Salinity rise ?

drparker

Premium Member
I started using kalk water for my top-off and I've been dosing over the last week with:TLF C-balance, Kent liquid calcium, Kent Tech-M to bring my levels up.

However my Sg has been climbing also, is that normal?

It was at 1.029 almost 1.03 earlier today. I did a water change 5 hours ago to bring it down 1.028. The water change dropped my Ca and Alk from 395 and 9.5 to 9 and 380.

Last Friday's numbers at:
Sg=1.026
pH=8.11
Alk=8
Ca=320
Mg=1000

several hours after todays water change:
Sg=1.028
pH=8.19
Alk=8.5
Ca=380
Mg=1400

I also get no skimmate from my skimmer for the last 3 or 4 days. I'm I doing something wrong or forgetting to do something?
 
The SG will rise slightly over time when dosing those supplement, except for the kalk. That seems like too large a change, though, and I'd be worried about problems with the SG measurements.
 
Yes I did last Friday and just check it again. It had gone off by maybe .0005. I'm using Pinpoint salinity calibration fluid 53.0mS.

So it's still reading a solid 1.028
 
drparker

Okiedokie

So you are saying that without water changes in the past week your sg rose from 1.026 to 1.029-1.030 with just the three additives?
 
Tech-M and Kent liquid calcium contain chlorides and C balance contain chlorides and sodium that well may increase the salinity specially is such small tanks.
Just keep up the water changes, use salinity of 1.024 to 1.025 in your water change and adjust the calcium and alkalinity to the new water before making the water change.
 
No, I did a water change last Sunday that moved it to 1.027. I had the slight change to my refractometer after re-claibration so it climbed from 1.027 on Sunday to 1.029 today.
 
Now that your mag is up, you won't need to dose that for awhile.

Jd's got it on the head.

Regular water changes for the next couple of months and your s.g should decline.

BTW, I hope you are using fresh water for top off and not saltwater. :)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11690945#post11690945 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Billybeau1
BTW, I hope you are using fresh water for top off and not saltwater. :)

Thanks for the help guys. I've already noticed a big improvement in my coraline.

I'm using RO/DI kalk mix with JBJ A.T.O. and a Tom's Aqualifter pump.

When adjusting the new salt water before the change should I use a two part like c-balance or a kalk mix and Liquid calcium ?

Should I bring the Mg up in the new salt water also?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11692051#post11692051 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by drparker
When adjusting the new salt water before the change should I use a two part like c-balance or a kalk mix and Liquid calcium ?
Should I bring the Mg up in the new salt water also?

You can use the C-Balance but you may need different amounts of each part depending on how much you need to adjust calcium or alkalinity. Same thing for magnesium, use the Tech-M

To make things cheaper try getting a calcium supplement like Kent TurboCalcium, it is more concentrated than liquid calcium and you do not pay for all that water in it. For adjusting alkalinity use plain ol' Arm and Hammer Baking Soda from the supermarket.

Although possible if added by dripping I would not use Kalk to adjust the new water.

To know how much to use try the calculator at:
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chem_calc3.html
 
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