First Disaster

[Gpo]

Well this is my first post here so I apologize if it's not quite right.
2 weeks ago I bought some Live Rock and have had it in the garage waiting for me to get all the pieces of the my very first reef set up in place. The seller gave me enough Saltwater to fill a large plastic tub and on the way home I brought some salt and a cheap hydrometer to get me started. Today I was all set to do the set up as this was the day my refractometer arrived and low and behold the salt level that I have been keeping the rock in was at 50 PPT. So now my question, did I kill all life in what was Live Rock? Thanks in advance for all opinions and comments.

 

[paraletho]

First question did you calibrate the refrac. Does the tub w/rock look like you have had a lot of evaporation or have you been adding SW to replace what evaporates.

 

[Sk8r]

well, it's not going to be happy: extremophiles will have survived. That's not the best. Worse, it's going to leach salt back into the water of the new tank. I'd say set up as if this hadn't happened, and use ro/di water (walmart kiosk) to avoid yet one more problem---then start testing your water daily: probably your salinity will bump up a bit as the salinity evens out. But many things just go deeper in the rock when things aren't right and hopefully things will survive, ditto the bacteria. So set up. If I were doing it, I'd set up totally, then order some additional live rock and time it to arrive after this salinity thing has worked its way out. Then add it to the lot and let its life spread out. If you cycle on time (3-4 weeks) it came through fine; if it takes a month plus, then it's deriving most of its life from the second round of live rock---even one piece would get you your bacteria.
Be sure your refractometer is properly calibrated. But probably it came that way.
Just be patient and don't panic: lay down eggcrate light diffusion grid (Lowe's construction stuff) then your base rock if any, then the live rock, then the washed-in-ro water!!! sand, and then lay a garbage sack over all and pour your saltwater in. The garbage sack will help keep sand from getting all over anything: another method is to set a mixing bowl in and pour into that.
Good luck and don't worry too much!

Ohh, good question, paraletho---only the water evaporates, never the salt, and it can do that if you weren't topping off with fresh water. You will need to be doing that all through the cycling process: a 58 g tank may evaporate a gallon of fresh water a day.
and do not run your tank with lids! Heat buildup...

 

[Gpo]

Thanks Paraletho and Sk8r, I appreciate your help. First , I did calibrate the refractometer with Distilled Water, although it was right on. The rock came with a little hair algae on it so I checked the Nitrate and it was 25 PPM. So I did several water changes to lower it and used the Saltwater that I had made up using the crap hydrometer. (I also have a RODI unit and making 0 TDS water. Every time I checked the SG when the tub needed water it was fine so I just added more saltwater. Anyway a good lesson learned.

 

[paraletho]

It all comes with time. I'm only 3 mths into this thing and still learning everyday. Take it slow. Read Read Read! Anyone gonna put out the Welcome to RC sign ? I dont know how to get it. Anyway Welcome to RC

 

[ethank77]

welcom to the wide world of plastic cheep junk hydrometers they are junk but +1 to sk8r and paraletho