70 gallon soft reef (for now) bulid.

[Mrc8858]

How much salt did you use? Taste it and see if it reminds you of ocean water (if you've been) seriously lol. It could be your hydrometer.. I've heard of them being WAY off which is why I swear by refractometers...so maybe you should wait til yours arrives to proceed :/

 

[Lindsay1718]

I put 35 cups, the directions said .5 cup per gallon. I tested it against small batch of saltwater and it was fine, also tap reads 0. Maybe I miss counted my 3 year old was screaming about the snow storm in the tank, she wanted to make a snowman.

 

[Mrc8858]

You may have counted right but when mixing so much water weight is a better method of measurement since when you fill up a cup it could be a lil more or a lil less each time depending on how packed it is. Then multiply that 35x and you could end up way off.

 

[Lindsay1718]

I grew up actually on the beach, our house was waterfront property, it definitely is REALLY salty. Not what I used to taste growing up. I'll keep diluting till I get it right I'm letting DT fill up so I can open sump line again to finish filling sump. If I have to remove ill store in container for 1st water change, after diluting of course. Thanks so much and I will keep you updated and add some pics once I get rock in.

 

[Mrc8858]

No problem that's why I'm here lol

 

[Lindsay1718]

What s the better way to measure?

 

[Mrc8858]

Weighing it. Once your done filling your tank though you can measure with cups again for water changes cause the possible difference in amount added won't be magnified 35x

 

[Lindsay1718]

Gotcha, thanks.

 

[obscurereef]

Don't worry too much. When I first was adding salt the readings were too high to read at first. Even now for water changes I'll estimate I've made 20 gallons in a 30 gallon BRUTE trash bin (don't fill it all the way) and add salt according to the 1/2 cup per gallon and I'll get a reading of 1.027-8.

 

[Lindsay1718]

Good to know I'm not crazy.

 

[Lindsay1718]

Ok so it is finally is reading at 1.028, so just a little bit more hopefully. Ok so I got sump filled and the return pump was pushing water up faster than it was coming down so I had to somewhat close ball valve. I'm hoping that will fix one tank is full. At what specific gravity can I put the rock in? I was gonna do 1.025 is that correct?

 

[Lindsay1718]

Ok so I got to around 1.025 and it's full. how much do I need to take out to compensate for rock and sand? 60 lbs of live rock and 75lbs of live sand.

 

[Mrc8858]

I'd say about 10-15 gallons would be a good start. Do you have a brute or rubbermaid container that you can store water in cause you can just store it and if you remove to much put some back in. If you ask me you should always have enough storage room to hold your entire tank volume incase of emergencies.

 

[Lindsay1718]

I have a 50 gallon storage Rubbermaid for now. I am planning to pick up a food grade barrel soon though. So just take out about 4" and see where that goes?

 

[Mrc8858]

If you've got the storage take out 6" (20.5 gallons roughly) then add back to it when you finish scaping

 

[Lindsay1718]

Just put rock in, how does it look to everybody? Any suggestions? It's stable and I have a little extra crumbles to put in refugium.

 

[reef lover]

Nice tank

 

[Lindsay1718]

Ok so I added sand and I knew it would be cloudy. I've read to cut off power heads but I thought LR needed circulation? Should I cut off power heads?

 

[Mrc8858]

Ok so I added sand and I knew it would be cloudy. I've read to cut off power heads but I thought LR needed circulation? Should I cut off power heads?

It can sit for a lil while in still water no biggie.. think about what it goes through during shipping lol

 

[reef lover]

I would just leave the powerhead on