Adding salt

[phastroh]

Ok first off I want to apologize to Bifferwine and anyone that I said I was going to post photos of my set for you to see.

Super busy plus 2 year old equals no time to do it.

But.......

I went to the the local store today because I am going to start off my aquarium by adding salt.

The aquarium is empty and only has water so I am actually just starting finally.

This is what I bought - Instant Ocean Reef Crystals at PETCO

The guy said not to use my soft water and just use the hose and nothing else but this. It says right on the bucket it is for dechlorinating and to rid the water of metals. I am sure you all knew this anyway. I also figure everyone uses something different.

I plan on getting a small RO machine like in a month or 2 but with this salt mix I was wondering if that is even necessary. If this hooks up the water and it tests ok then why get an RO. In the end the water is fine anyway without the RO. Anything I have wrong?

Also it gives you the gravity yada yada and the amount per half gallon so here is my thoughts.

The tank is 80Gallon.
Does that include the overflo area?
Also if I am going to be pouring water into the sump I would imagine that has to be mixed separately as well.

If I am wrong let me know.

Also I figure I can do whatever it is you do to fix the salinity after it mixes for 2 or 3 days. It also mentions gravity on the bucket so i have a refractometer for that. For some reason I thought that was only important when adding fish.

I have another thread I am posting right after this about the rock and sand so come chat...please...

Thanks

 

[bjohanson1234]

Still has the tap water in it that you were testing with?

If so, remove it and get some RO./DI water to fill it up. You will have less problems in the long run if you start off with good quality water.


If you are going to get an RO unit in a month or two, I would wait. There is no way to remove things from the water by adding more stuff. It just changes the form that it is in.

The salt is for use in dechlorinated, purified water it doesnt remove the stuff.

 

[phastroh]

It says on the back in its list for the formula

Metal Detoxifier - to neutralize the traces of heavy metals often present in domestic water supplies.

 

[dartmyth]

I started out with tap water using api tap water conditioner with my first tank a 44 gal corner and had nothing but problems after doing water changes. When i got my 75 gal tank i bought a ro/di from purewaterclub and my water paramiters are more stable now. Only have a diatoms outbreak cause i moved my sand and live rock from the 44 gal tank to the 75 but it is clearing up and no way near as bad as it was in the old tank.

Your going to find everyone is going to tell you use ro/di water and save your self a lot of headaches.