So I made a regrettable mistake today when I added 75 gallons worth of salt straight to my 80 gallon tank. i have no fish in it, but I do have cichlid sand. My problem is that a lot of the salt is resting on top of the sand.

Does anyone have any tips on how I can remedy this problem?

I don't know what to tell you on how to fix it, but your suppose to mix your salt with water before putting it into your tank.

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Aim a powerhead or two down towards the sand. This will more then likely cloud the tank, but will help mix the sand. Sad to say but you may have killed off anything you had alive in the tank. Live and learn there is a reason you should never add salt strait to your tank.

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If you don't have power heads, or in addition to using them (which you can aim one facing one direction across front of tank, and the other in opposite direction in back of tank a few inch's above and across the substrate)
You can use several airstones placed on the sand.

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Salt should be mixed with water before adding to tank. I'm afraid you really messed up. sorry about that.

Thanks for the replies guys, and I have good news! I took a spatula and just mixed everything around. I figured I didn't have anything to lose considering there's nothing in it. Anyway I let it all situate over night and by morning... no undissolved salt!

I now have a couple pounds of live rock and 4 mollies 2 Orange and 2 Black

Speaking of live rock I found a deal locally where I can purchase 100lbs of live rock at a dollar a pound, is it ok to put that much live rock in at once?

That sound like to much salt for the mollies I maybe wrong..

Greenleaf... Mollies are a saltwater adaptable fish, and are often used for cycling in lieu of more expensive fish

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I been in this hobby for a few years now and the one thing I have watched happen is different ways to cycle a tank. Back when saltwater tank became popular mid 80's or so Mollies where the way to go. As this hobby evolved other ways to cycle came to light. I say this to say and this is just my opinion I think it's harsh to doom fish to start our tanks. Again this is just my opinion.

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Of course with the variety of ways to cycle a tank I am not advocating the old school way of putting undue stress or sacrificing fish to cycle.
I am just passing on information as to the fact that mollies happen to be saltwater tolerant. Based on sweetgreen's post

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I didn't become aware of the fishless cycle method until I already had fish. Is there an easy way to remove the fish from the tank while I cycle it with ammonia? If not, I don't think it's gonna be too harsh on the fish considering I'm still at 0 ppm for ammonia levels.

Well you can of course just pull the fish and put them in another tank till that one is ready.
I would suggest that you google the various was of cycling a saltwater tank.
There are indeed ways to decrease the stress impact on the fish, and using live rock.
So instead of paraphrasing the whole process, just google it.
If you feel that you don't understand what you find, or dont find what your looking for any of us will help with specific questions

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I have done quite a bit of reading on the science and theory behind cycling but when it comes to practically applying it all, well that's a different story :D Thanks for the support all

Keep this in mind the fish didn't read the same stuff we did, and none of us have gills. So we are all guessing at this. Old school is just that an old way of doing things. That's not saying they don't work. I have cycled close to 50 tanks since I've been here, and I find that cured live rock live sand and a piece of table shrimp and some time will give you a good start. The object here is to start a good strong bacteria base. Even using damsels they may live through the cycle but it does damage the gill of the fish. And I'm surprised beaslbob has not chimed in with using plant life to cycle a tank. But I find using plant life without using a sump/fuge it's more work sectioning off the tank to make this work. I hear a lot of new hobbyist say I've read a lot on this subject then find they did but just on one way of doing things. I'm saying these things not to say you are doing anything wrong because your not. This is for that next hobbyist that is looking for a few different ways of cycling a tank.

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Well notably using plants in salt water is not an option, but using macro algae is...
Macroalgae such as Halimeda, Maiden's Hair, and Caulerpa to name a few can be very benificial.
So check it out, see what you think, do what's best for you.

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Macro algae is a plant my friend.

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Umm... No it's not a true vascular plant. (And I did not say it wasn't)
But basically yes a plant as defined by the ways it photosynthesizes and other criteria, but lives in SALTWATER, which is what is needed in this case, as a saltwater tank cannot be cycled with freshwater plants.
Ergo the alternative is.... Macroalgae

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ReefCleaners.org | Clean Up Crews and Macro Algae - Macroalgae Care
For anybody who wants more info on it usefulness

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So these macro's in my tank are not vascular plants?

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