Mixing salt in tank on a new setup?

[Etoimos]

Hello all,

I'm completely new to the saltwater world and just finished setting up my tank, stand and equipment (I bought the physical setup used from another reefer in the state). This weekend I'll have my OR/DI system setup and start making my first batch of water. I plan to use this first batch as a wet shake down test of plumbing and pumps. Assuming that there are no leaks or issues, can I turn the heaters on to bring it up temp and then just add my salt mix into either the DT (60G cube) or the sump (20G)? Or should I drain that water out, mix up saltwater in a different container and then add it to the tanks?

As a follow on question, I have a business trip coming up (May 14th thru May31st) and wanted to know if it would be okay to let just the saltwater cycle through my empty system (nothing in the tanks) until I got back to start my tank cycle, or will the tank start to cycle on its own with just the saltwater running through it? I don't think it will since there should not be anything in the water to kick the cycle off... but I want to make sure since I would not be here for weeks 4-6 of the cycle to monitor the parameters if it did kick off the cycle. Or, should I intently start the cycle now so that it does most of its cycle while I'm gone and just worry about the parameter readings in week 7 or 8?

Thanks for any help.

 

[WatDatThing]

Yeap, add water, salt, sand, rock, a dead market shrimp, and a powerhead and let it do it thing. If your room temperature is above 70 most of the time, you don't even need a heater during cycling. You don't need the light on either. If you're not using live rock, add some biospira.

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[Etoimos]

So there are no concerns with doing the cycle while I'm away... other than it getting stinky while my mother-in-law is house and babysitting for me? Do I not need to be there to check when the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrates peak and fall off to ensure the tank has fully cycled?

And I was thinking of using live sand instead of live rock since I think it might take me a while to plan out and layout my aquascaping. It sounds like that would be easier to do with dry rock.

 

[MurphyLong]

In 2 weeks, your cycle isn't going to complete, you should be fine.

 

[anthonys51]

yes you can cycle the tank while away. not a problem. testing doesn't help or hurt the cycle, it just lets you know whats going on. they tank will still cycle without you. I always use live sand, its not that much more expensive and so much cleaner and easier to use.

 

[Etoimos]

In 2 weeks, your cycle isn't going to complete, you should be fine.

Yeah, I'm not expecting it to finish in two weeks, was just concerned about the three week portion of it I will be gone.

yes you can cycle the tank while away. not a problem. testing doesn't help or hurt the cycle, it just lets you know whats going on. they tank will still cycle without you. I always use live sand, its not that much more expensive and so much cleaner and easier to use.

If I use the live sand, would I still need to use the dead shrimp? I'm worried about it stinking while others are watching the house for us. I would think that just the live sand would still cycle the tank, it just might take longer. I can live with longer, as we have another two week trip towards the end of July and I'm already debating if I just want to let the tank cycle until we get back from that trip before adding any live stock.

 

[Sk8r]

Lay down rock first (I use eggcrate under mine to prevent point-load on the glass, and to prevent rockslides. Then sand. Then water (a small glass bowl or garbage bag can prevent kicking sand all over during pour. THEN salt. I would NOT do this if you have live specimen-type rocks, because freshwater and hypersalinity will kill the small crustaceans, sponges, etc on the rock, and it's not that great for live sand either. Put your support rocks down first, your best rock atop. And good luck. It will slow things down a bit and may kill off some life.

OTOH, the way most of us do it is to buy a large Brute trashcan, rinse it well, put carefully measured salt and water into it (be precise!) and leave it with a mixing pump for 24 hours, THEN pump it into the tank and sump.

Precise measuring of gallons and half-cups of water will give you a 1.024 salinity with most salt mixes. Or 1 level gallon of dry salt mix will mix to 32 gallons of water to reach that salinity.

I really, really advise against mixing salt water IN the tank if you have anything whatever alive in there.

 

[anthonys51]

I never used a shrimp in my life. Put the live sand dry rock add one piece of live rock. Go on vacation for 3 weeks cone back and you will be good to add clean up crew


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[Sk8r]

Me neither. One live rock (all rock should be cured, if starting from dry rock, or you get horrid algae blooms) is all it takes. My own recipe is a large flake of fishfood per 50 gallons every day. But one live rock or the live sand will do it all on its lonesome---good idea to give it a pinch of fishfood or a little-fingernail sized bit of raw shrimp (considering you won't be home for 2 weeks) at the outset. It'll lie there feeding bacteria, which is what it needs to do.

 

[WatDatThing]

Add some biospira or whatever bacteria solution is sold at your lfs.One shrimp isn't going to stink up the house. That's how I cycled my tank. I didn't check my params until the shrimp completely disappeared. Which was about 4 weeks. There was no ammonia, nitrite or PO. Nitrate was present. I waited 2 weeks for nitrate to go down and then I added CUC. I tested my water more regularly after I added the CUC. After 2 weeks my params were stable, I did the first water change, 50%. More waiting and water testing. I then added a pair of clowns. After all that, I had a real bad GHA outbreak. LOL. All is well after 5 months though.

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[anthonys51]

Add some biospira or whatever bacteria solution is sold at your lfs.One shrimp isn't going to stink up the house. That's how I cycled my tank. I didn't check my params until the shrimp completely disappeared. Which was about 4 weeks. There was no ammonia, nitrite or PO. Nitrate was present. I waited 2 weeks for nitrate to go down and then I added CUC. I tested my water more regularly after I added the CUC. After 2 weeks my params were stable, I did the first water change, 50%. More waiting and water testing. I then added a pair of clowns. After all that, I had a real bad GHA outbreak. LOL. All is well after 5 months though.

