How many cups of salt to a 5 gallon bucket?

[Chadf]

add as much as it takes to get the desired level of salinity.......

 

Best post on this thread!

[Drexellake]

I agree. I use Instant Ocean and always end up putting more than 1/2 cup per gallon.

[cju84]

1/2 cup into one gallon gets my salinity to 1.013ish (when it should bring it to 1.026ish). The directions say to use this as well, and I'm 100% positive I have exactly one gallon of water. Perhaps the salt needs to be 'packed down' into the 1/2 cup.

[Drexellake]

That's what I'm thinking. Maybe round it, slice it up with a butter knife, the scoop it off even like when baking. Not that men like me bake or anything. It doesn't say it in the directions, but I'm going to try it the next water change.

[jedimasterben]

I agree. I use Instant Ocean and always end up putting more than 1/2 cup per gallon.

The bucket of Instant Ocean I have says right on it that this will give you a specific gravity of 1.020

[hey]

I just eyeball a little more than a half cup per gallon I am mixing, adjust as needed but honestly if I am within .002 of my range I am fine with it, I do water changes in small %'s.

[Walker]

For 5 gallons it should be 2.5 cups. I usually eyeball mine depending on how much RODI I have, and I've always landed on 1.024-1.027.

Typically I mix my waterchange lower (1.024) because my tank inherently has salinity creep from the 2-part dosing. If I mix too high, I take out more water during the change (the ATO will add more topoff).

[Drexellake]

The bucket of Instant Ocean I have says right on it that this will give you a specific gravity of 1.020

That's great. But it doesn't give me a specific gravity of 1.020.

[jedimasterben]

That's great. But it doesn't give me a specific gravity of 1.020.

A level 1/2 measuring cup to make one gallon of water should get you very close to 1.020 barring variance in your measuring cup size and measurement of one gallon.

 

It takes 3 level cups per five gallons of water to get to 35ppt (aka 1.0265) using Instant Ocean and Reef Crystals.

[Mstefa1]

Old thread here but I'll add my 2 cents...

 

Every bucket I've had with various salts always picks up moisture after a short while. So inherently, when the bucket is new I appear to use less and when the bucket is old a non compacted 1/2 cup doesn't achieve the levels expected. Close examination reveals what appears as salt crystals swollen with moisture. I'm not suggesting this degrades the quality of the product but it does alter measuring out.

 

Now I buy reef crystals in the 200g box. I open 1 bag at a time, seal it with a clip, then store it inside a bucket sealed with a gasket. Measuring is far more consistent and honestly not dialing in the perfect salinity on the first try is now the exception.

[Drexellake]

Old thread here but I'll add my 2 cents...

 

Every bucket I've had with various salts always picks up moisture after a short while. So inherently, when the bucket is new I appear to use less and when the bucket is old a non compacted 1/2 cup doesn't achieve the levels expected. Close examination reveals what appears as salt crystals swollen with moisture. I'm not suggesting this degrades the quality of the product but it does alter measuring out.

 

Now I buy reef crystals in the 200g box. I open 1 bag at a time, seal it with a clip, then store it inside a bucket sealed with a gasket. Measuring is far more consistent and honestly not dialing in the perfect salinity on the first try is now the exception.

I'm thinking along the same lines.

[anizato]

A few years a go I discovered, with a digital scale. Mix 5.15oz of salt per gallon for 1.025sg.

 

just scale it up.

 

Or for less margin of error, in my experience this has resulted in 100% success even though redundant and math is math; what I do is measure 5.15oz 5x individual times.
The time it takes me to measure the next batch of salt helps to give time for most of the salt to mix before I add the next 5.15oz until I am done.