Substance coming out of bath water?

[John W.]

Just finished rehabbing a house. Tenant moved in over the weekend. I received a text tonight from the tenant with a picture of what is coming out of the bath tub. Looks like chalk/sand from what I can tell. You cant really tell until the tub is emptied, this stuff is left. Anybody have any ideas? So the house has been sitting empty for 4 or 5 months. Maybe something in the hot water heater that needs to be flushed out? If I knew how to load the photo, I would.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Jon Holdman]

A warning from real experience here. Performance is not an indicator of the immenent failure of a hot water heater. I was sitting at my computer a couple of years ago and heard water trickling. I though I had failed to properly close our front loading washer and it was dripping. I ran out there, but nothing. Still heard water. Turned around the water was gushing out the top of the water heater. Huge mess. But I caught it soon after it started leaking. My parents weren't so lucky. They were out of town when theirs started leaking. Before they returned the floors were severely damaged. The water pooled under one end of the house and caused the foundation to sink into the ground by several inches.

To me, a failed water heater is a bigger concern than a plugged drain or running toilet. They fail suddenly and with no notice.