your knowhow on mixing the initial water

[romunov]

I have come to an interesting dilemma(=read Newman style (you know, from Seinfeld)).
I have finally started preparing RO water for my tank to be. I have a 100L canister where the RO water drips. To make everything easier, I want to start dripping the water into the tank directly and adding salt (tropic marin) later. The thing is that I already have a deep sand bed in there. It's pretty fine sand (silt actually - 0 - 0,2mm grain size and it looks like flour). Would the salt ions get inside the sand(fast enough)? Would I need to stir (not shake) it...? I hope you can understand my concern. :D

Regards,
Roman

[romunov]

Another question on salt. Are salts made to be mixed with RO water or regular tap water? Grotech sells some "Mineral pro" product to add to RO water prior to mixing. Another plecebo perhaps?

[jfinch]

Are you asking if it's ok to fill your sand bottomed tank with RO water and then after the fact add salt? If so, you'll be ok, imo.

You don't need to add anything to your RO water either for top off or for the salt mix. Many people add kalkwasser to their top off RO water for calcium/alkalinity maintanance, but it's not required.

[romunov]

I appreciate your response, thanks. :D

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Yes, It is OK to add the salt after the sand and water. I wouldn't add the salt and sand, then slowly add the water. The very high temporary salinity may lead to precipitation of calcium and magnesium carbonate. I agree that just RO water is the way to go unless you determine that you really want to correct some parameter in the new water.