Salt water preparation????

[LA9899]

So as you can imagine I am trying to prepare for my tank delivery. I live in an apartment and storage of RO/DI water and mixed salt water is a problem. My question is once the tank is operating and I need to do a water change can I mix salt into my prepared RO/DI water and use the same day or do I need to wait before adding to the tank. Assuming Salainty is same as tank and temp.

 

[Kal]

What I've learned is just wait for the mix to go from cloudy to clear

 

[JasonK84]

I'd say it just depends on how quickly it all gets dissolved. I've used same day just waited a couple hours to make sure it was all dissolved. Try to go to quickly and you end up with a bunch of white sediment in the bottom of the mixing bucket. That would be your calcium and other supplements that weren't dissolved yet. I have a black bucket and it makes it easy to tell when all of it is mixed well. White buckets would be hard to tell.

 

[GoPitt88]

Yeah, and I throw a heater in my bucket and also wait for it to reach temperature. I usually let mine sit for an hour or so. I mix a 5 gallon bucket.

 

[Jet915]

I put 15 gallons of RODI in a 20 gallon bin, add the salt, put in a wavemaker and heater (during winter), let it mix for an hour while im cleaning tank, check salinity and then add.

 

[PDR]

Some salt mixes are supposed to be mixed overnight, I would just look up what the manufacturer recommends.

 

[GoPitt88]

Some salt mixes are supposed to be mixed overnight, I would just look up what the manufacturer recommends.

Good point. I use Red Sea Coral Pro, which should be used within a few hours I believe.

 

[LA9899]

Thanks everone. The feedback is great. Just no room to store both RO/DI and salt water. It seems alot of folks store both and was wondering if adding right away or within an hour or so would be a prob.

 

[Scurvy]

As said above it depends on the manufacturer. Red Sea and some others say to mix, heat and use almost immediately while others say to mix overnight or for 24 hours then use.