Salt Question

[brose]

Hey guys,
I need help bad. My LR's are supposed to be shipped here either monday or tuesday. I've aerated my distilled water for 2 days. I put 25 gallons of distilled water into a 25 gallon tub and added the 25 gallon, 7.5 lb. tub of Instant Ocean salt. I mixed really well and aerated with a powerhead for another 6 hours. I've tested a dozen times with a refractometer but the salinity stays at 1.016. I've heard that normally you should add less salt mix than it says, but do I really need to add more? I bought another 10 gallon box of IO just a sec ago if you guys think I need more.

A guy at my LFS is talkin' crazy talk. He's saying that I need to wait 6 weeks for the IO to kick in and completely dissolve. Does that make any sense? It looks perfectly well dissolved to me. I appreciate any help and was hoping I wouldn't have problems already before I even put water in the tank.

 

[sadielynn]

Hey guys,
I need help bad. My LR's are supposed to be shipped here either monday or tuesday. I've aerated my distilled water for 2 days. I put 25 gallons of distilled water into a 25 gallon tub and added the 25 gallon, 7.5 lb. tub of Instant Ocean salt. I mixed really well and aerated with a powerhead for another 6 hours. I've tested a dozen times with a refractometer but the salinity stays at 1.016. I've heard that normally you should add less salt mix than it says, but do I really need to add more? I bought another 10 gallon box of IO just a sec ago if you guys think I need more.

A guy at my LFS is talkin' crazy talk. He's saying that I need to wait 6 weeks for the IO to kick in and completely dissolve. Does that make any sense? It looks perfectly well dissolved to me. I appreciate any help and was hoping I wouldn't have problems already before I even put water in the tank.

that is way to low you.....it is instant (a 15 minutes to half/ hour to disolve at most ) add a 1/2 cup slowly and test till you get to 1.024-1.026 1/2 cup incriments will help keep you from over doing it on the salt ....Your guy at the LFS does he know his elbow from his ear? that is the goofiest thing I have heard .......you should be able to get it up by the time your rock gets here .....also never trust the Lfs , and :welcome :mrgreen:

 

[brose]

Well, in the past few hours, I've added about six more cups of IO and it seems like it's only slightly dented the salinity. It's up to about 1.019 and it seems like I've added a lot more salt. I'm beginning to worry my refractometer might be defective. It's a brix refractometer so I'm having to convert the brix scale to SG using an equation and a table I found online for the conversion. I calibrated the refractometer several times so I know that's not the problem. I might go buy a hydrometer tomorrow at petco after work and pray that something works. Thanks for the welcome Sadielynn. Glad to be here!

 

[AlexfromSATX]

:welcome

Was the Refractometer calibrated before you started testing? I made that mistake, but mine was too high, and then I realized that I forgot to calibrate my refractometer. Well, good luck and again...WELCOME!

 

[reefman23]

:welcome

Was the Refractometer calibrated before you started testing? I made that mistake, but mine was too high, and then I realized that I forgot to calibrate my refractometer. Well, good luck and again...WELCOME!

Good point...plus hydrometers are not very accurate...generally they read about .003 higher than the actual amount of salt too

In order for the hydrometer to be anywhere near accurate, you need to let it set full of saltwater (i believe...its been so long) for 24 hours. this helps to calibrate it.

Jesse

p.s. You may want to take a water sample to a DIFFERENT LFS in order to get a more accurate SG reading... they will most likely use a refractometer (this is a small sign of a decent LFS).

Good luck and keep us updated.

Jesse

 

[brose]

Yeah I calibrated before the samples. I don't know why but the IO salt I got must have been a bad batch or something. To 25 gallons of distilled water, I've now added 35 gallons worth plus one measuring cup full of IO salt. Maybe distilled water requires more salt for some reason.

Jesse, Yeah I decided not to even try the hydrometer after hearing that I need to wait 24 hours. Also, I wish I could try another LFS. Right now the only one in town or in the area is Petco and I swung by today. All they have to test water is a hydrometer as well. We're about to get a Petsmart on may 20th but that's probably not much better.

Well, I guess I'll add more salt and hope for the best.

 

[AlexfromSATX]

You might want to drive the 2-3 hours to Waco or Houston over the weekend to find an LFS that can test it. I think Houston is closer to you, and probably has more stores to choose from. just make a weekend of it bring the Girlfriend and stay at the Westin Galleria or Westin Oaks and have fun, get away from Aggieland for a while.

 

[Anonymous]

my experience is all salt mixes up a bit short - they calibrate their weight to about 1.021 not the 025 we want in a reef.....but ti does take a day or two to stabilize and if your water was real low in pH it'll eat up a lot of the salts buffer. i mix 3 cups per 5 gal instead of the recomended 2.5 and that usually works well. so in your 25 gal mix it may take 30 - 35 gals by their measure to reach 1.025????

 

[brose]

alex, yeah it's a good idea. Houston's only about 1hour and 15 minutes away. But I work often and can't afford to take a trip even on that right now... especially with gas prices of 2.79/gal and after I just spent about $600 on this new setup with everything. I'm broke as ever and stuck in good 'ol Aggieland... lol. The good news is that I got it perfect now adding about 4 more cups on top of what I already added. So I think I'm ready.

johnanddawn, I think you're right. It did end up taking about 35-40 gallons worth for about 25 gallons of water. I finally got it though and that's awesome.

Just another question a little off topic... Is there any way to calibrate a digital pH meter with ordinary household items? I didn't get the calibration solutions when I ordered it on ebay. Thanks for the help.

 

[AlexfromSATX]

yeah gas is getting a little out of hand! What size tank are you setting up, I didn't see it mentionded?

 

[brose]

Alex, I mentioned it in another post you actually helped me out with a little bit. Remember, I'm getting a 24 aquapod? Here was the link...

http://www.nanotank.com/forum/viewtopic ... 6283#26283

UPS sucks though. I paid a crapload to have it shipped here by today (monday) but they're saying for whatever reason it's not gonna be here until wed or thurs. I ordered the tank and LR together from www.lifeoceanic.com They are awesome. At first, they accidentally missed my aquapod and forgot to ship it. Then I called and talked to a woman named Sharon who fully refunded my shipping and shipped it ups 3 day select. So, since they were cool enough to do that, I'd seen their auction on ebay for LR so I bought some from them, but I had to pay shipping on that of course. Like I said it was all supposed to be here by today but UPS screwed up and lied. So I talked to Sharon today, who was very cool again. She refunded my full shipping costs from the LR and told me to call her if it was dead by the time it got here and she'll send me a whole new batch free. So, it's all good so far, but I'll see when everything gets here. I'll definitely be taking pics for everybody. I'm looking forward to seeing some of your pics when you get the chance.

 

[reefman23]

yeah gas is getting a little out of hand! What size tank are you setting up, I didn't see it mentionded?

Tell me about it!! It is $2.99/gallon here in So. Cal for the cheap stuff.... I know that it is even more in other areas.

Jesse