Put in Live sand before or after water is put into the tank?

[Capslock]

I will be filling in my tank the next couple of days with RO water and salt mix. I intend to mix the salt in the ro in 5 gallon buckets with the proper dose according to instruction (it has the exact amount for a 5 gallon bucket) and then put it in the tank.

Now at this point I imaging the salinity could end up all over the place and my refractor does not come in for a couple of days.

So, with that said all of my sand is live (40 pounds). Do I put it in before I add the salt water? a little after once there is like 5 gallons in there? wait until the refractor comes in so I know the salinity level?

I know I have been told to put the sand in first but I think this might be a different case?

I would imagine there could be alot of die off if the salinity is too high or too low or fluctuates too much. If I waited I wouldnt fill the tank enough to fill the overflow so when I do put the sand in it doesnt get sucked down to the sump.


Thoughts?

 

[Mthompson]

I just filled my tank over the past three days. I waited until after the salinity was a bit stabilized before I put sand in (120lbs aragonite and 100lbs arave-alive). My thinking was along your line of thought. I also feel that anything in the water will take longer to diffuse through the sand bed, so if the salinity is off, it will stay that way in the sand for longer.

I had an up and running sump that I was connecting, so I had to stabilize the salinity and other parameters before turning on the pumps. I am a believer that any thing live should be acclimated properly to the water conditions they are going into.

 

[WRASSER]

it dosen't matter, it is up to what YOU think is best :wink:

 

[extremepb319]

I would say to at least wait until your refractometer comes because sometimes the directions for mixing salt arent always prefect. like WRASSER said but I would just wait till u check the salinity before adding the sand.