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06/17/2019, 02:50 PM | #1 |
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Salt Mixing Mistake / Questions
Hey guys,
Made a dumb mistake today while not thinking and added water to salt instead of the other way around. Clearly I was too sleep deprived. I now have a bunch of (what i assume is ) white calcium carbonate precipitate in the water. I did waste 40 gallons worth of salt mix / water... is it safe to use this stuff? I was going to test alk / calcium to see what it was. I was reading that adding carbonated water to it may help out. Thanks, Willis
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Whats the use of Aqua man anyways. There isn't really that much water based crime... Current Tank Info: Reefer 850 XXL - LPS/Zoa Dominant mixed reef |
06/17/2019, 03:44 PM | #2 |
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If the calcium and carbonate precipitated, you won't be able to get them back into solution.
Just test and see. Worst case scenario is that you'll have to add a little alk and Ca.
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Pat Current Tank Info: 125 in-wall , 40b sump. 6 bulb T5. ASM G2 skimmer. LPS and leathers |
06/17/2019, 04:53 PM | #3 |
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How does it matter what is added to what?
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06/17/2019, 06:46 PM | #4 |
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06/17/2019, 07:50 PM | #5 |
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06/17/2019, 08:33 PM | #6 |
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Happening to me right now and I added salt to water,
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06/18/2019, 07:31 AM | #7 | |
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Quote:
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Pat Current Tank Info: 125 in-wall , 40b sump. 6 bulb T5. ASM G2 skimmer. LPS and leathers |
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06/18/2019, 08:24 AM | #8 |
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Basically you create a super saturated liquid at the very beggining of the mix. This causes the calcium that can't be dissolved to precipitate in the white flakes, and a cloudy tank is what results.
This isn't only if you do salt to water, it can happen the other way as well. This is likely because you added the salt too fast, or didn't have good enough flow when you were putting in the salt. Also many salts contain higher than normal alkalinity / calcium like the redsea coral pro that I use. This can cause white flakes even if you do everything completely right, and a gross skum on the bottom of your mixing container. Mixing salt is like baking a cake, and you can't just do everything all at once unfortunately. Randy wrote a great article on it a few years back: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/rhf/index.php I was pretty sure it was 100% calcium carbonate which the tests appear to bear out as well. Both calcium and alkalinity were low, but upping the calcium appears to have fixed the alkalinity as well I don't have a magnesium kit, so I am going to have to just hope that is right. Plan to only use 5 gallons a time for my small dino sweeps so even if things aren't perfect it should be OK
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Whats the use of Aqua man anyways. There isn't really that much water based crime... Current Tank Info: Reefer 850 XXL - LPS/Zoa Dominant mixed reef Last edited by new2u; 06/18/2019 at 08:27 AM. Reason: submitted too early |
06/18/2019, 08:26 AM | #9 | |
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06/18/2019, 08:36 AM | #10 | |
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Its the same reason you can't just pour boiling water on sugar for sweet tea, and you have to mix it up. Fortunately for the sugar in sweet tea the resulting sugar can be re-dissolved by stirring. Unfortunately for us the hard calcium precipitate can't be dissolved without something breaking the molecular bonds for us. Chemistry can be kind of nuts some times.
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Whats the use of Aqua man anyways. There isn't really that much water based crime... Current Tank Info: Reefer 850 XXL - LPS/Zoa Dominant mixed reef |
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