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lewk
09/14/2010, 07:22 AM
Just filled up a 135 and have had saltwater mixing since Saturday night. It's been cloudy the whole time. I haven't checked anything but the salinity, and that is at 1.025. I think I've mixed up a small 5 gallon batch of this salt bucket before and it mixed OK, so I'm not sure if it's the salt or not. Red Sea Coral Pro if it matters.

It almost looks like smoke in the water with the pumps on. I turned the return pump off overnight and left my Vortech on. Put a flashlight over the sump this morning and the water was still cloudy, nothing settled with no flow. I stirred it up a bit and it had the same smoky look to it.

Basically, I can barely see through the tank from end to end.

Any thoughts or suggestions? And thanks in advance.
julie180
09/14/2010, 07:31 AM
You can try a filter sock in your sump.

There can be a lot of "gunk" in sand that will take some time to settle out.

Don't forget that patients is a huge asset in this hobby. Something I have always been short on and have paid more than once for it.
RA
09/14/2010, 07:33 AM
Do you have a layer of sand in your tank?
lewk
09/14/2010, 07:33 AM
No sand in there yet. So far I've only filled this up with water.
Agu
09/14/2010, 08:40 AM
RO/DI or tap water ? If it's tap water that's not unusual. If it's RO/DI you may want to check to see if the DI resin is exhausted. Many water utilities use chemical additives to keep minerals in suspension. Those same chemicals impede the dissolving of salt mixes.
lewk
09/14/2010, 08:42 AM
RO/DI. Some was mine, which measured 0 TDS, and some was from the LFS, also RO/DI. Looked clear to me when filling it, and he said he just recently changed his filters in his RO/DI.
lewk
09/14/2010, 08:49 AM
I may try and mix up another 10 gallon batch of the same salt to see if it mixes clear. At least it will possibly rule out the salt.
julie180
09/14/2010, 04:19 PM
Probably not, but could it be microbubbles?
reefkeeps
10/11/2010, 06:51 AM
how did the story end?
lewk
10/12/2010, 08:32 AM
how did the story end?

Ha. Sorry, forgot about this one. I let it run for about a week or so, and it never cleared up so I drained the tank and started over. This go round, the water was clear.
Alysiak00
10/12/2010, 08:36 AM
thats very strange....makes ya wonder about all the weird anomalies in this hobby