use standard salinity: 1,025 - 1,026 - if you have salinity 1,023 in saltmix it's normal that your Calcium level will be low.
We are testing all batches on ICP-OES before packing to be sure that we are giving our customers highest quality products.

Regards,
Aquaforest
 

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