Salinity stability

an411 · 09/24/2007, 08:10 AM

I have trouble keeping my salinity perfectly stable. The reason for this is evaporation I assume.

How important is it to maintain your salinity at a certain point. I aim for 1.026. If it goes a little higher or lower is this a real bad thing?

Mavrk · 09/24/2007, 08:26 AM

An ATO (auto top off) helps a lot with this. However, if you replace the evaporated water daily that is usually enough to keep thing in check (unless you have an excessive amount of evaporation of course). Be aware of salt creep affecting salinity as well.

an411 · 09/24/2007, 08:33 AM

Mavrk salt creep effects the tank by lowering the salinity right?

Piscator · 09/24/2007, 08:38 AM

Salt creep will lower salinity
Evaporation will raise salinity

If you replace evaporated water (not with saltwater, but plain water, preferrable RO/DI water) daily or even every other day you should be fine. As mentioned, ATO is nice if you can do it.

What kind of variation are you experiencing?

Sk8r · 09/24/2007, 08:42 AM

salt creep is pretty negligible in a 40 or above. Not ignorable, but not the source of short-term salinity bounces. That's evaporation.

I keep my salinity at 1.025 to give myself a .001 degree of leeway in the 'safe' zone, but truly, hand-topping-off is just not a good idea, to the point that they really should sell an autotopoff unit right along with the pipe kit when selling a new tank. You need one. Period. A good cheap one can be had from autotopoff.com and it's easy to set up, intuitive, even.

You can use it to add kalk [for calcium and alkalinity stability] too, or use it to drive a kalk reactor.

If you have a big enough topoff reservoir AND a kalk reactor, [as opposed to just tossing kalk into your reservoir] you can go away for a month and expect to find an ok tank when you get back, even with a total novice tanksitting for you. If you want to diy a reactor, somebody in DIY forum just made one out of a rubbermaid bread storage cannister for about 15.00.

If you don't have room for this gear underneath, get a spare media cabinet or fish stand with doors and set it beside your tank: then you'll have room for most any equipment you want to add.

an411 · 09/24/2007, 09:02 AM

Yeah you got it right sk8r I have the autotop off already but as you stated I dont have the room underneith so the media cabinet is next on my list so I can put a 5 gallon bucket for teh RO/DI

09/24/2007, 08:10 AM	#1
an411 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Derby CT Posts: 2,861	Salinity stability I have trouble keeping my salinity perfectly stable. The reason for this is evaporation I assume. How important is it to maintain your salinity at a certain point. I aim for 1.026. If it goes a little higher or lower is this a real bad thing?

09/24/2007, 08:38 AM	#4
Piscator Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Whitinsville MA Posts: 264	Salt creep will lower salinity Evaporation will raise salinity If you replace evaporated water (not with saltwater, but plain water, preferrable RO/DI water) daily or even every other day you should be fine. As mentioned, ATO is nice if you can do it. What kind of variation are you experiencing? __________________ -Jason Prayer is Protein Skimming for the Soul Current Tank Info: 75 Gal. + 30 Gal sump, PC lights, LR, Skimmer, fuge; 30 gal. livebearer tank; 55 gal. SA Cichlid tank in progress...

09/24/2007, 08:42 AM	#5
Sk8r RC Mod Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Spokane WA Posts: 34,628 Blog Entries: 55	salt creep is pretty negligible in a 40 or above. Not ignorable, but not the source of short-term salinity bounces. That's evaporation. I keep my salinity at 1.025 to give myself a .001 degree of leeway in the 'safe' zone, but truly, hand-topping-off is just not a good idea, to the point that they really should sell an autotopoff unit right along with the pipe kit when selling a new tank. You need one. Period. A good cheap one can be had from autotopoff.com and it's easy to set up, intuitive, even. You can use it to add kalk [for calcium and alkalinity stability] too, or use it to drive a kalk reactor. If you have a big enough topoff reservoir AND a kalk reactor, [as opposed to just tossing kalk into your reservoir] you can go away for a month and expect to find an ok tank when you get back, even with a total novice tanksitting for you. If you want to diy a reactor, somebody in DIY forum just made one out of a rubbermaid bread storage cannister for about 15.00. If you don't have room for this gear underneath, get a spare media cabinet or fish stand with doors and set it beside your tank: then you'll have room for most any equipment you want to add. __________________ Sk8r Salinity 1.024-6; alkalinity 8.3-9.3 on KH scale; calcium 420; magnesium 1300, temp 78-80, nitrate .2. Ammonia 0. No filters: lps tank. Alk and cal won't rise if mg is low. Current Tank Info: 105g AquaVim wedge, yellow tang, sailfin blenny,royal gramma, ocellaris clown pair, yellow watchman, 100 microceriths, 25 tiny hermits, a 4" conch, 1" nassarius, recovering from 2 year hiatus with daily water change of 10%.

09/24/2007, 08:26 AM	#2
Mavrk Registered Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: California - South Bay Area Posts: 2,775	An ATO (auto top off) helps a lot with this. However, if you replace the evaporated water daily that is usually enough to keep thing in check (unless you have an excessive amount of evaporation of course). Be aware of salt creep affecting salinity as well.

09/24/2007, 08:33 AM	#3
an411 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Derby CT Posts: 2,861	Mavrk salt creep effects the tank by lowering the salinity right?

09/24/2007, 09:02 AM	#6
an411 Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Derby CT Posts: 2,861	Yeah you got it right sk8r I have the autotop off already but as you stated I dont have the room underneith so the media cabinet is next on my list so I can put a 5 gallon bucket for teh RO/DI