first setting up questions

[~Silly~Spy]

hi guys, i will be setting up m first reef tank tomorrow. and i have a few noob questions. do i need to rinse the sand before using it? its argonite. and how do you guys mix your salt water? im going to do it first in the tank, only because there wont be anything in there for a couple days. but after that do you mix in tank or in a bucket? thanks

 

[fanaglethebagle]

I don't think you really need to rinse the sand if you have a way of filtering it out such as a filter sock. Make sure you use RODI water or you will be running into some cyano problems early on.

 

[Behrmon]

Yes defintly rinse your sand well, the more you rinse first the quicker the tank will clear. As for salt mixing it is best to mix your water in a bucket and tub to ensure proper salinity and nice to throw a P/H in there as well.

 

[marine mike]

One good tip that worked really well for me when filling your tank. First, definitely rinse your sand before putting it in, not the live sand but the regular aragonite definitely rinse. It is the most pia part but the more you rinse it the faster the tank will clear. The tip for you is this: place your sand evenly in the bottom, then place your rock, with no water in the tank it is easy to aquascape it the way you want. Lastly, place some trash bags or even ziplocks over the surface of the sand, that way when you pour or pump in your water it will not disturb the sand that much and also use the rocks to damper the flow of the water into the tank. You then can pull out the bags/ziplocks after the water has come up some and is not splashing the sand as much. I had my tank clear in well under a day using this method even with new sand. best of luck!

 

[~Silly~Spy]

ok thanks guys!

 

[dedfish]

I'd advise against putting rock on top of the sand. I would at least put in some of the bigger rock first so that it rests on the bottom of the tank in a stable manner. One risk of putting the rock on top of the sand is that if you ever introduce any diggers to your tank sometimes they have a tendency to digg under rocks and cause them to shift. I like to make sure that my rock is not going to move and then fill in sand around them.

Also I'd take it real slow at first. Wait a couple of weeks rather than a couple of days to add anything to the tank.