New Start-up Question

[ericegg01]

So I'm taking the plunge again and doing this slowly as the budget only allows this. 2 part question.

I have all my sand (light sand bed but don't want bare bottom) I need at this point but I'm still waiting on some dry rock to be received. I have 3/4 of my scape done and in the display. Once I get the other rock I'll be done. So I just want to know if it is ok to start rinsing the caribsea aragonite sand (it's not live live sand) and start placing it in the display. I don't plan on filling the tank until a few weeks from now. So will the rinsed sand give off an odor?

It'll take 5-7days to fill the tank via ro-di unit then add salt.
2nd part of question is...

Is there a preferred way of doing this? My thought was to just dump salt cup by cup into the return section of my sump. Or is there a better way of doing this.

It's 260 gallons with sumps in all. I fear I'll be sitting there for hours dumping cups in and I'll end up with a pile of salt.

Question 2a: Say my arm falls asleep half way through can I stop and begin again the next day?

I'm worried I'll mess with the cycle as I want to do this the tried and true method of adding a piece of live rock to the dead once filled and waiting the 6weeks.

 

[DeniseAndy]

You can rinse that sand anytime. I would not think it would cause much odor since you are filling it soon. If you are going with dry sand and dry rock, you will need to get the cycle going your self. That is easy enough, but first get your water at sea level salinity then worry about starting your cycle.

In other words, go ahead and fill with ro/di over however long it takes. Add salt in however you think will work best. Make sure it is mixed well. Maybe keep some 5 gallons out in a bucket and mix them with tons of salt then add to the sump that way. Once salinity is 36 or specific gravity 1.025 you are ready to start the cycling part.

Yes, if your arm falls asleep or something else comes up i.e. legs fall asleep, boredom sets in, hunger, you can start again whenever. You have nothing in the tank that will be effected as you start this process. You just do not want to begin the cycle till your salinity is correct.

Are you using the ammonia method, bacteria in a bottle method, raw shrimp method or not sure yet?

 

[sfin52]

If you add the salt in a high flow zone I doubt you’ll have a pile of salt. Sand in itself doesn’t really have a odor so rinsing is a good idea. Wish I would have done that. My tank was cloudy for days ;Facepalm I had turn on filters to remove all the fine particles. Than had to clean filters the next day;Facepalm. All good. I would also clean those rocks the best you can and add some bacteria ie Dr. Tim. It really helps the cycle.

 

[ericegg01]

Are you using the ammonia method, bacteria in a bottle method, raw shrimp method or not sure yet?

That is what I'm going back and forth on... The Dr.Tims method, but what I was going to do is just go and get live rock from LFS to "seed" the process, no rotting shrimp, just die off from the lfs bought rock and wait the 6 weeks. There is no rush on my part here. That is the method I had done before.

I had an idea of using one of my 32 gallon cans and place a pumps (2) one to cycle water from display into can and one to mix salt in the can, but maybe the 5 gal bucket is a better option. Or maybe I'll just use the 32 can to mix a lot more salt in one shot then pump back in.

 

[sfin52]

Right one live rock will be good but adding bacteria is always a good idea.

 

[ericegg01]

So I started filling the tank today... Dr.Tims Bacteria and ammonia are on the way and hopefully I'll be operational by the weekend.

I have a 32g brute can and was contemplating filling it with RO-DI get to 77* temp then dumping cup by cup of salt into this brute can until my 160gal bucket of salt is empty. Then take my other bucket of 160gal salt and use half of that to get to 240 then pump that into DT.

Is there any concern with mixing 240gal of salt into 32g of water?

 

[sfin52]

Other than it being high in salinity you should be fine.

I really never had a large cycle. I added live sand and 35lbs of live rock to my tank with seachem stability and a water change from a friends tank never had a bad cycle. About a week and a half cycle was done. I did that in my 75 gallon tank. My 55 took even less time.

 

[ericegg01]

This is my first attempt at the "dose bacteria and ammonia" approach... I'm used to the old method. But they say it works so here goes nothing. After 48 hours I'll introduce a cured rock from LFS.