Salinity problem

[sefrayser]

I have mixing my water to 1.025 and doing 5 gallon WC. I measured my salinity and its 1.023. I do not think my ATO is putting that much water to make it fluctuate that much. Is there anything that could eat the salt? I know I could put SW in my ATO but is that what I should do? I mixed up 2 gallons and I want to do a WC but if I mix it at say 1.027 will that be ok. I have a 34G tank so even a 2 gallon change wouldnt raise it that much. That may also be the reason why my MG is low and I cannot get it about 1260. I need a little advice.

[Builder Anthony]

I am 98 percent certain tempeture affects salt levels.

 

If you mix the salt and test it within a day it will probally read high since its not fully disolved.

[Formula462]

I am 98 percent certain tempeture affects salt levels.

 

If you mix the salt and test it within a day it will probally read high since its not fully disolved.

 

 

i dunno i use tropic marin and mix for 45mins to 1 hour. its a really quickly dissolving salt. i hit the nail on the head every time.

 

edit: but i believe you are right about the temp thing

[chrishayes]

do u have a skimmer that fills often? could b too wet takin salt out then ato puts fresh back? dunno

[Genj]

Skimming + ATO will impact actual salinity levels.

 

How are you measuring your salinity?

[sefrayser]

I have a ATC Refractormeter. My skimmer is a Tunze 9002 and I get about 1/8-1/2" of wet skim perday in a Stevie T cup. I put mixed water in my ATO. I mixed it at 1.014 as per the calculator......I dont have the link right now but can post later.

[Genj]

You are in the same boat as I am equipment wise, but I am using 1.0 freshwater in my ATO and I have minor drops based 100% on skimming. I didn't have the skimmer for a while when I started the tank and I was dead on 1.025.

 

Following along here...

[dling]

Start doing some daily salinity checks from the time you do your wc till the time of the next one to get some idea of how fast the salinity is decreasing . It may help you to find out what is causing the drop.

[sefrayser]

Well after 2 days my salinity is at 1.024. It went up .001. My Alk also went up from 7.0 to 7.6. I really believe that may have something to do with my numbers.

[lakshwadeep]

Try calibrating your refractometer to make sure it's accurate.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-12/rhf/index.php#20

 

A difference in s.g. of 0.001 is hard to correlate to any one parameter, unless you have been dosing or evaporation hasn't been compensated. +1 to salt that is lost (salt creep) being one cause of lower salinity.

[sefrayser]

My Refractor is calibrated. Ichecked it twice and its right. I believe that my problem could be from the ATO water. Thats why I went ahead and mixed it to 1.014....it seems to be working.

[timdanger]

that seems... extremely improbable... that your ATO water should be filled with anything other than fresh water, especially not water mixed to 1.014. You're really just not creating that much skimmate. You only need to replace with salt water whatever it is that you lose in skimmate. So, if you have 1 cup of skimmate in a week, that's only 1 cup of salt water to replace that week. I don't know how much water you're losing to evaporation, but i bet it's more than 2 cups in a week. Sometimes you can lose salinity to salt creep, but that's not the kind of problem you seem to be dealing with here.

 

 

you are almost certainly undermixing, and that's what's causing your weird SG and lower-than-expected Alk and Mg readings. I don't know how long you're aging your water after mixing, but that's the first thing I would look to.

 

try beginning the mixing of your salt 2 days in advance to the correct SG (let's just say 1.025). Then, wait for 2 days and measure it again (and test your Ca/Alk/Mg while you're at it -- D-D h2ocean should be giving you something in the neighborhood of 440ppm Ca, 9.5dkh Alk and 1380ppm Mg at a SG of 1.025). If it doesn't still say 1.025 on your calibrated refractometer (you often have to recalibrate refractometers, remember), you will know your problem.

 

edit: also, keep in mind that your parameters are going to measure lower than you expect if your salinity isn't at 1.025. less salt, less of everything.

 

My Refractor is calibrated. Ichecked it twice and its right. I believe that my problem could be from the ATO water. Thats why I went ahead and mixed it to 1.014....it seems to be working.

 

that's going to bring it up, but eventually it's going to go too high (assuming you are replacing more water from evaporation than you're removing from skimming, which is almost certainly the case). you'll have to keep a close eye on it.