This is my first SW tank.. I have a 75 gallon tank with about 50 gallons of water and reef salt in it... that's it at the moment. I added the reef salt directly to the tank from a brand new pail slowly, stirring and mixing as I went. It has been in there for about 10 days.. I have stirred up what settled out on the bottom of the tank and wiped down the inside of the tank several times, each time making the water so thick with what seems to be white salt that you can't see through it. After a couple days, some settles out, and the water clears quit a bit- 95% clear, but then I wipe down the inside and the bottom and its white again for 2-3 days.. There is less settling out each time, but is this normal? Even though it is an empty tank with nothing live in it, I have tested with all the tests in my API salt water test kit and my API reef test kit and the only item that is really high is the hardness (dKH of around 30 instead of the desired 8 to 12. I read around on forums and didn't really see anyone say a high KH was bad so... my spec gravity is only 1.019 - still just low, but I am afraid to add more salt because what is in there does not appear to be dissolving completely. I am planning on buying my live rock/sand in 5 days... I have three power heads running in the tank right now.. one brand new 400gph, and two older originally rated at 145 gph each.. (I am buying two more 400gph power heads in a couple days also). I am not running the protein skimmer yet as I only have the tank 3/4 full of water, so I have room to add sand and rock in 5 days..
Nitrate 0, nitrite 0, ammonia 0, Ca 480 mg/l dKH 30, ph 8.4. phosphate 0.. so the only rating high is dKH - is that causing a problem with the absorption of salt? What else could be wrong, or maybe nothing.. Maybe this is normal and I just don't know it??
Nitrate 0, nitrite 0, ammonia 0, Ca 480 mg/l dKH 30, ph 8.4. phosphate 0.. so the only rating high is dKH - is that causing a problem with the absorption of salt? What else could be wrong, or maybe nothing.. Maybe this is normal and I just don't know it??