Salinity drops too fast evryday please help
- Thread starter james-lee
- Start date
bereanracer
New member
When you added the canister filter and the reactor did you add more SW or did the ATO make up for the added volume?
jherrin215
GO COLTS!!
I just saw where he said he calibrates his refractometer all the time. Constant mis-calibration would cause a fluctuation. I agree that only one mis-calibration would only result in skewed readings, either high or low.
When I added the canister I hd some made up batch that was at 1.025. When my readings are low I take a bout half a gallon of tank water (doesnt cause the ATO to kick in) and add salt. I then add a small amount at a time to slowly bring the salinity up. Thing is when it goes up the next day its back way down again. I think another problem contributing to this wa sthe fact I started leaving the top of my skimmer cup off sine it seems to foam better. I have since put the top back on.
jherrin215
GO COLTS!!
In a system that large I feel you would be having to lose a great deal of salt water to see a real drop like this. In order for this to be caused by you skimmer you would have to have the cup overflowing. If it is actually changing that much and not a mis-reading due to an incorrectly calibrated refractometer then you should see a large amount of water leaking somewhere. If it were me I would take my ATO offline for a few days and top off manually. This would give you an idea of how much fresh water you are adding to the tank daily. To me this seems like the only way that you could be losing that much salt, running out SW and replacing it with FW. The top off the skimmer cup shouldn't hurt a thing unless it is overflowing. The worst thing you could be doing, which isn't the case, is evaporating more water, which in turn would RAISE your SG
Thanks for the advice guys. I disabled the ATO for now and Ill keep an eye of the water level mark I have. I also orderd the calibration solution so it should be here this week. I just dont like the idea of my S going down and I am adding more salt. Esp if its wrong then I could be going for a potential nuke with high salt issues.
Two issues here, A) if it's not wrong and you're not keeping salinity level and it continuously decreases, then you risk reaching hypo salinity and getting too low a salt value for your corals (I don't know what livestock you have) but there's a point even fish won't tolerate... So, you could trigger a cycle by doing nothing.
B) If it is wrong and you do continue topping off with saltwater, yes, You could be doing massive damage by having a .003 swing in SG everyday. My corals get mad at me if I raise their salinity by .001. lol.
I've kept my salinity stable with top offs, spills, leaks, ATO not functioning, and more at 1.024 to 1.025 for 4 months. I make up for spills / overflows (skimmer, ATS leaked 1 drip at a time for a week until I realized the floor was soaked and where it was coming from...)
I don't know how you could be having a .003 swing a day. You have to be losing SALTwater somewhere. Not just evaporation. Is the tank leaking, is somewhere obscure? Sump leaking somewhere obscure. But even that it would have to be multiple gallons.
How much water is in your ATO? Do you just use a 5 gallon bucket or a lot of ATO water? The alternative is to put your ATO on a digital timer. (I do this and it's already saved me a huge issue once...) So it only comes on certain times of the day when I'm usually home...
B) If it is wrong and you do continue topping off with saltwater, yes, You could be doing massive damage by having a .003 swing in SG everyday. My corals get mad at me if I raise their salinity by .001. lol.
I've kept my salinity stable with top offs, spills, leaks, ATO not functioning, and more at 1.024 to 1.025 for 4 months. I make up for spills / overflows (skimmer, ATS leaked 1 drip at a time for a week until I realized the floor was soaked and where it was coming from...)
I don't know how you could be having a .003 swing a day. You have to be losing SALTwater somewhere. Not just evaporation. Is the tank leaking, is somewhere obscure? Sump leaking somewhere obscure. But even that it would have to be multiple gallons.
How much water is in your ATO? Do you just use a 5 gallon bucket or a lot of ATO water? The alternative is to put your ATO on a digital timer. (I do this and it's already saved me a huge issue once...) So it only comes on certain times of the day when I'm usually home...
Well my ATO is inline to my RO/DO and is controlled by a float valve that is installed ion the return side of the sump. I have checked up and down both my DT and my sump and under ths stand andin back and no visible leaks or signs of where a leak could be. I am going to have to chalk this up as a bad refracto calibration. I have never used the 35 ppt solution and my manual said to only use distilled water and adjust to 0 ppt.
jherrin215
GO COLTS!!
How long has this been doing this? And how long has the tank been up and running?
This has been happening for the last 3 - 4 days (but the swings have been much larger since this larger set up). Tanks is about 2 months old (but everything was transferred from a 72 gallon that was running for about 9 months and the 72 gallon never had such a riduculous swing). Did have a semi nuke a month ago as my skimmer stopped producing bubbles. I work 12 hour shifst and by the time I got home most of my xenias were in the process of metling. Did massive WC every 3 days and ran a butt load of GFO.
fcmatt
Member
i wonder if your refractometer even reads the same thing on a sample of water over a day
or two period. get a clean bottle with a cap, fill it with tank water, use some of it to test
the salinity with the refract, cap the bottle tight, come back 12 hours later and retest,
then another 12 hours retest, and you better get the same reading every time assuming
the cap on your plastic bottle is tight.
or two period. get a clean bottle with a cap, fill it with tank water, use some of it to test
the salinity with the refract, cap the bottle tight, come back 12 hours later and retest,
then another 12 hours retest, and you better get the same reading every time assuming
the cap on your plastic bottle is tight.
wet reefer
New member
With that kind of salt loss it has to be one of three things and all have been suggested.
1-a leak (you would have noticed this)
2-skimmer overflow (could it be overflowing after a feeding?)
3-testing error
1-a leak (you would have noticed this)
2-skimmer overflow (could it be overflowing after a feeding?)
3-testing error
I am guessing since you are using di water to calibrate it per the instructions that you are probably calibrating it every time BEFORE you use it?!? If this is the case then this is most likely your issue. Like said above the 53ms 35ppt solutions are better for calibrating for our use. Also even with that solution I would not calibrate every time before use. I have heard of older refractometers having issues with the adjustment screw not staying in place. Perhaps you have this issue.
