What would cause salt to fall out of solution?

[Harris3005]

Hi, my custom made quarantine tank arrived last week and I spent Saturday making fresh salt water and filling it up. I've just looked at it this morning and the water is cloudy and there is salt coating every surface inside the tank. The water was crystal clear from Saturday night until last night but this morning it's a mess!

It's a 100 litre cube tank and I use aquarium systems reef crystals salt.

Has anyone had this happen before?

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

either precipitation or bacterial bloom

 

[TinyChocobo]

Are you heating the water? Aerating? What does it test at salt wise?

 

[Harris3005]

Salinity is still 1.027 checked with refractometer. I've got a new air pump and Heater arriving for it from Amazon today but the pump that's in there just now is keeping it moving and the surface agitated.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Likely precipitation of calcium carbonate. It is typical in new salt water for several reasons. It won't dissolve now. Since there's no dead spots behind rocks, etc., it just stays in solution while in a true reef tank it will just settle out, be skimmed out, etc.

I'd ignore it for now.

 

[TinyChocobo]

I've seen this myself in salt water I mixed and kept mixing, heated, and aerated for days. Generally when I'm storing salt water and not actually using it - I turn the heat and circulation off and let it just 'sit'. I then heat it up to temp and circulate it until it's up to temp just before I use it.

Not entirely sure why keeping it warm and mixing causes it to settle out but leaving it cold and not moving doesn't - at least from my experience.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I've seen this myself in salt water I mixed and kept mixing, heated, and aerated for days. Generally when I'm storing salt water and not actually using it - I turn the heat and circulation off and let it just 'sit'. I then heat it up to temp and circulate it until it's up to temp just before I use it.

Not entirely sure why keeping it warm and mixing causes it to settle out but leaving it cold and not moving doesn't - at least from my experience.

Might be you caused more precipitation and the particles got bigger so settled easier.

 

[TinyChocobo]

Might be you caused more precipitation and the particles got bigger so settled easier.

Could be - could also be additional evaporation from the increased temperature and surface agitation leading to a rise in salinity to the point that the water couldn't hold all of the solubles for the volume.

I'm no chemist, so I'm guessing .

P.S. It took me a few seconds to realize that aquarium picture was sideways... I was like "How is he keeping the water separate... I don't see any divider... this is a really interesting looking set-up!" LOL

 

[Harris3005]

Thanks very much for the replies! I'm just about to add the sponge filter and Heater. I'll just keep an eye on it getting worse. If Randy says ignore it that's good enough for me!

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Let us know how it works out.