Initial tank filling

dym

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I was wondering if it was okay to mix salt directly in the tank, when there's nothing in the tank except sand. doing it with buckets would take way too long for me because i just have 2 5 gallon buckets and unable to buy something bigger right now. i have a 125 gallon tank. i will do dry sand, add rodi water and then the appropriate amount of salt slowly, then live sand. is this okay? itll be running for a month+ to cycle. the reason im asking is because i have a 100 gallons per day rodi system and it would take really long to control it
 

rayadog

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It would be fine if it’s bare bottom. You might need to mix up anything that settles on surfaces and I would just be conservative. I.e. calculate salt, then check and then check again the next day.
 
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dym

dym

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It would be fine if it’s bare bottom. You might need to mix up anything that settles on surfaces and I would just be conservative. I.e. calculate salt, then check and then check again the next day.
thx. it will have sand on the bottom though. do u think i should turn off any filters incase it takes in salt and just use a powerhead you think? i could do barebottom at first but im afraid the water will be cloudy forever if i add sand later
 

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Hmm. I forget if I added sand before or after… but initially I mixed in tank. But have added more sand later. I think it would be fine either way, the sand should clear up in 2 days but probably don’t need to have anything ripping if you do at sand later. Probably wouldn’t want it sucked it to anything. And yea filter could be turned on a little while after you have everything mixing in the tank. It shouldn’t harm anything but Idk what filter you have. If it’s salt in the filter it’ll still dissolve.
 

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