Bringing up Salinity? Salt water top up?

[Wally.B]

Wondering if anyone has done this, to bring up their salinity.

My Salinity is 1.022 and want to bring up to 1.025. (65 Gallon tank).
This is an SPS only tank so want a gradual increase.

I tried water changes, but it is taking forever with 1.025 water changes.

Consider using higher salinity mix for water changes to speed up (but risky to know how much stronger). Is there a formula out there?

I was thinking this way...Could I put 1.025 salt mix into my fresh water top up, and let the evaporation top up, bring up the salinity this way? I figure this would be more gradual.

Of course, I'd do this in small batches, and monitor tank salinity to know when to stop.

 

[ca1ore]

That is how I bring the salinity up in my QT tanks, so will work fine in the display as well. Not necessary to make the top off water 1.025 either. Just dump in a couple of cups of slat mix and check your display every day.

 

[Coelli]

I sprinkle a little salt into my overflow every day or so. Not too much at once. By the time it makes it up to the DT it's pretty well mixed. I only keep 10g of saltwater onhand at any given time for water changes (I buy the water from my LFS) so the salt method works out. Otherwise I'm gallons short when it's WC time.

 

[bundybear1981]

I raised my tank recently (refractometer was slightly off) I just replaced the RODI in my ATO with 40ppt new salt water (120 gal system) back to normal now

 

[firemountain]

that is how i bring the salinity up in my qt tanks, so will work fine in the display as well. Not necessary to make the top off water 1.025 either. Just dump in a couple of cups of slat mix and check your display every day.

+1.

 

[homer1475]

I just add salt water to my tank on top off instead of fresh water.

 

[sgallagher7]

I just performed the same thing your asking on my 75. 4 days using 1.026 saltwater as top off, using my ato raised my salinity from 1.022 to 1.025 (approx 5 gal.). No ill effect was noted with my fish or corals.

 

[Big_Boss_77]

I raised my tank recently (refractometer was slightly off) I just replaced the RODI in my ATO with 40ppt new salt water (120 gal system) back to normal now

This is the easiest way I've found

 

[vhuang168]

Great resource for figuring out how much of what to add/subtrate etc.

http://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/SaltwaterTopOff.php

 

[snorvich]

Lots of excellent methods mentioned in this thread. I personally would top off with SG 1.025 water rather than RO.

 

[gone fishin]

I personally top off with saltwater as well.

 

[Wally.B]

I personally top off with saltwater as well.

That doesn't make sense to me (To top of with Salt Water).

When water evaporates from a tank, it raises salinity, since water get more concentrated. (Less any salt creep) That is why you always top off with RO water (0.000 Salinity).

If you top of with Salt water, salinity will raise constantly. In my case, I roughly top off 5 Gals a week. That would raise salinity too much, if I kept top off salt water always.

I do sometimes top off with Salt water when my skimmer is very wet skimming, but that is replacement water, not evaporated water.

That top off calculator that VHAUNG168 provided proves that fact that topping off with salt water will raise your salinity. (Exactly the calculator I was looking for). Helps with guessing. (THANKS!!)

 

[igadget56]

Wondering if anyone has done this, to bring up their salinity.

My Salinity is 1.022 and want to bring up to 1.025. (65 Gallon tank).
This is an SPS only tank so want a gradual increase.

I tried water changes, but it is taking forever with 1.025 water changes.

Consider using higher salinity mix for water changes to speed up (but risky to know how much stronger). Is there a formula out there?

I was thinking this way...Could I put 1.025 salt mix into my fresh water top up, and let the evaporation top up, bring up the salinity this way? I figure this would be more gradual.

Of course, I'd do this in small batches, and monitor tank salinity to know when to stop.

You only top off with saltwater when you want to slowly raise the salinity.

 

[Big_Boss_77]

Yes, it's not a permanent thing. Your logic of evaporation is spot on, that's why this method works. You slowly add mixed salt back into the tank to raise the salinity to desired levels. I test entirely too much so I top off about a gallon of 1.025 water a month, the rest of the time it's RODI.

 

[Wally.B]

Thanks everyone.

Especially VHAUNG168. I used the top off calculator. http://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/C...aterTopOff.php

My 5 Gallon Top off bucket is fill with 1.0636 SG water.

Once it's empty (in about a week), my tank (105Gal = DT+Sump) should be at 1.025, from the current 1.022
I'll monitor daily to make sure the calculator is accurate.

 

[Halo_003]

While not necessarily applicable to a display, my LFS sells fish with SG at about 1.018-1.019, so when I QT them I have the level in the tank at that already and then since I top off manually, I just wait a few days and let the level in the QT get lower, thereby raising the salinity to 1.026 eventually. This works especially well for TTM, usually the SG goes up about .001 per day so it works very nicely and saves me from a super long drip acclimation.

 

[laugh]

The best way to gradually raise your salinity is to overfill your tank/sump a little and as it evaporates your salinity will go up.

 

[snorvich]

The best way to gradually raise your salinity is to overfill your tank/sump a little and as it evaporates your salinity will go up.

This too will work!

 

[Lizzy_lray]

I've mixed it in my top off water before but I that was when I first started and didn't quite have things together as well as I should have. As long as you never add straight salt to the tank you should be okay tanking up a notch.

 

[JammyBirch]

The best way to gradually raise your salinity is to overfill your tank/sump a little and as it evaporates your salinity will go up.

This is what i do and then once my salinity is correct i set the ATO at that level.

I like either way, though.