Just added salt to my first tank!

[Mikee002]

It's great to finally have water and salt in the tank after collecting everything for the past couple months!

Question regarding salinity... I'm assuming that the salt probably needs quite a few hours to fully mix in the water? I added the amount of salt that the mix recommends and I measured salinity after a couple hours... Looks like it's all dissolved. Right now my reading is 1.020... How long should I wait to start adding more salt?

 

[Mikee002]

Follow-up question is this... How much salt should I add at a time to bring SG up in small increments? I have a 65g tank with a sump and about 80lbs of dry rock. I counted 60gals of water added to the tank, so that's my actual water volume. It'll end up being less once I add the sand obviously.

 

[gone fishin]

Congrats on getting filled up.

couple follow ups,

did you add salt directly to the tank or did you premix it in bucket??

Are you circulating the tank now??

how much to add is a bit difficult to answer. I would probably add 1/4 cup increments until you reach your desired salinity. I would also let the water circulate a bit after each salt addition. good luck just my 2 cents.

 

[Mikee002]

Congrats on getting filled up.

couple follow ups,

did you add salt directly to the tank or did you premix it in bucket??

Are you circulating the tank now??

how much to add is a bit difficult to answer. I would probably add 1/4 cup increments until you reach your desired salinity. I would also let the water circulate a bit after each salt addition. good luck just my 2 cents.

Thanks! Since I didn't have anywhere to mix such a large volume of water I just slowly added it to the tank. I had dry rock, and didn't add the live sand yet (wanted to get salt mixed first). Tank is circulating with the return pump and a powerheads set at full speed.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[gone fishin]

In that case I think I would just proceed to add some salt slowly to get the salinity up to where you want. IMO it is easier to add a little at a time than pull some salt water and dilute with fresh water.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

+1, if nothing live is in the tank yet then just add direct to tank. IME, I've hed my salinity adjust up to 4 hours after adding the salt to the mix. You should be pretty close after the saltwater looks clear though.

Good luck with your new tank!

 

[Sk8r]

Usual safe mix time is 8 hours with a mixing pump. Hereafter, never add water and salt separately to your tank; always mix until clear, because it can burn and kill critters. Drop a small pump into the water and let it run until clear.

Have you added sand yet? If so it may never be clear until it cycles.

 

[Mikee002]

Usual safe mix time is 8 hours with a mixing pump. Hereafter, never add water and salt separately to your tank; always mix until clear, because it can burn and kill critters. Drop a small pump into the water and let it run until clear.

Have you added sand yet? If so it may never be clear until it cycles.

Yea... after anything is live in there I'll never add salt to the tank. It'll be more manageable mixing small amounts for water changes anyway.

No I haven't added the sand yet... wanted to get the salinity to where it had to be first.

 

[Mikee002]

+1, if nothing live is in the tank yet then just add direct to tank. IME, I've hed my salinity adjust up to 4 hours after adding the salt to the mix. You should be pretty close after the saltwater looks clear though.

Good luck with your new tank!

Thanks! I added some more and it's come up slowly. I'll keep that 4 hour window in mind and retest then.

 

[Sk8r]

If dry sand (aragonite) be sure and wash and wash and wash and wash: it can take all day for a larger tank.

 

[Mikee002]

If dry sand (aragonite) be sure and wash and wash and wash and wash: it can take all day for a larger tank.

It's wet (live) sand... So I won't have to go through that! SG is looking good... 1.025 last check.

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk