waterchange mix

[Salty Cracker]

I use the brute garbage pail. Just tested it and got 3ppm tds.
Ive tested it before and always got 0. This is the first time i ever got a reading.
But i also may have slightly contaminated it with setting up the new tank.
I ended up using some tap water when i ran out of rodi water and the same water bucket was used back and forth.

test for phosphates instead of just ppm.  That just tells you that 'something' is in the water. 

 

[Salty Cracker]

I use the brute garbage pail. Just tested it and got 3ppm tds.
Ive tested it before and always got 0. This is the first time i ever got a reading.
But i also may have slightly contaminated it with setting up the new tank.
I ended up using some tap water when i ran out of rodi water and the same water bucket was used back and forth.

test for phosphates instead of just ppm.  That just tells you that 'something' is in the water. 

 

[Boga]

i am making 12 gallons of new rodi water  it is join into a 12 gallon food grade pail i have used for a while  the tds meter says 0  i test it with a hanna tds pen i do kno the tds gotes up after sitting in that pail for days ..so i make it up fast in like 24 hrs  with new salt  i put the pump in the pail and started it up  the tds has jumped to 14    no salt in yet just mabbe 4 gallons of 0 tds water..are yu guys testing as yu make it up?

Here is my theory ... 
If you used the pail for saltwater make before and also you used the pump for saltwater make before then they are contaminated with saltwater. All materials have porosity at a microscopic level. After your last water change, saltwater left in the pail started to evaporate and due to osmotic pressure, salt mix got pushed into the surface layer of the pail. Also saltwater residues are left in your pump.

You put RODI in your pail. Shows zero TDS. After you start up the pump, residues in the pump and salt from the pail walls, now moved into the fresh water by the same osmotic difference (reversed), will mix and raise the TDS to 14.

We leave the pail full of RODI for days. A thin layer of slime will be produced. The slime is just bacteria and microorganisms.  I don't know what they eat, but I can think that they would generate organic and inorganic waste, which can be dissolved into the RODI, increasing the TDS reading.