Can u add live sand to salt water if theres still a little salt on the bottom?

Question

its a 55 gal. tank and the salt has been in the water for almost 24 hrs. but theres still a little bit salt on the bottom. is it ok for me to put the sand in now? or should i wait another 24 hrs for itto completely dissolve?
Please only experts respond .. thanks to all

It is my first tank and is brand new. I just filled it up yesterday. they told me it is crucial to wait to put the sand in.

we put the salt and live rock in it. and a bottom feeder was attached to the rock on accident so we'll see how long that guy lives. i hope he's ok.

Answer 1

What is the salinity level of the water? If the salinity level is at or almost at your target salinity, then go ahead and add the LS. If the salinity is still low because not enough salt has disolved yet, then wait until it does disolve before adding the LS. You don't want to kill the LS with a salinity shock. FYI, you could boost the temperature a little bit to speed the process.
If you do add the LS with a little bit of salt left on the bottom, give it a good stir, first, so the salt does not get trapped under the sand.

Answer 2

I have never seen so much bad advice on salt water tanks as I have seen in yahoo answers.

Danielle Z is correct, again! You can add your sand now. It isn't going to kill live sand.

Turning up the temperature won't make the salt dissolve faster since by the time the temperature climbs that high, the salt will already be dissolved.

Also, I have to agree, why did you wait to put the sand in? Remember when you finally are able to get fish, you want to be sure the salt is all dissolved in the bucket or your salinity will be off in the tank when the salt dissolves. Like She said, hot water and mix well.

I have had salt water for More years than I care to admit.

Answer 3

It doesn't sound like you have cycled the tank yet if you still have undisolved salt lying on the bottom. If it is not cycled, you may kill off anything living in your live sand by putting it in too soon. Have you added bacteria? Do you have any cycling fish in it? Like mollies? What were you told about the live sand? Have you already purchased the sand? How long can it stay in its' container before it needs to go into a tank? All these are questions you need answers to before you proceed any further.

The first thing you should do is check your salinity. It should be 1.025 (seawater). If yours is lower, stir your salt up so it will dissolve. If yours is higher, siphon out the undissolved salt and save it for later when you are doing water changes. Add some fresh water until your salinity measures 1.025.

Any water you add after removing water from the tank should already have salt mixed into it and dissolved (and tested for salinity) before you put it in your tank. Mixing the salt into water in a bucket is the easiest way to get it to dissolve before you put it in the tank. Remember, salt does not evaporate, so if you are just topping it off to replace evaporated water, you just add fresh water, no extra salt. The only time you add salt is when you actually physically take water out of the tank and discard it when you do your partial water changes.

If this is your first experience with a marine tank, you must maintain pristine water quality at all times. Marine creatures are extremely sensitive to water quality. Test, test, test and then test some more. The smaller the tank, the quicker it can go bad on you and kill all your little creatures. A 55 is a good size to start with, it will be fairly stable because of the larger water volume.

http://saltaquarium.about.com/

This is a site that has a lot of good info about marine tanks and how to set up and maintain them.

Good luck.

Answer 4

Are you using live sand? Even so, if there isn't a lot of salt and I mean a cup on the bottom of the tank it is ok to pour it in it isn't going to KILL your sand. Why did you not put the sand in before you added the water? Just curious.

Since you will not be able to have fish for at least 6 weeks it isn't going to make a difference. The salt will have been dissolved way before then. (That is to say it isn't off the record books) Anywhere between 1.01 and 1.3 will work and not harm the cycling process of your tank. You will have to wait 6 weeks and then only with water quality up to par can you add your first fish. Remember no high end fish until your tank cycles a minimum of 6 months. To help the bacteria you can toss in a piece of shrimp to excell the bacteria.

Piece of advice. when you start to do your water changes, which won't be for a while, you do not want your fish to get salt burn, although for salt fish this would take quite a bit of salt. When you mix your salt water in your buckets prior to putting it in the tank, use VERY hot water, not boiled just hot tap water. Use a wooden spoon (I have one I use just for my salt tanks) and give it a good mix. let it settle and mix it again. Finish filling your bucket with your regular water. Test it then pour it into your tank. This will help keep the salt pieces from your tank. If you have the patience, you can add your new water to the rear of the filter to keep any chunks of salt from getting into the tank prior to dissolving.

I really hate when people who don't have salt tanks give bad advice.

Answer 5

I'm really not gonna argue with these folks, but just a point for your future H2o changes. I use Instant Ocean. It really does not take long at all to dissolve in new water that is correct temp(75 for me). I just stir the salt in 5g buckets(correct amount for 5g), let it sit for 5 mins and stir again. Thats it, its fully dissolved. I would have put sand in first, put a plate down, put fully dissolved salt water in tank(over plate to not stir sand). With "quality" live rock(and your live sand), about 1lb per gallon(LR), you can add fish immediatly. Ive been doing FW for 5 yrs and started my SW this way about 1.5yrs ago, and never lost a fish(very little cycle). The "darkside" is not as hard as people make it out to be(corals are different). My next step is upgrading my 55 SW to a 120g(currently FW). I "guarantee" with more LR and possibly more LS, this tank will not see a cycle. Dont underestimate LR(quality not base) and LS. And stir your new water=).

Answer 6

You should definitely wait at least 30 hours. If, after that time, there's still salt on the bottom of the tank, you may have oversaturated the water - not a good thing to do. That will dry out your fish like jerky. You may have to siphon out some of the salt water and add fresh water to balance the equilibrium.

Answer 7

You should maybe wait to add the sand, or else there will be to high of amount of salt, and the tank's Ph will be too high.

Answer 8

I would wait for the salt to dissolve first. You need to have the salt consistent for salt fish to live in. Too much or too little can kill the salt water fish.