First Stages - Making Salt Water

[usmcmarc]

FWIW

I have been using RC for a few months now. Never really had any problem with it other than I cant get the Ca above 390.

I bought some small packs of Oceanic Salt to try out and see if it resolves my Ca issues. Plus, Being the geek I am, I like the idea that it's natural sea salt vs. synthetic.

Otherwise, RC has been fine IMHO.

 

[dskidmore]

Dskidmore, I think the Joe is in the process of pre-mixing the water.

That was actually my point. His pH is off because he doesn't have DI, but that may or may not be a real problem once he has that water in with his rock and sand. If the rock and sand buffer the water up, then there's no worries.

 

[roka64]

Ahhh, ok, thanks for the explanation.

 

[Devilishturtles]

Don't worry about pH at all until you are cycled. For that matter, I wouldn't bother testing anyhting but ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate during the cycle. The aragonite sand you got and the rock will help buffer things.

 

[melosu58]

There are some good articles here at AA that have good info about salt mixes. Also it does not do any good to say that certain salt mixes are crap. Everybody has their own experiences and they can not be discounted. Here is a thread that I started to find out what everybody is using and why.

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=100614

 

[SparKy697]

Thank you all!

To catch up a little, I do have a DI unit on the way. I also tend to be a bit of a geek about this stuff and it just feels like I want/need one.

I do plan on using aragonite sand and was reading that this should help the pH, so that makes me feel better.

With fresh water I have always subscribed to the "stable is more important than numbers" method, but this all fells so different and most of what I have read tends to put a little more weight on pH for SW tanks.

As long as the water I have made is going to work for curing the rock I'm happy.