HELP! How much salt?

[LizWise]

I Am about to do my first water change (10%) which would be 1.5 gallons .. And so I put the same amount back.. I know how much prime to use but not sure about the salt..

How much do I add?? To assure proper salinity.. It's a 14gallon that I've been cycling since sept 2nd..

This is stressful.. Lol

 

[obscurereef]

You need to first find the salinity of your water by using a hydrometer or refractometer. Then look at the instructions of the salt bucket/bag that you got. It should tell you how much to add to get the salinity you want. For example, I use Red Sea coral pro salt so to get a salinity of:
1.021 I need 33.4 g/l also known as (1.4 lb/5 us gal)
1.023 36 g/l (1.5 lb/5 gal)
1.025 38.2g/l (1.6 lb/5 us gal)
Different brands will have different amounts for the proper salinity.

I convert lbs to grams then grams to ounces. Involves some calculating!

You should allow the salt to mix and dissolve for 24 hours before adding it to the tank as undissolved salt can harm fish/inverts. Since you have a small amount of water, you'll have less room for error meaning the salinity should be very close to what it is already or it might drastically alter. Good luck and test the salinity before you put it in the tank.

 

[Poon]

Your salt mix should state how much salt to add. Typically 1/2 cup per gallon. Hopefully there are no fish in the tank! Should not mix salt in tank after initial set up. Mix outside of tank and add after you take water out.

Water changes aren't necessary during cycle so long as you do a 90% water change a week or so before adding fish. You need a hydrometer to measure salinity to monitor salinity, especially in such a small tank to test mixed replacement water to ensure proper salinity before adding to the tank. You also need it to test tank water, as water evaporation could cause too many swings in salinity.

 

[obscurereef]

90% seems like to much. I thought it should not be much more than a 50% change even when you're cycle just ended. I cannot imagine a 100 gallon only having 10 gallons of water and not going through another mini cycle.

 

[Poon]

For smaller tanks this works logistically as the water is replaced quite quickly leaving no rock dry (which would cause a mini cycle if bacteria died). 100 gallon would need to do water changes in the cycle to reduce nitrates as 90% water change might not happen quick enough.

I have heard of high nitrates stalling a cycle but they have to be very high. So high that the process to cycle the tank, ie ammonia of shrimp cycling, would have been done to excess.

I did this on my 29 gallon hex and it worked great as I had no nitrates to start my tank off with zero readings on all readings, ammonia, nitrites and nitrates...and no mini cycle. I may be the lone wolf on this but it worked great for me and I did it based on advice on this forum...

 

[obscurereef]

Interesting! I could see it going wrong if there wasn't enough bacteria built up (like if you used base rock instead of LR), but on tanks with smaller volume of water it probably would work just as you said.

 

[Paulm87]

Simple 35grams for every litre of water

 

[Poon]

No worries. I am still learning and relearning things. I actually started with no live rock but heaps of base rock. It did take 4.5 weeks to cycle though. I will say I did/do have too much rock (based on others advise) so I'm sure that helped in my cycling as well and in avoiding the mini cycle. I got wise though and bought some pieces of live rock to diversify micro organisims. i added the live rock after adding fish (only three small pieces, again no mini cycle due to small amount of live rock I put in). If I had it to do over again I would have started with more live rock as after 2 months I don't see much other than some small copods.