salinity

[pesto]

is there a way i can make my salinity higher in my tank. it seems to be droping and i dont no y any help would be great thanks

[Eb0la11]

Add salt...?

[pesto]

thanks tips but how much should i add and how fast over how long would kind of help

[Flucker]

You need a hydrometer it will show you the salinity you need.

Flucker

[Eyford01]

possible loss due to salt creep? try a water change with slightly higher salinity maybe? just careful if you drop and salt in the tank even little bits of creep, i had a little piece of creep from the lid land on my trumpet coral and it was only there for a couple seconds before i blew it off with the turkey baster but it created an open wound where it killed a little chunk of flesh... healed eventually though

[pesto]

i have one and i will try a water change with higher salinity i just dont want to shock my tank but i got to figer out y its going down and it thanks for the help and it was at 023 then went down to o22 now its a little under o22 but everything seems to be doing fine still just dont want nothing to happen to my tank

[globaldesigns]

I would take out some water, then add salt to that removed water to increase salinity.

For example if your tank is 200 gallons, take out 10 gallons and increase salt... If salinity is 1.023, then increase it to 1.026, mix and then re-add

The above procedure probably will increase your salinity overall by .001 point, use your hydrometer or refractometer to test... Do this once a day until desired salinity is reached. You will probably need less salt added as you get closer to your optimal range, so just be careful.

Once achieved, your salinity should stay at that, unless you have salt creep, just keep an eye on things and rub the salt creep back into the tank.

[fkshiu]

First of all NEVER add salt directly into your tank. Always dissolve first before adding.

My bet is that you are wet skimming a lot of salt water out and then replacing it with fresh water.

[StirCrazy]

:mrgreen:ok befor you get carried away, you have to do a control first..

what you do is measure your Sg, ad a knowen amount of salt desolved in water then measure Sg to see how much it went up.

what I recomend is to warm up some RO water.. add some salt and mix well (I would need to know the size of your tank and water volume to recomend a starting amount of salt) measure the Sg add the mixture in a high flow area wait 1 hour and measure Sg again.

(this is based on a salt mix requiring 1/2 cup per gal) if you look at it another way 50 cups of salt will raise 100 gal .026, so 5 cups of salt will raise 100 gal of water aprox 0.0026,

so 1 cup will raise

100 gal aprox 0.00052
10 gal aprox 0.0052

so if you have a 40 gal that is at 1.024 and you want to raise it to 1.026 you need to add about 16 cups of salt (double check my math befor following, its early and I am getting kids ready at the same time :mrgreen:)

Steve

[Red Coral Aquariums]

Step 1

Take your hydrometer to one of 2 places.
1) LFS that has a refractometer and test its accuracy
2) Garbage can and buy a refractometer

Make sure before you start making too many changes you get an accurate salinity measurement.
Kevin

[HL649]

Another option would be to add a little salt to your makeup water everyday. That way the salinity will slowly rise.

[pesto]

thanks for all the help and i have a 50g tank with a 20g sump and i just want to get my tank back to were it was with out hurting anything and am geting rid of the hydrometer and geting a Refractometer does anyone no what one i should get what are some good ones thanks

[intarsiabox]

JL Aquatics has a good temperature compensated vertex model for $49.95.