I just had to Throw Out 25 Gallons of Fresh Salt Water!!!

[lubeck]

I wanted to do a large water change tonight becuase my powerheads blew my DSB all over and created some unstable water parameters.
trite-.5
trate-5
amonia-.5
So I had a batch of Fresh Salt water from last week and made a another batch tonight. I tested the batch i made tonight and everything was OK. But I checked last weeks batch and I was reading tites, trates and a very small amount of amonia. The levels were all low but they should not be reading anything but ZERO. It sucks I had to throw 25 gallons of water out.
I don't know why this happened but I had to post pone my water change until tommorrow morning. I have to make another 25 gallon batch.

 

[murph145]

thats wierd usually the salt water should be ok for at least a week id say i wouldnt keep any longer than 2 weeks but it still might be good...
did u have a power head in it keeping it ciculating?
i dont c how it could have any of that in the water though cuz if its made from salt and RO water it should be fine

 

[lubeck]

I know, it should be fine I do use ro/di and i did test it after seeing the poor readings, it came out at 0. I have used week old fresh salt water ALL the time I do hope this was a one time thing. Some how the water got contaminated. I think I will be testing my new batches more often until it becomes stable and consistent.

 

[unleashed]

unfortunatly alot of salt mixtures IO and Io reef crystals and a few other have been known to have small amounts of these in the mix you will find more with these 2 products the inconsitancies of ingredients showing amouts of amonia nitrates and nitrites.you may want to test the next batch of water after mixing it up just to check the batch of salt mix

 

[chipmaker]

Other than it being something in the salt mix was there by chance any organic material that may have been n the container when you mixed it that you perhaps did not notice?
I mixed up a batch of IO the other day, and usually within 20-30 minutes of adding the salt it is completely dissolved, yet this batch had a buildup of small tiny white looking grains all on the bottom of the container. I lowered the powerhead so it would pickup those grains, and move it aorund, and hours later they all accumulated in a corner. I check my sg, it was fine, so I decided to sypho9n the white grain looking sediement out of the container. I placed them in a glas jaw along with some sw, and then syphoned some of them out with a syringe, and put the water on a piece of glass. Allowed water to evaporate, and starte dot look at those grains.....Its just like IO added fine sand as a filler or something, as I even put a dab of them on my tongue, and then bit onto them, they were gritty just like sand...Days later they have not dissolved, vinegar does nothing to them, either, nor does boilking them in water, so they are insoluable....So, I regard them as sand or some other substance that came only form the package of IO salt, that is really worthless......so its all togethger possible you got some foreign matter in your salt as well.....

 

[bigtang803]

Chipmaker,
I had a batch of the IO salt do the same thing. I couldn't dissolve it either. I wonder what it is. When did you buy the Salt, Mine was about 2 months ago.

 

[lubeck]

Well that confirms it, IO salt sucks! I bought a 5 gallon bucket a few weeks ago and had nothing but trouble with it. So.... I ordered two buckets of Tropic Marin Pro Reef. I have been doing a 4 cups of Tropic Marin Pro Reef to 1 cup of IO and those "particles of sand" that you speak of are still accumulating. I made a batch of just the Tropic marine and it was perfect. That sucks I just wasted 50 bucks on a BAD bucket of Instant Ocean.
I have half a bucket left, should i use it, or try to sell or trade it?

 

[perchpsk]

I'm having some trouble dissolving my Instant Ocean salt also. I have been mixing 10 gallons of distilled water with IO salt in a big rubbermaid container. I put in a powerhead and a heater and leave it sit for 2-3 days.
After that time there is still a lot of salt in the bottom of the rubbermaid container not dissolved. Dont know why that is.

 

[chipmaker]

I just bought a small pack of it about 1 month ago as I did not want to open up my large bags with the humidity around here, so I bought the 10 gal pack. What I found out is:
When I started a new tank (10 gal) I initially bought a 10 gal box of IO salt. It was loose in a plastic bag and you could move bag around and the grains all separated, just like sugar. Fine, I had no problems with that box of salt. The plastic bag it was in had no printing of any kind on it, just a plain plastic sealed bag. All that salt dissolved in a few minutes without a problem and left NO residue in my mixing container.
Then I needed another small box for another 10 gal batch, and being too lazy to open up my big bag or bust into the big bucket, I picked up another 10 gal box at another store locally. The cardboad on the box was much heavier, and the bag was over printed with Instant Ocean all over it, and this bag was a vacuum packed bag, that felt like a brick of wet sand. My old packs of salt had batch or lot numbers on the box or bags, this box has no such numbers anywhere to be found.
It did not flow through the funnel like it usually does, and it had a damp appearance to it, but it did not have a leak in the bag as it was not clumped up, and when I cut into the bag you could hear the vacuum letting go....So it was packaged like that. This is the salt that leaves a residue that looks like fine beach sand pure white in color, and nothing dissolves it, not boiling water, H2SO4, or all the agitaition in the world. It almost makes you think that IO is adding white beach sand as a filler in the stuff. I liked IO up until I got this pack and it just sucks. It was lowest of any batch of saltwater in terms of calcium as well...Something has changed somewhere. Was this an old pack of salt, that I bought or a new pack....Any one have a clue? Usually the salt is merely in a sealed plastic bag and not vac packed like coffee is........I spent most of the day trying to call IO and see what they have to say about it, but the fellow is never around. I called him numerous times before on different issues with various things, and eventually he does return the call, but it can take weeks for that to happen, but I am not done with the salt issue as I want to now what that stuff is. Be a real %^*& if someone had black sand and Instant Ocean was adding a non soluable white filler material like sand.......Maybe they need to change their name to Instant Beach as it left a heap of residue behind.....