Tropic Marin pro cloudy and alk at 5, what gives?

[aharrow]

So I got two buckets of tropic Marin pro from a fellow reefer moving out of town. One is unopened the other 90 percent full. I usd the 90 percent full to make up some water. My vat is 60 gallon with a mag 9 pump. I've been doing it this way for five years and never an issues.

I usually test my mixed water before doing a water change. It tested,
Ca 420
Salinity 1.026
Mag 1410
Temp 78
Alk 5.3

Water is completely cloudy.

Test kits used salifert alk my old and brand new kit, both tested 5.3
Red sea tested 5.1

Thoughts ?

[dcforester1]

That is the exact reason i stopped using them at the beginning of the summer. I had noticed some issues, and another reefer I know was having the same issues. I am now using Red Sea with 0 issues

[coralsnaked]

Yes Tropic Marin seems to have a cloudy issue when mixing sometimes and can leave a haze on glass. I have used TM for years and am now moving towards Kent because of better mixing quality, less haze and higher element values that I like wheni mix to 1.025 SG.

Not sure if TM has changesd their production methods are what, but I have noticed the cloudiness on and off for about 6 months.

Merry Skerry

[bertoni]

Well, the water might be safe to use after you dose up the dKH. I'm not sure what's happening. We see a lot of reports of problems with salt products.

[aharrow]

I did some more research on it and some other reefers said there could be a settling issue if the salt has been sitting for awhile. I am going to take it out the bucket and thoroughly mix the dry salt before making the next batch.

Just checked the vat and it is still cloudy. The pump is covered in a white film. I can brush the film off so it hasn't hardened. Might throw out this batch and try again

[bertoni]

Well, I'd probably pitch the salt, too, but I'm the cautious sort.

[fmuakkassa]

I have been using Tropic Marine Pro Reef for years with no problem of water clouding. I do see a thin white film on the power head after the mix (which I keep running for days before the water change). That cleans easy.

[yvr]

I switched over to Tropic Marin's Pro Reef in my smaller 60 gallon mixed SPS LPS reef about a year ago and I have nothing but good things to report so far. I do know that they had some product clumping issues last year but my LFS replaced the clumped up bucket I got with no questions asked.

[csauer52]

This is interesting. I just had another thread about the Alk levels of the TMP. I never experienced cloudy mixing, quite the opposite but the low Alk readings had me concerned. Mine was 5.2.

[Lou Ekus]

> aharrow,
It sounds like you had a calcium carbonate precipitate for some reason while you were mixing up the salt water. There are a number of reasons this could happen. If this is true, then this would certainly also have an effect on your alk. If you would like to contact me, please do and I can walk through some diagnostics with you to figure out exactly what has transpired. In case you have trouble finding it, my direct email is office@tropicmarin-usa.com. The easiest way is to email your phone number and a good time to call you and I will give you a call. These things are much easier to diagnose by phone as opposed to email.

[aharrow]

I read on another board to try mixing the dry salt before putting in makeup water. The reasoning was the possibility of settling during shipping or storage. So I'm happy to report this fixed the issue.

I tossed the water I made, and started over. Got two five gallon buckets and thoroughly mixed my dry salt. Then added it to the makeup water and it made perfect water.

[Carch melanopte]

Most often its an issue with calcium carbonate not completely dissolving.