What's up with my salt levels?

Picasso

Picasso

Seahorse Whisperer
I've been needing to top off my tank for a while. So yesterday I check my salt level and it's up to almost 1.024. I had some RO water so I added that slowly (one cup at a time) until my level was back down to 1.022 and a half. I mixed up a few gallons of salt water to add to my tank and let it sit overnight. This morning, I go in to add my salt water- to top it off because my water level is still down- and my tank is back up to 1.024! I added all the rest of my unused RO water until the level was down. In the process I notice a few dead pods swirling around so I'm thinking maybe I shouldn't add RO water to my tank???? Then I added the rest of my salt water I added yesterday. Isn't all this adding different temp water bad? Should I add regular RO water? I hope my GSP isn't going to die now :frustrat:

again, Thanks,
Catherine
 
Ohhh my. j/k Theres nothing wrong with having 1.024, actually natural sea salinity levels are usually around 1.026 or a little less than that. Your GSP should be fine, just make your adjustments very slowly, you don't want to change from 1.022 to 1.024 within a day or so, just to be safe. Most corals prefer higher salinity than 1.022 (at least that's what all the reefkeeping books say).
Your RO top off should be dripped in with an air line as slowly as possible, especially with the small volume of water your tank has. And RO water is hands down better for your tank than tap, I think your pods must have died for some other reason. Good luck!
 
Your RO top off should be dripped in with an air line as slowly as possible, especially with the small volume of water your tank has. And RO water is hands down better for your tank than tap, I think your pods must have died for some other reason. Good luck!



oops. I added about 2 gallons within the space of a half an hour. darn.

Catherine
 
Airline (like the kind you use for airstones on a freshwater tank)or some other small diameter tubing to allow a slow dripping, or if you really had nothing else to do, trickle the water in by hand with a cup. Dumping a couple gallons in over a half hour would probably be ok in a big tank (200 or more gallons), but with only 20 or 30 gallons, thats a huge change in a short period of time. You want that fresh water added very slowly so the salinity doesn't drop too fast. Say if you didn't add any top off water for a whole day, tank water evaporated and the salinity rose slightly, but it happened over a whole day, not an hour or less. Hope that helps a little.
 
Ok, so we get one of those airstones and put the water where? How do you get the water through the motor? Isn't water through a motor bad?

Catherine
 
You don't need an airstone or motor. Just the tubing. If you start a siphon and loosely tie a knot in the airline to control flow, one end of the line in the freshwater, the other end in your tank.
 
oh! I can do that! THANKS!!! If I didn't kill everything in my tank today, I'll definately do that next time!

Catherine
 
1.022 while not bad is a little bit low actually. Natural salt water is said to be 35 pmm on a refractometer which comes to somewhere around 1.026
 
Hmm i never slow drip my top off water. Thats all new to me. I top off about 2 gallons a day and just dump it in. Just waiting for my last pieces to come in for my DIY ato from Fatman then I wont have to worry about it anymore.

EDIT Do you only have to drip when you a dosing Kalk?
 
ryan your top off water is straight RO right or does it have salt in it? I just top off with RO because as water evaporates the salt stays in the water and gets higher and higher salinity. I think most people just dump water straight in since it should be only a small percentage of your tank not 10% or something which causes more of an effect.
 
Ok, I just took my salt reading again and it's 1.023. Does anyone know how much water should be put in a 26 gallon tank each day? Thanks, Catherine
 
Replace as much as you are losing. It's going to vary from tank to tank, depending on the weather, temperature of the water, filtration, lighting, etc.

If it helps, you can take a Sharpie and draw a little line on the back of the tank where you want your water level to be. Then top off to that same line every day.
 
Oh, great idea! If other people put in 2 gallons and they've got big tanks, I shouldn't need that much. I didn't think I would need to do it daily though. I've got to get my RO/DI unit this week, my only RO source is my LFS and the guy there kind of creeped me out on Friday! For complete story see my blog: www.catherinethereefkeeper.blogspot.com. Wish we lived in a bigger city!

Thanks for all the help, you guys are terrific!

Catherine
 
You should definitely invest in a RO/DI unit, in the long run its way cheaper than buying it from the store and gas driving there, the time you waste, etc. Very convenient to have it on tap at home. If your tank is open top then it will evaporate much more than one with an enclosed canopy. Also if you blow a fan across the top of the water to help cool in warm weather, it will evaporate like crazy.
 
RyanG, you most definitely have to drip kalk, or else it may cause some crazy pH swing and shock the hell out of your corals. With your 180g, dumping in 2 gallons of top off all at once is probably just fine IMO unless you have something extremely sensitive.
 
Catherine....lmfao! That is a funny story but its nature...i cant stop laughing. The Very Nice Creepy Guy was just showing you why you dont really want that fish. I love pinacle predators.
 
Correct me if I read wrong, but you shouldn't be using salt water for your top off, only for changes. When you get evaporation, your water goes, but salt stays, so your salinity goes up. When you top up with plain ro water, the number goes back down to normal
 

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