Noticed what looks like Algae in my mix barrel

For my salt mix reservoir, I have a 32 gallon Brute plastic trash can with an float valve connected to my RO/DI system. I also have two power heads in there to keep water moving as well as a heater. I also keep the lid on at all times when I'm not pumping water out. So, this gets NO light at all.

Today I thought I'd look to see how the salt was mixing up and noticed a bunch of brown schmutz. I think it's algae, as it looks a lot like this persistent brown stuff I have on some of my LR, that is finally, after three weeks starting to fade as the coraline algae is starting to take hold.

I dont know how long this has been in the barrel, I don't often look in it to see how things are going, I just test salinity.

Is this something I should be concerned with? Could it be algae if there is no light? If its diatoms will it just fade with time?

If so, what are the proper means by which to address this?

The approach I'd take if this is bad would be to drain the barrel, fill it back up with tap water and some bleach, put the pumps and heater in there and let them sit for a day or so. Then rinse the barrel out again with tap water. Dry it out and let it air dry for one day. Then fill back up with RO/DI water and mix salt as appropriate.

As I'm typing this up I'm thinking of how something might have gotten in the barrel. For a while I was often mixing tubes and pumps from tank to reservoir. Additionally, the heater was my first heater from my tank. I can't recall if I sanitized these prior.

Thoughts/suggestions appreciated.

 

It is actually from the salt mix. What kind of salt do you use? I use to get a little with regular Instant Ocean, but switched to Reef Crystals and is now much "worse". It really won't cause any harm, but you can just clean it out every few weeks if you want.

 

I get it. I rinse my barrels in between every fill to get rid of it. It's been happening ever since I started using barrels and that was maybe 15 years ago.... hasn't been a problem yet!

 

I use Red Sea salt.

Ok, I wont' worry about it too much. I hate to waste the water and salt that's in there. It's a 32 gal barrel and I just keep it topped off.

 

It's basically a clay binder that's present in the salt mix.

 

Wow, I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy.... ;-)

 

Ok. That's good to know going forward. I just emptied the barrel and cleaned it out well with a paper towel, rinsed a couple of times and am now in the process of refilling.

 

I get it in my RO/DI bucket as well.

 

You never cease to impress me. :surprised

 

Interesting; that's something different then.