What's the best way to increase salinity?

[Weboh]

I'm going to get coral in a week, so I want to get the salinity up. It's currently at .021 and I think corals prefer .026. All my livestock can handle the higher salinity, so I don't think that's an issue. I do know I should probably make any change slowly.

Do you think I should add a bit of aquarium salt every couple of days? I hear it's not recommended for newcomers to mix their own saltwater.

Or next time I do a water change use premixed reef water? I don't think that would get it up high enough except for a couple months (and a bunch of water changes).

A combination of the two?

Thanks.

 

[heathlindner25]

Instead of topping off with fresh water, top off with salt water.

 

[Ryan Peters]

Instead of topping off with fresh water, top off with salt water.

+1 top off with salt water. It will bring it up nice and slow.

 

[Ebone]

top off with salt water

 

[CHizer]

I over fill with saltwater so that as it evaporates the salinity raises. Just not so much that your sump overflows during a power loss.

You can learn to make your own water pretty easy. The main thing is using RO/DI water. You should be using that for top offs too.

 

[Weboh]

Yeah, but I'm in Florida with like 98% humidity so I don't need to top off often at all. I've been topping off with saltwater for 3 weeks (a tiny bit at a time) to get the salinity back up from .019 and that's as high as it's gotten. My tank doesn't need any more water now. That's too slow if I'm to get zoas soon (but not too slow if that's the way it needs to be to keep the fish alive, I understand).

My parameters are all fine so there's no reason to do a water change, but doing one with reef water couldn't hurt, could it? Then maybe do another one at the end of the week to get it up a bit higher? It probably still won't be .026 but would zoas be able to temporarily stand .024?

 

[Weboh]

I over fill with saltwater so that as it evaporates the salinity raises. Just not so much that your sump overflows during a power loss.

You can learn to make your own water pretty easy. The main thing is using RO/DI water. You should be using that for top offs too.

Yeah, I normally use RO for top-offs. Is there any information on here about how to mix saltwater or the best filters to get to make RO water?

 

[thegrun]

If you are going to add salt limit your salinity increases to 0.001 per day. Fish can handle lowering the salinity much better than increases to the salinity.

 

[billdogg]

You may want to consider your low salinity when thinking about the loss of your turbo snail as well. (see other post)

 

[bobbravo2]

Yeah, I normally use RO for top-offs. Is there any information on here about how to mix saltwater or the best filters to get to make RO water?

BRS makes a good set of RODI filters. I used to recommend Aquasafe Canada - sadly they're out of business.

I also recommend Spectrapure - they have very high quality components.


As far as mixing saltwater - yes - there is tons of information on here. I'm sure Google also has reputable sources for "how to mix saltwater for a reef tank"

 

[bobbravo2]

Couldn't resist: http://bfy.tw/ARup

 

[Weboh]

If you are going to add salt limit your salinity increases to 0.001 per day. Fish can handle lowering the salinity much better than increases to the salinity.

Great. This is what I needed to know. How would I make sure I'm only increasing it by .001, and how would I go about mixing saltwater to do it? Just measure out the right amount of salt and dump it in that tank?

You may want to consider your low salinity when thinking about the loss of your turbo snail as well. (see other post)

Hm. I'm increasing the salinity either way, so hopefully I won't have any more mysterious deaths.

Couldn't resist: http://bfy.tw/ARup

Heh. That's fair. I can certainly find sources myself. Though since I heard it's difficult, I wanted advice from several hobbyists here that I knew worked (If someone saw bad advice given or "well, for a 30 gallon tank...). There would be a back-and-forth for troubleshooting too. That's what these forums are for after all.

 

[CL8869]

I just add salt water to my auto top off reservoir.

On my quarentine tank (29g) I usually start around 1.013 as that is what my LFS has their fish in and then remove 1 gallon a day and add a gallon of 1.025 which brings it up half a point a day. Slow as hell and the fish never notice.

 

[bobbravo2]

Dr Tim is a reputable source: http://www.drtimsaquatics.com/preparing-artificial-saltwater

 

[SycoCell]

Increase surface movement and stimulate evaporation.

 

[Scoted]

You should mix the salt with rodi water in a bucket and then add it to the tank later. You can mix up top off water at .028 and as long as its not raising salinity to fast just keep to the top off method. If you are topping off by hand just try to do it a small amount a few times a day.