Help with water in sump

B

Bbarton908

New member
I add water so my sump is about 3/4 the way full because it cuts down on noise and its like the next few days it just goes away. The salinity remains about the same but it's like in a few days I lose about 2 gallons. The most obvious explanation would be its leaking but it's not. I've checked for a leak time and time again. I don't know what is going on and it's really aggravating. If anyone could help that Would be great. Don't know if anyone has ever encountered this before.
 
It is evaporation. All tanks lose water through evaporation. It's normal to lose a few gallons every few days. You have to manually add freshwater, not saltwater, to replace it. When water evaporates, the salt stays in the water and only freshwater evaporates. An auto topoff system is what you need or you'll be having to add water all the time.
 
No I've been adding my normal amount of freshwater. If I don't add if my salinity goes up. I don't like ato systems. It vanishes too fast to be evaporation. This is faster then my normal evaporation rate. Haha I've had a tank long enough to know I have to add RO not saltwater. I just added more salt then normal in my last water change to cut down on noise and its all gone. It's just brU strange. But I have been adding RO haha not salt. Otherwise I think everything would be dead
 
No I've had LEDs and everything has been exactly the same. I'm thinking its staying in the display part of the tank for some reason.
 
+1 on evaporation... Evaporation rates will vary due to atmospheric conditions, heat in and around the tank, and many other causes... My tank varies between 12-16 gallons a week sometimes but is never constant.
 
Bbarton908 said:
No I've had LEDs and everything has been exactly the same. I'm thinking its staying in the display part of the tank for some reason.
Click to expand...

Is the level in your DT going up? Sometimes as algae builds up on the top of the return box the level will rise until it flows over the top of the return. If I don't keep the channels in my return clean I see the display rise and the sump lower.
 
Could be something clogged in the inlet to your sump. May be it is just enough for it to keep your view tank from over flowing but making your sump appear to be leaking. I agree it could just be Evap too. I know in my area I notice a spike in the summer and in the winter seems like I don't have any evap.
 
Checked everything and everything is the same. Did not take into consideration atmospheric conditions and things like that for evaporation haha probably is evaporation. I guess the evaporation rate has really gone up a whole lot
 
Fish been looking thirsty? Maybe they been drinking it.

Check the underside of the floor that it is sitting on?

Could be space aliens.

Just spitballin' here......

Maybe put a jar of peanut butter out overnight....check it in the A.M. for elephant tracks.
 
Well I've been adding more rodi then normal and it's seemed to help so my best guess is evaporation but it still doesn't seem right but that's what I'm going with haha
 
i bet if you had a log of top off amounts and your mlgw bills side by side (daily average temps) it would show you it's evaporation. I know it got warmer and muy bill got higher! haha I would think that even though your house may be digitally set on a temp that never changes...the fact that your hvac is likely running more often/longer and therefore moving air around inside more, that could affect your evaporation rates. A few of us cool our tanks by using small fans blowing directly on our sump water to achieve more evaporation. moving air evaporates water plain and simple....
 
Bbarton908 said:
Well I've been adding more rodi then normal and it's seemed to help so my best guess is evaporation but it still doesn't seem right but that's what I'm going with haha
Click to expand...

I go through as little as about a quart per day to about 5 gallons per day on my 75 gallon tank.
 
Also, do you have a canopy? My previous tank did and current one does not. The open topped tank has a higher evaporation rate, for sure.
 
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