salinity question

[crazykrammm]

if my salinity is aittle low in my tank whats the best way to bring it up.

[the2ofus]

What's "a little" low?
Next time you add top off water(RO/DI), make it mixed and add a little and check it, add a little more, and so on.....If it's a long way off I wouldn't recommend coming way up at one time.

[fishtk75]

Originally posted by crazykrammm
if my salinity is aittle low in my tank whats the best way to bring it up.

What is it at now?
I do when you do a water change make it a little higher if 1.021 I make new water 1.026 you need to do it slow over time with water changes.
Some say to add saltwater that is to the number you need instead of top off water but need to watch you do not forget to test and go back to topoff water when you are there.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

Replacing evaporated water with new salt water is often the best and easiest way to slowly and gently raise salinity.

[CStoner]

Why do you want to do it slowly? What happens if you don't do it this way?

[noboddi]

The ocean is a very steady environment. There is never a big swing in water parameters, it's always gradual, and the inhabitants get stressed if they do change very quickly. Many simply can't handle it

[Sk8r]

DEFINITELY you want to do it slowly! Death is what happens---osmotic shock, particularly with inverts, also with fishes, and corals aren't happy. Here's the deal: you've got a membrane: your cell wall. You've got freshwater on one side, saltwater on the other, and you need to equalize them---because all the bodily functions depend on fluid being able to move through membranes and kidneys being able to dump waste out of the system. If the salinity difference is more than .001, the system is stressed: kidney cells start dying. Death is not instantaneous, except with some inverts (including your bacteria)---but after about 3 days it can start showing up. The 'mysterious new critter death' from kidney failure that happens just after you thought everything was ok.

This is the main reason to have a refractometer. The margin of error of a hydrometer in average use is greater than you want. With a refractometer, you can be bang-on, in both the sending and receiving tank.

It is also a good reason to have an ATO (automatic topoff) system. Salinity changes do happen in nature, from rain, evaporation, etc, but in nature, fish can move if they're uncomfortable. Not so in our tanks. They're stuck. And being late with a manual topoff is stressful on your critters. An ATO delivers freshwater topoff by the teaspoonful throughout the day...and is an excellent way to adjust salinity if it does get 'off'.

[wolfblade]

i do dayly water top off and salinity does not chane becuse i dont have a lot of loss then i do the water change and keep it at 1.026 i have found if i dont let the water level drop i dont loose as much

[Sk8r]

THat's good. if you go on vacation, marking a 'fill line' and having your tanksitter fill to there daily is good: plus if you HAVE no tanksitter, you don't have to spend the sun, moon and stars for an ato. I got mine from autotopoff.com, simple dual float switch, 1200 maxijet, and a free old salt bucket with a lid at the start. I now use a 32g Brute trashcan. Still the same old topoff unit, however, that has survived everything and never failed me.

One coming problem is summer: your evaporation cools your tank in a heated situation---I lose a gallon a day from my 54g. Which turns out (with stony corals) to be ideal for using kalk (lime powder) dissolved in my topoff freshwater to just as continually supplement alk and cal to my corals. So the whole topoff situation has a lot of branches and possibilities: some people even use a knotted airhose for a dripline, having established the necessary rate of drip to equal their daily evaporation---which is a job of figuring, but it works.