Oh crap, now what?

So after doing so research (that I should have done earlier) I screwed up. Everyone says to mix salt for a new tank then add it to the tank. Well my rock and sand and water are in and now I need to mix the salt in. Doing it in small buckets would be fine if it was like a 20 gallon tank, but its 240. How do I make sure the salt gets mixed in right? and down to the bottom of the sand bed and such? I have been adding it slowly to the sump and letting it run for a while before adding more. Any other ideas?

 

If this is a new tank with nothing living in it yet, you can add the salt, and the pumps will mix it. The only problem with that is some salt will settle on and in the sand. You will have to stir the sand around for a few days, causing bad dust storms. As long as there is no life in there, you will be ok. It will just take longer to stabilize.

 

You could do as robman says, or pull the water out via syphon and put it in 5 gallon buckets or so and mix and do it the correct way so salt doesn't settle at the bottom of the tank.

Seeing how there is no life forms you cant really hurt anything, just prolong the stabilizing of the tank.

+k robman

 

Did you use live rock or dry? Not sure what freshwater will do to lie rock but
I suspect it will kill all living things. Might as well proceed in mixing the salt slowly in your sump.

Jack

 

even if it settles, wont it eventually be absorbed by the water? If it keep mixing it into the sump will that work?

Yes it was dry base rock, not live rock

 

well in my 150 my brother poured fresh water and then i added all the salt till the salinity got reached..

( this was before any life was in the tank so it was ok.. i left the tank sit like for 4 weeks cycling which is enough for everything to stabilize)

 

No live rock or anything will be going into it until sunday when I can make a trip to the LFS to get some good LR. Its all base rock right now. But will salt sitting on the bottom slowly dissolve, or just sit there?

 

it will definitely dissolve but if its not stirred or anything it will just take longer.

 

yea, as long as it's not live, you won't be massacring any beneficial bacters!

Remember for the little guys, pH, temp and salinity are inerters!

 

funny this happened to you today, because i dumped close to 90 gals worth of salt into my tank last night. make sure youve got a powerhead focused on the surface of the sand and others everywhere and youll be fine