Saltwater Mixing Bucket

[HumuhumuFan]

I’d had some saltwater mixing in a 35 gallon trash can (food safe PVC) for about 2 weeks. There’s a heater inside and 2 hydor mini power heads to keep everything moving. I opened the bin to test salinity and noticed there was some salt predicate at the bottom that looked a little brownish. I decided to test the water and you can see results.

I noticed some brown film on the powerheads also. I guess I’ll clean everything with bleach but I’m dumbfounded how a bucket full of saltwater with no sunlight or visible organic matter could start to cycle over 2 weeks.

Anyone have any ideas what could cause this? I cleaned it with bleach water before I started to use it for making saltwater and rinsed it very thoroughly.

 

[phillygeeks]

I’d had some saltwater mixing in a 35 gallon trash can (food safe PVC) for about 2 weeks. There’s a heater inside and 2 hydor mini power heads to keep everything moving. I opened the bin to test salinity and noticed there was some salt predicate at the bottom that looked a little brownish. I decided to test the water and you can see results.

I noticed some brown film on the powerheads also. I guess I’ll clean everything with bleach but I’m dumbfounded how a bucket full of saltwater with no sunlight or visible organic matter could start to cycle over 2 weeks.

Anyone have any ideas what could cause this? I cleaned it with bleach water before I started to use it for making saltwater and rinsed it very thoroughly.

I'm assuming you are using RO/DI water. If you are what are your TDS (are your filters/membranes taxed)? If all that is good, my guess with the tests are that there was a population of benign bacteria/organisms that died off for some reason and the brown may represent some other opportunistic bacteria. There is no such thing as a sterile mixing station and so you may have just had a bloom of a nuiscence organism with die off of another. I would give your water system a nice hard washing over with a bleach solution.

 

[Waters]

I’d had some saltwater mixing in a 35 gallon trash can (food safe PVC) for about 2 weeks. There’s a heater inside and 2 hydor mini power heads to keep everything moving. I opened the bin to test salinity and noticed there was some salt predicate at the bottom that looked a little brownish. I decided to test the water and you can see results.

I noticed some brown film on the powerheads also. I guess I’ll clean everything with bleach but I’m dumbfounded how a bucket full of saltwater with no sunlight or visible organic matter could start to cycle over 2 weeks.

Anyone have any ideas what could cause this? I cleaned it with bleach water before I started to use it for making saltwater and rinsed it very thoroughly.

That brown is a residue left by pretty much all salt mixes. Some are worse than others.....IMO Reef Crystals is the worst. It is harmless. I have to clean all of my salt mixing stuff 1-2 times a year.

 

[HumuhumuFan]

Thanks for the replies. I changed all filters and the resin on my RO/DI, it was reading 0 ppm. I guess I’ll just give it a good scrub and check it again. Thanks!

 

[PatW]

I got quite a bit of residue from instant ocean and a bit less from reef crystals. Using muriatic acid dissolved about 1/10 - 1 20 in RODI will remove virtually all of it.

 

[HumuhumuFan]

Update. I left it alone for a couple weeks. Filled it to near the top with tap water and let it soak for 2 weeks. There was an oily looking film developing on the top of the water that I skimmed out and dumped. Then when it was done I brought it up to my shower and rinsed it out a couple times. Finally I rinsed it with RO/DI waste water and hand dried it.

Just did a trial run of 5 gallons annnnndddd….

Needless to say, I see a trip to Home Depot in my near future. I guess I'll use this one for yard waste, the whole from the spigot will actually be a good thing.

 

[Mike0001]

I’m new to this so I can’t offer much advice but I tried those 35 gallon trash buckets and after a couple weeks the smell was so bad that I now just mix the water as needed, then use the bucket to transport it.

 

[TheOne]

Update. I left it alone for a couple weeks. Filled it to near the top with tap water and let it soak for 2 weeks. There was an oily looking film developing on the top of the water that I skimmed out and dumped. Then when it was done I brought it up to my shower and rinsed it out a couple times. Finally I rinsed it with RO/DI waste water and hand dried it.

Just did a trial run of 5 gallons annnnndddd….

Needless to say, I see a trip to Home Depot in my near future. I guess I'll use this one for yard waste, the whole from the spigot will actually be a good thing.

Try doing a test on your ro/di water before adding it to the trash can and post your results.

This is what I have setup to do a 1 gallon a day automatic water change. It lasts two weeks.