What kind of salt are you using? Also what temperature is your water? When I set up my 230g and 190g I dumped the salt directly into the tank and did not have salt crystals undissolved after about 5 hours. I did take a small power head and directed it by hand to really stir everything up. I did that a couple of times and viola - no more salt crystals.

50 gallon ... sitting at about 81F

Using SeaChem Reef Salt

Well, here is photos from Day 3 and day 5 (today, June 25th is day 5).

I syphoned off all the salt water and placed it all in various tubs around the house (all clean). I then got rid of all the excess salt that i had ... boy oh BOY was it a wee bit too much.

Anyways, I also got 30 pounds of sugar sand to place in the bottom (the wife wanted sand .. so as a dutiful husband, i complied!) But that came with the cost of me getting a Seio M1100. What a pump!

Will be getting another one in the future ... just have to save some more cash.

So here are the photos.

Well, i have a Seio M1100 in the tank now ... i think it MIGHT be a bit too much flow though ... Any thoughts on how to adjust it ... as it stands, the sand gets blown all to hell and then clouds the tank bad.

I was thinking of putting some LR in front of the glass where the pump hits. Any other ideas on how I can do this? Any other ways i can reduce the flow of the pump?

Oh yeah ... got the LR in the tank now!

I always mix 1/2 sugar grain sand, with 1/2 of the larger size, can't remember what they call it. Doesn't look as nice, but it gives digging animals the chance to build burrows and stuff easier, they dont collapse.

Put the seio a little lower in the tank, and point it upwards towards the middle of the tank. This will break up the surface nicely for you too, otherwise organics will collect there and form a little "skin" of oils and stuff.

The sand has settled, the rock has gone in, everything is turned on (nt 24/7 yet, but close) and i am happy as a pig in the dirty mud with corn in it.

Here is an updated photo of the tank.

Well since my last post i have added some extra pieces of equipment. A seio 620 now accompanies my Seio 1100.

The Protien Skimmer is now in the tank (about to loose the collection cup soon due to the shipper breaking it) and i added 2 fans to cool the water.

The water goes from 81F to 82F throughout the day ... so that is just great for me! SG is at ~1.024 and all other numbers are in place. I had Diatoms rule the tank for 2 days, but they literally went away when i woke up this morning and looked at the tank.

So take a look at my photo bucket link to see photos from days 8, 10, 12 (2 shots) and the brown polyps and fuzzy mushroom coral in the tank!!
http://s52.photobucket.com/albums/g4/SerLunchbox/

Looking good. Fuzzy mushrooms already?

Yeah ...

it came in on some LR that i got from Cag.

Bonus! Hopefully they make it through the cycle, they look fine in the pic.