Im so lost
 

i kep reading and reading and watching videos that are a bit helpfull but dont tell you the details . Hell im still trying to get my salinity right lol . Thanks to a local store that said yeh put the whole bucket into the tank. I have a 20 gallon tank with nothing but water so far but hope i figure this out soon,:cry:

So, do you have a question ... ?
You're in the right place for the answers :biggrin:

Well what are your current issue's?

What do you need to know?

The salinity can be tricky at first due to variables like salt brand, water temp, etc. There are two values to be concerned with - Salinity & Specific Gravity (SG). Since I keep stony corals I keep my SG at 1.026 & SG is the most common value mentioned by hobbyists but often mistakenly referred to as salinity. If the SG is close to natural SW your salinity should be fine as well.

i was sold salt nd told to put in the entire container that said "yeilds 20 gallons" so it did as im super noob and WOW that was way too much

So just remove some of the salt water in the tank and replace with fresh water until you reach the right salinity. Also make sure your water is at the temperature you want when measuring. What are you using to measure salinity btw?

Im just using a hydrometer untill i get everything stable then ill spend the money to get a better one . and i have been slowly removing water and adding new water but its really frustrating now because the hydrometer is reading extremely different levels almost everytime i test . te water is heated to about 72 degrees and the filter and power head are running . i made the mistake of putting in the sand while i do this so it looks like crap right now

i wish the store was still open id just empty the entire thing and start over

Did you put the sand in, then water and then salt?

I am assuming you are using a swing arm hydrometer. They are very sensitive to micro bubbles attaching to the arm and giving you different readings. I would also wait until your water clears up as the dust suspended in the water will affect the arm as well. Maybe bring your temp up closer to 78 degrees.

So you 'really did' add a whole bucket of salt to your 20g tank?

I thought it was a typo when you typed 'Hell im still trying to get my salinity right lol . Thanks to a local store that said yeh put the whole bucket into the tank.'
I thought you meant to say 'help I'm still trying ... ' :lol:

So, you've dumped a whole 5 gallon pail into a 20g tank. You're going to want to try and save the water you're about to remove as salt isn't cheap :wink:

If you've truly added a whole bucket of salt to a 20g tank, remove about 17.5 gallons of water (save it) and add RO to top off the tank.

Then check your salinity and go from there.

EDIT:

I see you stated you've been slowly removing and adding water ...

If you know how much of this you've done we can do some math.
If not, just get some buckets and drain it all down to the sand.
Once you have the water in buckets we can figure out the salinity with some math and you should be good to go with how much to add back in.

I hope you have or are planning on buying a refractometer :wink:

with all thats happened and now its showing almost no salinity i think im going to empty it and restart when i can get some salt if anyones in calgary NE and has some id love the hookup . ill repost once i do it properly and get things goin
if anyone is in calgary and has some extra salt my number is 403-968-1187 id be sooo thankfull

That wasn't a very good explanation from the lfs.

Whats the last reading you have on the hydrometer

Wait until the water clears before continuing to correct salinity.

Rinse your hydrometer really well.

You are going to need to remove a good amount of the water(i agree save it), then you will need to top up with ro/di or distilled. Then check it again.

I would try to get the temp up to 77-79, 72 is pretty low.

Are you having any other issues you need help with?

When using the hydrometer, tap it well once filledto remove air bubbles and put it on a level surface.

I highly recommend a refractometer.

Sorry to hear you've been given bad direction. I'd be interested to hear which LFS said that, you can PM me if you're too shy to say publicly.

Throw the hydrometer in the garbage. You'll get a more accurate reading by dipping your finger in and tasting the water IMHO.

Get a refractometer tomorrow. It's a basic staple in keeping a salt water aquarium... but you know this.

What brand of salt was it? Generally speaking, it's about half a cup of salt to one gallon of RO/DI water. So for 20 gals you should have used about 9 cups, then measured salinity and adjusted from there.

Good luck.

I'm a bit late to the party here & probably not much help at this point, but even without a hydrometer or refractometer, if you read the instructions that are usually printed on the bucket of salt, they will give you a ratio of cups of salt to gallons of water to get you fairly close to the desired salinity....

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...hreadid=119214

Relax, take a break & slow down... it takes time to get a salt water tank going.

Guys, it wasn't a whole bucket, it was a either a box or a bag since he said the container yields 20 gallons.

I'd take the empty salt bag back and get them to give you a new one. When you make salt super saturated like that then a whole whack of calcium and carbonate ions (and many other ions too) will bind and fall out of the solution. So you'll end up with saltwater that is really deficient in various ions. Read the instructions on the bag next time. :)

I think this is a good idea, but they gave you poor advice, and they should give you a new container of salt.

With the sand, was it dry or did it come in a sealed bag with some water? If it was dry sand then you need to rinse it many, many times to get all the dust out. It can take a week to clear up if you don't rinse well enough.

Since I'm late to the party I won't add anything to help with your problem but will steer you for help

By all means please post any questions you have here we are more than willing to help

I see you are in Calgary there is a thriving SW community in the city many of our members are from there and are very helpful and may be able to talk to you in person or steer you to someone who can help

Sadly many pet stores that sell SW products often have staff that don't know much about SW luckily there are a few stores that deal specifically with SW and Calgary has a few that deal only or primarily with SW the locals there can direct you to those stores better than I could.

Hope this helps somewhat

I did half live sand and half regular whit sand that was totally my mistake as a noob but i think i might be on the right track now i have 2 buckets of water getting filled and slowly salinating them and i pick up a proper refractometer tommorrow so i can be a bit more acurate . and all of the peale here have given me soo much info I LOVE THIS FORUM

Hmmm hydrometers aren't bad per se, just depends which ones you use.
I agree the plastic swing arm ones are rubbish.
The proper glass ones work really well though.

I'm glad you're enjoying the forums! :)

Make sure you pick up some calibration solution for your refractometer too, and calibrate it once a month or so. Calibrating with RO/DI water is good for double checking, but shouldn't be used for primary calibration.