'guestimate' salinity the first days of cycling?

[kilnakorr]

I'm pretty close to finish with my setup, and remaining setup requires water (pumps, flow etc. needs to be running).
I got my bucket of salt ready, but pretty certain my refractometer, is currently waiting wrapped up under the xmas tree

Would it be ok to just add RO water and do an estimate on salt needed, or should I just run with RO water for a day or two?

 

[Reef.]

I'm pretty close to finish with my setup, and remaining setup requires water (pumps, flow etc. needs to be running).
I got my bucket of salt ready, but pretty certain my refractometer, is currently waiting wrapped up under the xmas tree

Would it be ok to just add RO water and do an estimate on salt needed, or should I just run with RO water for a day or two?

what salt is it? you can weight it and get very close, I use Tropic Marin 35g a litre gets me to 35ppt.

 

[laverda]

If there is nothing live in the tank, you can go off the mixing instructions on the bucket. If in doubt error on the low side as it will be easier to correct later.

 

[homer1475]

Most salts recommend 1/2C per gallon of water. That should get you pretty close.

 

[kilnakorr]

what salt is it? you can weight it and get very close, I use Tropic Marin 35g a litre gets me to 35ppt.

Think bucket says 35-39g per liter.
I would have to estimate liters though, since sand and rock displacement is hard to calculate.

Based on the replies already, it seems it'll be fine. Can easily add a little more salt afterwards (or replace with RO, if salinity is on the high side).

 

[Reef.]

Think bucket says 35-39g per liter.
I would have to estimate liters though, since sand and rock displacement is hard to calculate.

Based on the replies already, it seems it'll be fine. Can easily add a little more salt afterwards (or replace with RO, if salinity is on the high side).

Yeah mine also say 35g -41g I think it is, but I find 35g does it.

if no live animals it’ll be fine, just correct before you add any.

a bottle of coke is normally 2 litres, use it to fill a bucket to see how many litres the bucket holds then use the bucket to fill the tank

Not sure on this but I would think you want to get near enough the correct salinity so the bacteria that grows is the ones that live in 35ppt? No idea if that is correct or not.

 

[kilnakorr]

a bottle of coke is normally 2 litres, use it to fill a bucket to see how many litres the bucket holds then use the bucket to fill the tank

I got my salt mixing tank hooked up directly to my tank, so a bucket would be a lot of unnecessary work.
I can't see any major issues as we're talking 2 days, so not much bacteria to hurt

 

[Reef.]

I got my salt mixing tank hooked up directly to my tank, so a bucket would be a lot of unnecessary work.
I can't see any major issues as we're talking 2 days, so not much bacteria to hurt

of course 2 days doesn’t matter much in the system of things but you are the one asking for advice as you don’t want to wait two days Sorry if I was being too helpful.

 

[kilnakorr]

of course 2 days doesn’t matter much in the system of things but you are the one asking for advice as you don’t want to wait two days Sorry if I was being too helpful.

Well, might be a lot of work with buckets. But it will tell me how much water I actually have in my system. Info that could be great to have in the future if I need to medicate or similar.