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Don't add food imo adding unnessary waste to the tank during cycle doesn't speed up the process it just add food for algae

Your live sand has worms and other critters in it. Plus your live rock will have tons of life.

If you want add a few snails go away and enjoy your vacation. Adding flake ( phosphates filled) food to your newly set up tank does more harm than good. Especially for an unseasoned aquarists such as your self

Best way to cycle a tank especially when you have no experience in cycling tanks is add live sand or rock. Wait a few days or sand day add 1 snail pre 15 gallon 1 crab pre 25 gallons. Wait 2 weeks add coral. Do not add fish for 3-6 months

Longer you can go without adding fish the better.

Don't feed your tank until you add fish

Add easy corals first
One a week.

Test your alk every 3 days
Text calcium once a week

It's easier imo to get the coral aspect of reef keeping down before you have to add those waste machine we call fish

This will also limit your nutrients and give all
The good stuff on your rocks time to grow.


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[Etoimos]

I do have a 28G Brute showing up today or tomorrow, but that is currently my only container for water. I don't mind at all mixing the salt in that and then adding it to the tank. I was just trying to not waste that first batch of OR/DI water (I did not want to use straight tap water to wet test the system). I've not bought more containers yet because I want to figure out what I might want in a mixing station first. But maybe I should just pick up another Brute to make things easier to start with. It's already going to be a slow painful process making and mixing ~80 gallons of OR/DI and saltwater 28 gallons at a time. Any recommendations on salt mixing powerhead?

The guy I bought this setup off of also gave me some "prime cut" rock... rock that is cut flat across the bottom. I'll have to ask him if this rock has been cured or not. I think it has been, as it's extremely clean (bright off white color) and dose not smell at all. I still have to get more rock to do the aquascaping however.

I'm also going to try and get the RKE setup before my trip so I can at least monitor something when I'm away on my trip. Otherwise it will feel like I'm just abandoning it. Lol I wish it was possible to get probes for the A/N/N cycle tests.

 

[Sk8r]

Brutes nest nicely.

 

[MuShu]

I do have a 28G Brute showing up today or tomorrow, but that is currently my only container for water. I don't mind at all mixing the salt in that and then adding it to the tank. I was just trying to not waste that first batch of OR/DI water (I did not want to use straight tap water to wet test the system). I've not bought more containers yet because I want to figure out what I might want in a mixing station first. But maybe I should just pick up another Brute to make things easier to start with. It's already going to be a slow painful process making and mixing ~80 gallons of OR/DI and saltwater 28 gallons at a time. Any recommendations on salt mixing powerhead?

The guy I bought this setup off of also gave me some "prime cut" rock... rock that is cut flat across the bottom. I'll have to ask him if this rock has been cured or not. I think it has been, as it's extremely clean (bright off white color) and dose not smell at all. I still have to get more rock to do the aquascaping however.

I'm also going to try and get the RKE setup before my trip so I can at least monitor something when I'm away on my trip. Otherwise it will feel like I'm just abandoning it. Lol I wish it was possible to get probes for the A/N/N cycle tests.

I use the cheap SunSun brand powerheads in my mix bucket. You don't need anything too big or fancy- just something that will move the water around. It will take a couple of days to mix RODI and fill a tank anyway, whether or not you use the Brute trashcan to mix the salt. I think it took 3 days to fill my 55 gallon, but two of those were only in the evening after I got home from work.

 

[Etoimos]

I've picked up two Brute 32G can and have been making water over the weekend. Of course my son and daughter stole some of the RODI water to do changes in their fresh water tanks... guess it's going to take longer to make my water than I thought! lol

I also picked up a heater and the SunSun powerhead @MuShu suggested above to do the mixing in one of the cans. My plans now are to use one of the Brutes to mix the salt water and move that amount to the aquarium. Then move the RODI water from the 2nd Brute to the mixing Brute. While that saltwater mixes up, I'll refill the RODI Brute and just repeat the process until I've got the DT and sum full of saltwater.

My mixing area is down in the basement and my tank is upstairs, so I'll need to find a pump that I can hook up a flexible hose and pump the water up to my tank. There is no way to hard pipe any of this without major renovations... and I don't think the wife will sign off on that since the house is only 6 years old. lol

 

[MuShu]

I've picked up two Brute 32G can and have been making water over the weekend. Of course my son and daughter stole some of the RODI water to do changes in their fresh water tanks... guess it's going to take longer to make my water than I thought! lol

Don't let them take the RO/DI water- it will affect their tank chemistry if they aren't using a buffering agent. Tap water with Prime is fine for freshwater- I have a planted tank and my son has a Pygmy puffer tank.


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[Etoimos]

Don't let them take the RO/DI water- it will affect their tank chemistry if they aren't using a buffering agent. Tap water with Prime is fine for freshwater- I have a planted tank and my son has a Pygmy puffer tank.


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Thanks, I'll look into that.

 

[Etoimos]

Since I will be mixing the salt water in the basement and need to get it up the first floor, and I don't think I'll like lugging 5 gallons up at a time. So, I need to come up with a pump solution to make the initial filling and water changes easier. I used the Pump Head Pressure Calculator on this site and it looks like the Mag 12 should be a good fit. My question is, is there a less expensive pump out there similar to the Mag 12? $150 for the water change pump seem a bit much to me.

I've got 14 feet of vertical and about 2-3 horizontal to cover using 3/4 inch tubing (that size can change to match the pump if need be, I've not bought the hose/tubbing yet).

 

[Rallos]

You could bring the can upstairs and hook your RO/DI unit up to the sink temporarily to do the initial fill.

 

[Stolireef]

How do you plan on doing water changes if you're making the water in the basement and need to move it to the second floor?