help! new to salt tan

ok
as promised.
here are the results so far.

Ammonia .40
pH 8.4
Nirate:0
Nirite: 0
Salinity 1.019 (remember i took out ~10 gallons of water and replaced it with regular distilled water)

i have 10 gallons of premixed salt water sitting here ready to go btw that i bought at the LFS.

 

Your gonna want to wait for some of the water to evaporate then add the PRE mixed s/w to the tank gradually. Test and repeat. Do a water change regularly once you get the water salinity accurate. Do you know how to do a water change? If im getting anything wrong someone w/more experience will step in. Remeber not to rush anything.

 

Ehhhh, personally, I wouldnt recommend doing water changes until the ammonia goes away. With all the fish that died, you started a cycle in your tank. If you do water changes during this time (while your tank is cycling) your just going to make the process longer.

Trust me..........just get your salinity right, wait for the cycle to end, then do a water change and you'll be good to go! : )

 

Also, if you wait for water to evaporate, and then add MORE saltwater, your just making the problem worse. Using saltwater to replace evaporated will just make your salinity rise............which is part of your troubles from the beggining. Hopefully Im not coming across harsh, some people think I do, but it is not my intention...........but I do hope that Im able to help! : )

 

just curious, since his salinity is a little low wouldnt it be ok to replace the evaporated water with saltwater this time since he needs to raise it a bit. of course as long as no livestock is being added. like i said this is me just being curious

 

Well, his salinity was low..........before his room mate dumped salt mix into the tank. Any updates on your progress???

 

As i understood it that was his new salinity test. sorry if i was wrong. dont want to give out bad info. if it was, is that what you would want to do

 

Ohhhhhh, good catch. I didnt read where he posted his salinity......my bad, your right

 

hydrometers are notorious for being horribly inaccurate. Little air bubbles stick to the needle and it will read way off when your water might be right where you want it.

However if you replaced 30% of the water with fresh water it would have been low. Now you said your friend added salt and it is reading lower than it was before? Your hydrometer is not accurate if that is the case. There is no way the salinity would decrease unless you change out the water for water with a lower specific gravity. Salinity will go up due to evaporation but not down.

First step is to fix your salinity. It should be around 1.022 at the lowest to 1.024. slowly replace the tank water with the premixed salt water you have until you have the proper salinity.

Second step: cycle the tank. You need to build up the bacteria inside the tank. It can take about a month for the tank to completely cycle. Moniter it and when ammonia and nitrites reach zero and nitrates are low the cycle is done.

After that you can start to add fish slowly. Don't add anemones until you have had the tank for at least a year and until you have read everything there is to know about them. Anemones require a lot of light and very stable parameters.