Changed my mind

[BCOrchidGuy]

I decided not to use the 45 gallon tank, it really isn't a nano anyway and I've decided to go with one of my 20 gallon tanks. I have the water in, the aragonite down and will get some live rock and sand today. I have it about 5 feet away from a 400watt MH and I figure a bit of actinic light should give me ample light for a while, until I get something permanent and get a CP hood for it.

 

Thanks again for all the help, advice and encouragement.

[BCOrchidGuy]

I've got the tank stocked with 12 pounds of live rock and 8 pounds of base rock that was in with the live rock, I've added 15 blue legged hermit crabs and a hitch hiking crab I haven't identified yet as well as some Carib Sea live sand, about 20 pounds of it on top of the inch of aragonite I had in the tank already. One of the bits of live rock had some calupera on it so if it lasts I will add it to my refugium when I get it set up. A Power Head 301 and 201 for water movement and a Ebo Jager heater keep it nice.

 

One quick question... does anyone do the specific gravity to Salinity conversions? I have 3 books that say specific gravity isn't as important as salinity, but they all use a poorly thought out table to do the conversion. Basically they tell you to find your specific gravity, then your temperature in Celcius, and find the corresponding number and add that to your specific gravity, In actual fact, ( if I am doing it right) you need to multiply that corresponding number by 0.01 and then add it to your specific gravity to find your salinity.

[MrConclusion]

Technically, salinity is more important to organisms than specific gravity, but SG and salinity are so closely linked that no conversion is necessary. Temperature compensation is a better thing to be concerned about... but only if you routinely mix up your salt water at a different temperature that maintained in the tank itself.

 

Example: Your tank reads SG=1.024@78ºF, but you mix up your salt water using 60ºF water. You would want to mix the 60ºF water to SG=1.025 so it's SG=1.024 when it warms to 78ºF.

 

Unless by some miracle you had 2 saltwater samples with WILDLY (And I mean extreme) varying trace elements, SG and salinity are so closely linked as to be interchangeable tools for maintaining salt water density/salinity. What I mean is, improper salinity will be indicated by your SG reading, and the inverse is true as well.

 

If you need to know true salinity, there is no "conversion chart" that is more accurate than guesswork. These charts are a simple extrapolation of SG, corrected for temperature, with a "fudge factor" built in for non-salt elements of the water. If you need to know the salinity with a greater degree of precision than that which is indicated by the SG (for whatever reason) you would be much better served with a chemical salinity test kit. I believe that Lamotte has a good one.