Raise Salinity

[Ryan1190]

I'm trying to raise my salinity from 1.024 to 1.026. I've been adding 1 cup of salt to my 5 gallon ATO reservoir but sg is moving up extremely slowly. Continue the course or is there a better method? I don't want to overshoot.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Do you have livestock yet? If no and this is a new tank, raise away till you hit your mark. If you have livestock in the tank, continue as you are, slowly.

I prefer to keep my ATO salt free. When I need to raise my salinity, I just add 1/2 - 1 cup of salt to about 1/2 gallon of RODI and wait until it's totally mixed. Then I just pour it into a high flow section of my tank or sump. I give it about 24 hours to fully blend and evaporate back to correct volume before I test again.

You should make notes of how much you need to add to your tank to raise the salinity. For instance, if you add 1/2 cup of salt, your salinity is raised by x amount. Then when you want to raise it in the future, you know exactly what to add. I use an app called Aquarimate on my iPhone and have numerous notes for these type of things.

 

[GimpyFin]

+1, what Divingtheworld said.

 

[Ryan1190]

I do have livestock. I'll make sure to clean out the ATO before transitioning back to RODI water. Next time I'll look into adding the saltwater mix right to the sump. And I was not familiar with the app, looks like a great tool. Thanks

 

[Dkuhlmann]

The easiest and safest way to do it is to just use 1.026 mixed as your top off water instead of using RODI until it reaches 1.026 then go back to using RODI

 

[Sgt Jonny Cat]

I would just start doing your water changes with the preferred salinity level. That way it raises slowly and you don't shock your fish. Do about 20-30% change and the salinity will adjust.

 

[RayAllen3422]

The easiest and safest way to do it is to just use 1.026 mixed as your top off water instead of using RODI until it reaches 1.026 then go back to using RODI

+1 This makes a lot of sense.

 

[cloak]

How does everything look? If all is well I wouldn't even worry about it. Like mentioned above just keep mixing your water to the proper salinity and let things balance themselves out over time. GL.

 

[Ryan1190]

Thanks everyone. My current method is salt in the ATO but the ATO salt mix is way under 1.026, so I'm expecting it to take a while. Everything looks good (except a Galaxea which I think I torched with my lights). The main reason for the increase is my Cal and Mg were a little low (380 and I can't remember Mg right now) for the salt mix, IORC. So I figure bumping to the recommended salinity would bring those values up as well.

 

[ca1ore]

It's irrelevant what the SG is of the ATO water other than the more salt you add the quicker you get to 1.026 in the display. It's my preferred way of raising the salinity level (and the only way I do it on my QT tanks).