Help! after moving an established tank to my house, the guy selling it to me dumped a lot of salt on top of the wet live sand and live rock and turned up RODI to fill tank. He did this before I could stop him. When I saw it and protested he told me no worries...the salt will dissolve slowly and no risk to bacteria in live sand or rock. They can survive higher salinity, etc.
I pulled out the live rock immediately and put it in buckets with some of the water we saved from before moving the tank. (Where salt was on rock/sand, it was very hot). 12 hours later, my tank is still filling with RODI, salt still lying on live sand. I’m guessing salinity is very high, but who knows at what salinity? I’m guessing there have been pockets of RODI/salt water in different places.
What did salt or RODI do to live sand? What’s my best and worst case scenario as far as preserving any bacteria or critters in sand or rock? Does it matter? Most of rock is sitting in a bucket.. As I said, I pulled it out immediately, but had to rinse salt off with the incomng RODI to remove salt he had poured.
The sump underneath is established, bioballs, brick, filter media, etc. After tank fills in 12 hrs or so, I plan to check salinity before turning on sump. Even if all the bacteria in sand died, shouldn’t the sump bacteria be enough to restart this tank? Many other questions...
Thoughts?
(yes, I know the water should be mixed before hand. I didn’t do it and saw it when it was too late).
