Salt Won't Mix

[J-P]

I can't really comment on the biowheel other than ditch it into the "parts" box. You won't need it for a marine tank.

Depending on how you want to go.. you can go full marine in a few days, if not a day.

There is no need to rush things, but it can be done.

[jenrkit84]

I wanted to go the live rock route, but I would need to upgrade the tank. I just don't think it would be fair to the little dude in a 30 gallon tank with 30lbs of rock, so my options at this time are to upgrade the filter to a canister for awhile. Not too sure what I am going to do permanently, as we have no more room for a tank any larger until we redo the 3rd floor of our house, but who knows when that will be.

[J-P]

The canister filter can't have any media in it other than live rock rubble for a full marine tank.

Have you looked into a sump option? An HOB overflow into a sump (under the tank) is certainly doable. If you have room for a sump, you may have room for a skimmer or at least a HOB skimmer.

I know canister filters can be used in a marine environment, but I have not seen one do anything really other than provide more circulation and flow. IMO they are too small to provide adequate filtration to anything other than a nano tank.

Again that is personal choice and others may be able to recommend a different set up, closer to your vision.

[jenrkit84]

Even something like this?:

http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/237752/product.web

And replace the filtration media with live rock?

[Pufferpunk]

Your water should be heated tropical temps. Salt won't mix well at room temp. Use a powerhead & mix overnight.

Rinse your hydrometer with hot water. When filled with BW, be sure to knock it against the table, to get all bubbles off the swingarm.

Compare your hydrometer to one with one your LFS is using.

[RTR]

I am lazy. I use spare tanks to mix SW or BW. Life is so much easier. The tank is fitted with an internal filter and heater.

The math used above in this thread is pretty scary:

1.002 x 4 = 1.008, certainly not 4.008 - that is absurd, as it represents 4000 times 1.002, not 4 times.

Specific gravity of .02 is meaningless or misleading, take your pick. If 1.002 is intended, write it that way. The numeral "1" before the decimal represents pure FW, 100% or better 100.0% H20 with no other elements detectable in the first three units after the decimal. In practice for light BW we may use tap water, which is likely to have some numeral in the third and very likely to have such in the fourth decimal place, but for light BW it does not matter and can be ignored.

C'mon folks. US money is decimal based. The entire metric system is decimal based. So is specific gravity. Please engage your mind before using your fingers.

Purified water is 1.000.... with as many zeros or numbers as you are willing to use, but three after the decimal is usually enough. Add some marine mix and warm to tank temperature with mixing. 1.002 is about the lightest BW we work with. Double that density is 1.004, four times that density is 1.008. Simple, isn't it?

Please, please, can we all speak the same language?

[Pufferpunk]

bugs me too but I have to realize they're new at this. Glad for the correction here though, RTR's RIGHT!

[J-P]

yep yep been skooled

[jus85411]

Generally powerheads are circulation pumps, or more specifically, flow pumps. Only a few are lift pumps.

powerheads are also sometimes called "weird jet thingy's"

Anyone want to come to my house and do this for me, I will pay in beer... lol

i like beer and live in PA!

[RTR]

Folks get confused over all the new language they have to learn to keep fish wisely. When we change the numbers on them it must be really frustrating.

[J-P]

On a layman's note:
I asked my mother to take the number 1.002 and multiply it by four (4). She came up with the same result (4.008).

Just raw numbers and not understanding anything about density.

Of course you are correct. Consistency is key. We just have to remember that the one (1) prior to the decimal point is not changed or effected by the multiplication. I think that is why when dealing with the numbers we (new salt users) drop the 1 (one) all together. Thus you see .02

Although the math is correct, I will try to be more consistent with placing the one (1) prior to the decimal point.

[RTR]

But as specific gravity or simple math, ".02" is never correct notation. Mathematically, there must always be a number in from of a decimal point, even if it just a zero, so it would be written 0.02. That would mean that if you wrote it as specific gravity, it would be "1.020". That would not work at all - it should be 1.002, which happens to be only one tenth of 1.020. The difference would be live fish or dead fish.

We may only use the last two digits of the specific gravity, but to avoid confusing those unfamiliar with the notation we should always write out the entire set.

We do not do as badly with pH - which actually should be more confusing since it is a negative exponent and a one-unit change represents a 10x difference in ion concentration.

[Cheeto]

here is a link that really helped me do the math for mixing salt viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19348

[sevenyearnight]

Generally powerheads are circulation pumps, or more specifically, flow pumps. Only a few are lift pumps.

powerheads are also sometimes called "weird jet thingy's"

Lmao!

[jus85411]

Generally powerheads are circulation pumps, or more specifically, flow pumps. Only a few are lift pumps.

powerheads are also sometimes called "weird jet thingy's"

Lmao!

was waiting for you on that one