new saltwater
 

Hey guys im now doing 15 gal waterchanges in a rubbermaid roughneck. I started mixing the saltwater maybe 4 or 5 days ago and didnt have the time to change it out until today. Looking at it now it appears the roughneck is starting to get a coating on the inside of the container as well as on the pump and the pump cord. I can rub it off with my hands and looks sort of greyish. Should I do a water change as normal or is this "grey slime or coating" going to be an issue?

Sounds like scale buildup I have it in my brute I don't think its anything to worry about

ive been browsing the web looking for answers and it sounds like some people have left it for alot longer. Thats the perfect description of it actually, scale.. had a hard time describing it, Thanks. Ill go ahead with the w/c.

It's fine. My last barrel sat for a month and looked like I had an oil spill :)

Do you use RO?

weird! I do, after draining the water the roughneck has a crystallized scale that could possibly be calcium. I made magnesium and calcium additions after the salt was added and dissolved.

You will get residual salt crystals, but the brown sludge, I found, comes from a dirty RO membrane. I did a flush of mine and the next barrel was very clean.

The normal back flush doesn't get much of the crud out, I did a "special" version of back flush and washed mud out of my membrane.

What's the secret to a "special" version ?

Take out all the prefilters, hook it to the water and blast it. The air kicks all the sludge out.

That would make sense, I dont have a tds meter but my RO membrane is at least a couple years old and I havent flushed it that much. I picked a new membrane up from blue world but it was the wrong size for my puratek 75gpd unit. Mine is alot smaller and sits horizontal above the prefilter/carbon. Id like to try the "secret flush", Im just taking out the the pre/carbon filter and flushing as usual? I dont quite understand?

Ya, take out all the stuff in the chambers, put them back. Hook the water into the membrane and flush. Put the output in a cup and see what comes out. Mine was disgusting, and I backflush every other week. And my membrane is less than 6 months old.

Thanks Brad, I'll try it

I 'backflush' my unit weekly for a few minutes (or hours if I forget :doh:) before I run it, but I too am curious to see what comes out
Judging by what my pre-filter catches I expect to see some crud

For the record, I was lead to believe the 'film' in my mixing tank was from some kind of clay in the salt mix that's used as a 'stabilizing agent' of sorts. I don't know ... haven't really delved into it as it's never hurt anything

OK, the super-secret flush is done :smile:

Nothing but clear water came out of my RO system, so it's lookin' good
Albeit, my membrane is only 10 months old, and my incoming TDS is usually between 12 and 6-7, with tonight being a whopping 5

For now, I'm gonna blame the sediment in my NSW tank on clay in the salt mix
But, it sure would have been nice to find muck coming out of my system so I could eliminate the need to clean out my NSW tank every week :biggrin:

The sludge pre and post flushing for me was quite different.

If you got nothing, maybe you did it wrong. My membrane is only 6 months old, and I back flush every other week. I got mud out of mine!

I might make a lot more water than you though, so who knows

I pulled the pre and carbon filters and put the canisters back in place
I also pulled the blackwater hose from the drain and put it in a bucket
I opened the water valve and then the flush valve. Lots of air came out and clean water followed. After a couple litres I closed the flush valve and clean water came out the RO end for another couple litres

Did I miss something ?

My membrane is 10 months old vs your's at 6 months
Maybe my input water is cleaner than your's ?

Oh, and I only make about 50g/week - which translates to over 1000g/month with washing hardware and such. Good thing I don't currently pay for water on a meter :surprise:

I dunno, that sounds right.

Sounds like bedtime to me