Starting off... mixing SW.

[anglfish]

For the very first setup (no equipment, no sand, no rock in the tank yet), can I mix the salt to the water in the tank directly or do I really have to mix it externally in buckets. and add bucket by bucket by bucket by bucket....

Thanks,
Ang

hey by the way, how is that New Newbie Forum coming along? I need that as I'm a bit embarrassed to mix here with the "big ones". :redface:

[Chaloupa]

Hey Ang! Even posting with the "big ones" you will get tons of helpful advice and really, no one here will make you feel stupid.

If there is nothing in the tank at all....I don't see a problem with mixing the water up in it...just do it slowly with a powerhead or 2 to help mix. If you have RO water that is best, if not use something like "Prime" to take chlorine etc out of the tank, don't use any product to take chlorine out that contains any "slime coat" protectors or anything..... Go slow so that you don't over salt the tank and end up having to take out some water and waste salt...

Good luck! You are going to have so much fun with your tank!:biggrin:

[Quagmire]

No problem to mix your first batch in an empty tank.Dont mix a full tank tho.Keep about 5 gal or so(depending on tank size)back, incase salinity is too high after you mix the salt.This will give you room to add more water to dilute it.

[Ruth]

I have always started my tanks out just adding salt to the tank water (before there is anything else in there) One thing you might want to do is use your tank heater and wait until the water is heated to about 78-80 degrees. The salt seems to dissolve better that way.
Also don't forget that you are going to be adding live rock (and sand if you are) so don't fill the tank all the way up as you will get water displacement as soon as you start adding those things.

[anglfish]

Thank you Guys for your help! I successfully mixed about 10G of Salt water in the tank directly (tank volumn is 24G).I will top the rest up once I have all the sand and all the rock in.

here is another :question:
I put in the live sand - very slowly and carefully to not cloud the water and guess what - the water is cloudy!
I had the a pump with pre-filter going for the last hour, but there is no improvement at all. The water looks "milky" and at this point I don't even know whether the pre-filter would do any good. No visible particles.
Any ideas what else I could do? or am I being too inpatient?

[Aquattro]

or am I being too inpatient?

Yup! This is normal and will clear on it's own over the next couple of days. Fliters won't really do much, just let it settle on it's own!