RO water turn brown when mixed with salt

[wisesam]

I just got my RO/DI filter installed and tried to mix the salt for water change.
When I dumped in the salt, the water just turned brownish.
I am using Reefer's best salt.
Before I used tap water and was always clear.
Has anyone had this happened before? What would be wrong?

[Mrfish55]

Is the RO unit new? you need to throw away all the filtered water produced for the first couple hours as the RO membrane is packaged in a preservative and needs to be flushed first.

[wisesam]

yes, it's a new RO unit.
I flushed it for 30 minutes. At first the water was yellowish from the DI, but it cleared up after. I actually use a little to top off water as it looked all clear. Hopefully my tank will be ok?

[BlueAbyss]

It should state in the documentation for your RO unit how long it needs to be flushed before producing useable water.

[wisesam]

The doc says just 15 minutes for the flushing, which I have done more than.
I just redid another bucket this morning after flushing the RO over night (unintentionally), it looks ok.

It should state in the documentation for your RO unit how long it needs to be flushed before producing useable water.

[Tangman]

I use IO salt and it turns kinda brown when first mixed with RO water but it clears a after mixing , I wouldn't sweat it , I've heard this comment before:biggrin: