I did the same thing, had 1.035 salinity and bacteria was still growing quite rapidly. From the very beginning I used ammonia chloride up to 2ppm for my fishless cycle and added fritz 900 turbo start. withing 2-3 days my ammonia was down to 0 and my nitrites were at 5ppm+ / nitrate 0ppm. This was when I noticed that my salinity was way too high and slowly made the adjustment down to 1.025-1.026 on the salinity over abut 2 days. On day 3 after noticing high salinity (ammonia still at 0ppm and nitrite 5ppm+ / nitrate 0ppm) I added more ammonia chloride to the tank back up to 2ppm. The next day my ammonia was at .25ppm, nitrite 5ppm and nitrate 10ppm. The cycle continued to progress through the change in salinity and nothing seemed to die off. However it is important to note that I was adding beneficial bacteria every day. The whole time I was running the tank between 80 degrees Fahrenheit to 81 degrees. My PH is 7.9. I have about 20-30 pounds of dry rock and 40 pounds of wet sand in the tank at start. Hope the tank is doing well!
