Sand before or after filling tank

[unclebuck134]

Probobly a silly question but have all my dry rock in the tank waiting on my RO system so I'm bored and I want to put my dry sand in. My concern being I plan on mixing my salt right in my tank. Should I wait on the sand until I mix the salt? Thanks for the help

 

[thirty6]

Usually its rock, sand, water. Prob be fine. Its dry sand correct?

 

[unclebuck134]

Yes dry sand. Won't be a problem mixing the salt in the tank with the sand already in?

 

[thirty5]

Rock, then sand, then water. I would not mix the salt in the tank. Well unless you dump it in your sump and let the circulation mix it. Or just mix a small amount of water with the salt to get it really high in salt content and then dump that into the tank.

This may be up for debate, but I am not a fan of dumping raw salt on top of the sand.

 

[thirty6]

Itll prob easier to premix salt but if nothing alive in tank not sure it matters. Patience is what everyone preaches anout hobby. Id wait until your all set then just do all at once. Keep goin through this site. Some of older threads That you find searching are pretty informative

 

[jgraz]

Well unless you dump it in your sump and let the circulation mix it.

This is what I did. After filling tank with RO I just slowly added salt to the sump and let it mix before adding a bit more. I did this only a little at a time though. Never encountered a problem.

 

[KathyC]

Probobly a silly question but have all my dry rock in the tank waiting on my RO system so I'm bored and I want to put my dry sand in. My concern being I plan on mixing my salt right in my tank. Should I wait on the sand until I mix the salt? Thanks for the help

Yes, you can do it IF:
-->you plan on using power heads to mix the salt into the water. If you are trying to mix it manually - don't do it.

--> You have filled the tank entirely with water.
Do NOT try and mix your salt into a small quantity of water and then add that to the tank.

One more suggestion: after you add your sand..put a clean plastic bag over the sand before you add the water so that you do not stir up the sand or you will have a cloudy mess.
Also be sure to rinse the sand well (to get out as much sand dust as possible!) before you add it to the tank.

 

[vinnymang]

Probobly a silly question but have all my dry rock in the tank waiting on my RO system so I'm bored and I want to put my dry sand in. My concern being I plan on mixing my salt right in my tank. Should I wait on the sand until I mix the salt? Thanks for the help

I stupidly added water first, mixed the salt in the tank, then added LR and then live sand (you can add live sand straight to the tank w/o rinsing, why it appealed to me). It was very hard to distribute the sand around the tank evenly in this order and was a very stressful way to do things worrying about the water level as well. So if I were to do it again, I would agree with most people on this thread when they say add your rock, then your sand (wash it if it's dry sand) so it gives the rock a solid foundation, then add your pre-mixed salt RO/DI water. I like @KathyC 's idea using a plastic bag over the sand when adding water to not stir it up. This is definitely a smart way to approach it.

P.S. I hope you did a leak test on your tank first and then drained it! Also making sure the tank is leveled. Realized after everything was in the tank that mine wasn't level. Learn from my mistakes!:smile:

 

[R and R Aquatics]

Rock then add sand then mix water