instant ocean prob...

[shady]

hi......4days ago....i filled my new tank with water and added the salt(instant ocean salt).
i left the pumps working for the salt to dissolve....everything was fine,the water was clear and the spg level was in range...
3days later,the water went totally murky.....as if it was milk!!!
now,the water is back to clear,but i have white resedue that looks like powder all over any horizontal surface...HELP
thanx

 

[hookedonreefs]

What kind of residue, and how thick was the milk?
Usually there is a "milky" look to a tank as the bacteria does it's first big bloom. Has your tank cycled? I think your probably seeing the bacteria spawn. As for the residue I'm not really sure. You'd need to describe it some. Also, have you done any tests?
I might be completely wrong on all this, but from my experiences in salt and freshwater that why I think the milk is bacteria. If anyone disagrees, I'm "all ears!"
Good luck!

 

[shady]

Well the water was like real milk.....i dipped my hand in and i couldnt see my hand about 1cm after the water level....
0 amonia,about 5 nitrate and 0 nitrite.salt level was 1.030.

 

[michaeltx]

did something stir up sand or substrate? that will cause a milky substance to.
as far as the salt when you first mix it sometimes it will clear and then turn white again for a day ... usually within hours of it becoming clear the first time. But it doesnt always do this just sometimes.
eventually it will clear though.
Mike

 

[jarvis]

I suspect calcium deposits due to running SG at 1.030. Alkalinty and Calcium has to be way overboard from mixing the salt content that high. I got this in my changing tank a month ago when I was raising my SG at 35PPM. I am in the prosses through trial and error to see whats the closest I can get to 35PPM range without this happening. Im going to see if mixing the salt slower in a 2 step prosses will help, instead of adding it in one big monsterous heap. I recomend soaking all your power heads and heaters and other equipment in some fresh water and viniger with them running for a day or so. Personally I would not worry about the stuff on the back of the glass (it might be a good foot hold for coralline algea to form on). Scrape the rest of the stuff. No need to remove it entirely from the tank. Since the tank is cycling You could do a major change in salintiy without killing fish (if your using the cotail shrimp or live rock method). Just drain some water and add fresh water to get it to the desired SG. Since the tank is cycleing there is really no need to replace the trace elements stripped out of the the water by this occuring. Just do some water changes after the cycle is done.

 

[beth]

I resently switched from Red Sea to Reef Crystals, which is made by the same co as IO. The same thing happened to me. What jarvis suggests makes sense. And the deposits do seem to be calcium.