Bad salt ?

[phil1964]

Last night I mixed up 20 gallons of RO/DI water in a barrel and opened up a new 60 pound bucket of instant ocean salt. I had a power head and heater in there all night. This morning I drained out water from the tank and started pumping the new water in. I imediately noticed that the water going in looked cloudy. It just kept getting worse. I have used this barrel before and am positive it is clean. The tank looked terrible but cleared up in 3 or 4 hours. All I can think of is the salt. Ever happened to anyone?

 

[phil1964]

Also, 8 hours after the tank cleared up I needed to add a little water to the sump and since I am trying to raise my salinity slowly I went to add 1 gallon of water mixed with salt instead of just plain water. I mixed it in a milk jug that has been used before and am sure was clean. Cloudy tank again! Has to be the salt but I have never experienced this before. The barrel and the milk jug are in the trash. And I think I am going to trash the bucket of salt too.
Bummed in Bloomington

 

[thomas712]

Mix another batch and test it, then have the LFS test it too.
Thomas

 

[phil1964]

Test it? For what?
I should test the water before a water change?

 

[thomas712]

I was thinking of testing your water change water to see if they had some type of mixing mishap. For instance when you said the water became cloudy I thought perhaps you meant like when you might add a buffer to the tank like b-ionic or that agaramilk stuff. So perhaps there is something wrong with the salt mix and it needs to be tested for say ...Alkalinity or Ph.. you know something easy that we can test for ourselves..
It was just a thought.
Thomas

 

[ty_05_f]

I doubt it's bad but it could be a possibility. Just give it time to clear itself out. It could take a couple days to be real clear

 

[madd catt]

How long eactly due you wait for the salt to mix?Also try this, buy a differnt type of salt mix try for example hawiaan marine mix which will desolve in 8-9 hours depending on mineral contant in the water and see if it is the salt mix or the container even though as you said its been properly cleaned.

 

[phil1964]

It is the salt. I mixed some up in a cup, a bucket and a milk jug. All mixed to 1.023 and all cloudy. There is a residue left in all contaniers. Kind of a dust. Very strange. This bucket of salt was purchased with 2 others 3 months ago ant he other 2 were fine.
Guess I will just buy more. At least the tank is ok.