Can I cycle with high salinity?

[DiverGirl82]

So I've been working all week on filling my new 60g cube and it's been one issue after another. One issue is that apparently the calibration fluid I bought to use with the refractometer isn't worth a crap. It kept saying my salinity was too low so I kept adding more salt. Someone suggested I try calibrating it with rodi water and I discovered my salinity was through the roof. I spent the entire day yesterday working on bringing it down. I did another 5g salt for fresh swap this morning and it's down to 1.030. Can I just go ahead and cycle it and then when I do the water change put more fresh water in to bring it down? Would that screw up the cycle?

 

[brandon429]

Yes


The reason why you can is because there are places in nature that high and its among the ranges bacteria adapt to quite easily. Its the trending towards freshwater that we find other genera adapting to the nitrifier mode of gaining energy

 

[Downbeach]

I would not calibrate with RO/DI water, you should be using a solution that has a refractive index close to the sample you will be testing.

Here's an article worth reading:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-12/rhf/index.php#13

 

[DiverGirl82]

Thank goodness. If I had to spend another entire day making rodi water I was going to snap.

 

[brandon429]

diver we can see some challenging cycle threads up top as of recent so we need more info on what you are calling a cycle, this range is very important to know

Most of the current threads are people putting in fully cured live rock thinking there is no bacteria, and cycling those ready to go rocks with rotten ammonia as an attempt to add bacteria.

My response above was concerning the actual act of cycling dead rocks into bacteria covered LR, the high range salt won't prevent that


But if you are adding live rocks to .030 and then back to normal quickly thats a whole different scenario of whether that should be done, but it will have no bearing on your bacteria either way.

 

[cloak]

Being that the proper salinity will be crucial later, you might as well just get into the habit of keeping the SG stable from the start.

 

[DiverGirl82]

This is what I originally used. I was mixing my water in 20g containers. According to the instructions on the salt it should have taken 10C of salt. Because my refractometer kept saying my salinity was too low I ended up using 16C of salt. I even tried calibrating it multiple times thinking it had to be wrong but I kept getting the same results. So I thought well maybe I got some bad salt or something. Once I tried calibrating it with rodi it showed my salinity was 1.050. At this point I don't really trust the refractometer at all.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PHGGRMC?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

 

[DiverGirl82]

diver we can see some challenging cycle threads up top as of recent so we need more info on what you are calling a cycle, this range is very important to know

Most of the current threads are people putting in fully cured live rock thinking there is no bacteria, and cycling those ready to go rocks with rotten ammonia as an attempt to add bacteria.

My response above was concerning the actual act of cycling dead rocks into bacteria covered LR, the high range salt won't prevent that


But if you are adding live rocks to .030 and then back to normal quickly thats a whole different scenario of whether that should be done, but it will have no bearing on your bacteria either way.

I've used dry rock. BRS reef saver dry rock. So it's never been in the ocean. And live sand. That's all that's in the tank at the moment. I got some Microbacter7 and I was planning on either using a raw shrimp or pure ammonia to get it started. I've been watching YouTube videos about using ammonia and I thought that sounds preferable to the house reeking of rotten shrimp.

 

[DiverGirl82]

I would not calibrate with RO/DI water, you should be using a solution that has a refractive index close to the sample you will be testing.

Here's an article worth reading:

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-12/rhf/index.php#13

The link says page not found

 

[DiverGirl82]

Praise the Lord! After 15 gallons of water change yesterday and another 15 gallons today I'm finally at 1.025 on the nose. If it hadn't come down I think I would have cried. I'm going to have it checked by a lfs before I get to the point of putting any critters in though. Just in case.