salt placement

[Calgarynewtankguy]

If i need to adjust the salinity of my tank, where would the best place be for adding it; right into the display? into the over flow? or in the sump??

i thought with evaporation my water would stay a fairly consistent number but I have noticed it dropping some what over a week to 2 weeks.

[Mandosh]

Higher salinity water change, or slightly salty top-off water...but your salinity shouldn't typically be dropping.

[mrhasan]

Maybe the skimmer is producing too much wet skimmate?

[gregzz4]

If you have room like I do, just add some extra aged SW to the sump. Through evaporation your Sg will rise, giving you a slower elevation rate

As for your Sg dropping
It's possible it's dropped as you have added more FW than you thought, or your skimmer is taking it out and being replaced with FW from your ATO

Maybe put a piece of masking tape on the outside of your return section and mark it with a pen or such
Now you can keep an eye on your level

Calibrate your Refractometer to be sure it's all good. Then, before a WC, test your DT water. This will let you know if you need to replace the same amount of water, or adjust it to compensate for a swing in Sg

[duncangweller]

You shouldn't add salt directly to your DT or probably your sump for that matter.

Mix up some salt water and like the previous person said add it through you top up procedure or do a small water change and some water with higher salinity that the current DT level.

Sent from my HTC Incredible S using Tapatalk 2

[Calgarynewtankguy]

I am not entirely sure that i have my skimmer fine tuned properly. i have it set to the max amount that it can skim.

is it possible that it is taking salt out of the system??

[gregzz4]

is it possible that it is taking salt out of the system??
I just tested my collection cup and it reads about 1.015
I dump about 500ml per week max when it's skimming too wet
Closer to 250ml/week when it's working best

If you're dumping your cup lots, that's where it's going

[Leah]

What is your salinity at?

If you have no fish or corals you can just put some in or you can stop topping up till it catches up to the salinity you want.

[molotov]

without much of a bioload your skimmer probably won't produce much skimmate. It's also strange your salinity is dropping. Not that it matters much but out of curiosity, what salt brand are you using.

Also mix your saltwater solution in a different container/bucket/reservoir and add it after it's had a chance to fully dissolve. Place a maxijet in your bucket to do the mixing for you.

[Calgarynewtankguy]

i am using instant ocean.

my bio load is small. some zoa's a couple of cardinals, one blenny, one goby, one sea hare slug, and a host of CUC

i have seen a cup or more a day in my collection cup.

my salinity was sitting at 1.026 for the longest time then recently dropped to 1.023 (i know it is still in a decent range but dont want it to drop off much more)

I will keep an eye on it and may be pull back on the skimmer.

I have been topping with RO and seems to be topping up a lot lately (i assumed it was the dry winter weather)

All very good things things for me to check. thanks for the advice

[sphelps]

What are you measuring salinity with?

[Calgarynewtankguy]

a refractometer

What are you measuring salinity with?

[gregzz4]

Just an FYI
1.023 is on the cusp of lethal to everything except your fish

Definately dial back your skimmer
Ideally your skimmate should be darkish, like regular to strong tea

[11purewater]

Are you noticing any excessive salt creep in,around, behind anything?

[Calgarynewtankguy]

I did have some salt showing up around my sump caused from splash out if my emergency drain. I have since extended the pipe an fixed that.

I will keep an eye on my values.

[gregzz4]

Any update ?

[Madreefer]

Just an FYI
1.023 is on the cusp of lethal to everything except your fish

Definately dial back your skimmer
Ideally your skimmate should be darkish, like regular to strong tea

Where do you get this info from? 1.023 is lethal why? Most of the LFS that i've been to keep there salinity at 1.021 And also can you explain how skimming is removing salt out of the water? I had this discussion with another newbie on this site and his answer was that another member told him this. I could'nt find the thread until now. I have never experienced any such thing and I empty alot of skimate out per week with an evaporation of 10G of water per week as well. It's topped up with fresh water and no salt added. I'm looking forward to hearing a solution for when my skimmer starts to make my salinity drop so I can fix it.

[gregzz4]

Where do you get this info from? 1.023 is lethal why? Most of the LFS that i've been to keep there salinity at 1.021 And also can you explain how skimming is removing salt out of the water? I had this discussion with another newbie on this site and his answer was that another member told him this. I could'nt find the thread until now. I have never experienced any such thing and I empty alot of skimate out per week with an evaporation of 10G of water per week as well. It's topped up with fresh water and no salt added. I'm looking forward to hearing a solution for when my skimmer starts to make my salinity drop so I can fix it.
Do you have to come across so strongly ?? :razz:
If I ever hear of a solution for skimmers and Sg, you'll be the first one I contact

I can't back it up ... I've read that a Sg of lower than 1.023 can be lethal to inverts. In my post

Just an FYI
1.023 is on the cusp of lethal to everything except your fish

Definately dial back your skimmer
Ideally your skimmate should be darkish, like regular to strong tea


I didn't say it was lethal, but I did say it is on the cusp of becoming lethal. Is there something wrong with being safe ?

