I have a lil prob here

[cinlnk]

I have a rubbermaid tote that I store saltwater in that I use for my water changes. I have a power head and air pump running to aerate and circulate the water..... plus the water is heated. There is a lid on the tote, so nothing can get into it..I do water changes of about 3 gallons in my 15 gal.tank and add about 3 gal of RO water to my tote after the waterchange... Plus the salt etc etc....here is my prob....I noticed tonight that the water in my tote is cloudy....Why is that ? and is it safe to put in my Tank .....I am due for a water change this weekend. Should I throw this water out and start from scratch or what? I like to use aged saltwater in my tank.... Someone please help.

 

[SALTY WATERS]

Why take the chance...remix some new water and give it like 20 minutes to properly disolve and go from there, or if you have time let it sit for the day again.

Make sure the container you are using is a food grade contaner otherwise it may be off-gassing lots of chemicals into your water.

 

[Shaunna]

This may be a dumb question, but what do you mean by food grade? I am guessing that means something you could put food in, but can you put food in those great big rubbermaid totes?

 

[wayne]

I would be tempted to remix, but I'd likely leave it a bit longer to sort itself out. If you've been using it for a long time I find CaCO3 builds up and starts to drop out a bit when you're mixing up from then on, but if you're nervous don't risk it.

 

[cinlnk]

Awww Heck I just dumped it and went to the LFS and paid 75 cents a gal for already mixed water I figured I wasn't going to be out that much $$$..... It was just the salt that I wasted... The guy at the LFS told me that it was prolly just sitting around too long, and developed bacteria. Good rule of thumb is to just have about a week's supply of water for my tank's water change. Oh well, I learn from my mistakes. I put alot of time and effort in my lil tank to lose my stock... And now my critters are happy with a fresh WC and so am I.*SUNSMILE*

 

[SALTY WATERS]

Good to hear all turned out...Better safe than sorry!

Oh and Shaunna, food grade plastic is just that, "Safe" to put food in and it will not leak harmfull chemicals into what is put into it.