Saltmix

[houndster]

What do you guys do to have a good saltmix? Do your add any additives? For me i only mix salt with tapwater is that good enough?

[Achilles Tang]

Add anti-chlorine to the water first before adding salt.

Using freshwater that is free of high alkaline or phosphates is best... like RO/DI water. If not, just tapwater will do... you can remove these some other way later.

Add salt to water and NOT the other way around to prevent calcium precipitation ie. snow storm. The salt will dissolve faster this way too.

To speed up the process, add a Tunze stream in the bucket to churn things up.

If the saltmix comes with some trace elements in a liquid vial, add this too.

Let the solution sit for as long as you can... even overnight.

Measure the salinity over time as the value will not stay the same initially due to different saltmix solubility rates.

Once the salinity is around 1.023 to 1.025... you can add it to your tank. If the water change volume is large... you can cool the saltmix water down with frozen ice substitutes first before adding to your tank to prevent shocking any sensitive inhabitants.

Sometimes using a powerhead to aid in speeding salt dissolving overnight will cause the water temp in the bucket to rise.

Cheers,

AT

[houndster]

Thanks for your advice AT...

[AZRA]

What if I added water to salt. Does it effect on the water quality and cycling process. My tank is on cycling stage now 5 days already.

[Achilles Tang]

Azra,

You will get clumps of salt that will be very hard to dissolve. And your walls will have this white layer which are calcium deposits that have come out of the water due to ionic imbalance.

Not recommended, this method isn't.