As far as the skimming goes, if the OP is skimming wet i have seen a cup or more a day in my collection cupit only stands to reason that there is SW going into the collection cup

I've measured 1.015 in my own cup, so a loss over time makes sense if they are skimming too wet.
Plus, if the OP is cycling a new tank, and not performing WCs, it stands to reason there will be some Sg drop

OK, I'm done editing

[Madreefer]

Yea sorry bro. In just straight up and blunt and don't use smileys. I just can't see skimmers having an effect on salinity. I've never seen salt creep in skimmers. I'm no chemist but I can't see salt being drawn out if the water by the skimmer foam. IME I've never seen salinity drop, only rise. I was hoping you had somewhere that you could direct me so I could read up on it myself. Peace

[Madreefer]

Oops double post. Was tryin to edit spelling. Hate my iphone

[gregzz4]

Yea sorry bro. In just straight up and blunt and don't use smileys. I just can't see skimmers having an effect on salinity. I've never seen salt creep in skimmers. I'm no chemist but I can't see salt being drawn out if the water by the skimmer foam. IME I've never seen salinity drop, only rise. I was hoping you had somewhere that you could direct me so I could read up on it myself. Peace
Have you ever used your refractometer with your skimmer cup liquid ?
I did it when the OP started this post and was not surprised to see 1.015

[Madreefer]

Have you ever used your refractometer with your skimmer cup liquid ?


Umm......no. I've never seen any reason to check the salinty on fish waste. But rather than get in an debate over this i'll just step away and hopefully some other members will chime in and change my thoughts on skimmers causing the salinity to drop. I only have my own experience to go by and nothing to back it up. So in closing you win bro. Sorry to the OP for the minor hijack.

[gregzz4]

Umm......no. I've never seen any reason to check the salinty on fish waste. But rather than get in an debate over this i'll just step away and hopefully some other members will chime in and change my thoughts on skimmers causing the salinity to drop. I only have my own experience to go by and nothing to back it up. So in closing you win bro. Sorry to the OP for the minor hijack.
I can't find any articles to back up my thoughts on skimmers and Sg
I'm still working on finding something to back up my thoughts on low Sg for critters

[Arok3000]

Yeah, 1.023 doesn't sound correct. I have purposely lowered my sg by adding plenty of topoff water before vacation and measured less than that without any negative effects on my tank.

[Madreefer]

Hey Greg got your PM. :grouphug: :biggrin:

[lastlight]

your cup contains tank water in it plus organics. just because it's dirty water doesn't mean it's not salty. those bubbles pop and splatter salty water on the lid and it drips down. unless my logic is off i'm not sure how skimming couldn't to some very small degree affect salinity? and if you're removing a lot of salty skimmate you're lowering your sg.

plus this :biggrin:

[Madreefer]

Hmmm I recalibrated my refractor checked my tank salinity, it's 1.025. Skimate is 1.015 same as Greg's. I wait until my skimmer cup is full before I empty it. The sg never changes. I also measued how much my collection cup holds and it's 14 cups of liquid and not including the sludge. Thats quite a bit. So you'd really have to take a whole lot of wet skimate out to effect salinity that much. P:lus throw in the 10G of fresh water thats added.:confused: Have any of you brainiacs looked in to this theory at all bout skimate dropping sg?

[Arok3000]

Taking a fairly extreme case.
Let's take a 90 gallon display with a 40 gallon sump, sump isn't full to the brim and there's rock in the display, so call it 100 gallons actual water.
Say you have an extremely large skimmer cup (14 cups in almost a full gallon!) and it fills once a week with not much gunk and pretty much all water at 1.026.
After one week, your sg would drop from 1.026 to 1.02574, two weeks would be 1.0255, and three weeks 1.0252.

That's pulling a gallon of skimmate a week of what appears to be a relatively unrealistic sg of the skimmate.
I would venture to say that although your skimmate does no doubt contain a small portion of saltwater in it, the design of a skimmer should drain the saltwater and only skim the organic crap for the most part, and anybody running into a significant swing with their sg because of their skimmer, no matter how "wet" you skim, has a serious skimmer malfunction, or the cause is probably somewhere else.

[craigwmiller]

I will totally concur with skimmate being a drain on salinity... The only way it would not contain salt would be if it was distilled :lol: And since I doubt your skimmer(s) are pushing foam near the boiling point, the liquid in the cup has not been evaporated/condensed during the process and thus is most probably not pure water. So salinity is thus decreasing because top-off water is pure and diluting the tank.

Same applies if you are dripping new tankmates -- I always add to the tank about how much I plan to drip out of the tank prior to starting acclimation so that my ATO doesn't run extra and dilute my salinity (which as everyone I have set to a specific level on purpose)

[cuz]

just my opinion but the skimmer is and will continue to be the last thing I look at for SG fluctuations.

Maybe if you were running a 500g skimmer on a 5g nano?????