add salt to water, or water to salt?

[areze]

new setup, water to salt is easier... Im worried that high concentrations of salt while its filling could be problems for some dissolved substances? like they precipitate out of the solution somehow...

any such possibility?

[Slakker]

I would do salt to water, and BEFORE you add sand (or the salt could get mixed in with the sand and leech out for quite a long time, throwing SG off.)

[scapes]

I always add salt to water

[kielty]

Add the salt to the water otherwise the salt will supersature at high
concentrations and not mix properly....

[areze]

ok, I thought that might be an issue. I was more thinking for water changes, not new tank setup. water change tank, be easy to dump a bag of salt in while its empty and then pump in water. but no biggie to do it the other way.

[sk8rreefgeek]

nah, you gotta mix the new SW first before dumping it in the display.
I mix mine up before I siphon, so it's ready to go

[areze]

no I realize that, this is purely a container for doing water changes. its looped into the main system, adds to the total volume of water, but is otherwise isolated from the system. basicly its like a display or a fuge plumbed from the common sump. day to day, its just dead weight, 50g of water turning over at about 250gph. for water changes I kill the pump, close the valves and drain it dry. then I mix up a new batch of salt water in there, open the valves back up and get to pumping again. it slowly mixes with the tank water over time, limiting shock to the system, and I never affect the water level in the display, sump, or fuge. totally isolated system.

but as such, the question was, after I close the valves and drain the tank, do I dump in the salt before or after I fill it back up with RO/DI water. and apparently the answer is after.

[spshead01]

fill it back up with ro/di first for sure! Make sure you let it mix for a while before you reconnect it with your system I let mine mix at least over night.

[areze]

yep, got a pump in there purely to mix it around. heater also.