my salinity is off the scale!!

[freelancing]

The last time I did a water change (2 weeks ago), my salinity was fine (1.025).

I lost a lot of water recently (ever since I put that sump in my garage, I lose a lot more water to evaporation) and I always check my salinity before I add the water just to make sure. I prepared 5 gallons of RO w/ 1 tsp of kalkwasser and a quarter tsp of buffer to add into the overflow box (this is where the water was very low and the pump was sucking wind, basically).

I checked the salinity before I added the water and it was off the freakin' scale. What's going on?

My fish look ok.

Thanks,

[ericb]

How big is your system (tank and sump)? How much water did you have to add? Since evap only takes water, not salt, the salinity will go up as water evaps.

For example: You have a 100g system, 80g tank + 20g sump, and you have 19g evap. Salinity before evap was 1.025. After evap, same salt content in 81% of the water. Salinity goes to 1.265!

HTH

[freelancing]

I've got salt creeping out here and there... there's always a big chunk of salt on a few of the pvc pipes that eeks out. I know you're not supposed to lose salt, but I know I have... although I'm sure the amount is minimal.

My tank is 140 gallons... the sump is about 30 gallons I think... it's a rubbermaid container in my garage.

I lost about 5 gallons (this may be minimal compared to most folks, especially with MH lights and whatnot... but before I had the sump in the garage, I lost about 5 gallons a month, not a week).

The salinity was off the scale... I mean the needle in the SeaTest guage was beyond the point at which there are numbers... even after I added the RO water to make up for the evaporated water.

The fish are behaving normally as far as I can see.

Since the salinity guage is a guage of specific gravity, not a true test of salt content, is it possible that the buffer and kalkwasser are adding to the specific gravity? I took 2 semesters of chemistry in college, but I promptly forgot everything as fast as I could and I have no intention of getting an honorary PhD in chemistry trying to figure this out... I just don't want to turn my fish into pickles.:eek:

Any idea why my salinity would be so freakin' high in just a couple of weeks?

[ericb]

If you tested after you added replacement water, then your salinity should have been fine.

Is it possible that there was an air bubble on the needle of your test guage? That will make a huge difference. I usually take toothpick and bend the end of it to make a hook. Then I can use that to knock any bubbles off the needle. Test it again and let me know.

HTH

[freelancing]

Yeah, I checked it again afterwards... same thing. I'll check it again this evening when I get home.

The SeaTest guage is brand new. I had one that came with the tank... probably as old as the tank (8yrs old) when I bought it a year ago.

A few weeks ago, the plastic needle came out and I couldn't get it back in, so I bought a new guage.

I always tap on it good to make sure there are no bubbles.... but I'll check again.

Salinity is the one thing I do check frequently and I've never had this kind of fluctuation before... especially now that I have the additional sump, I would think the fluctuation (if any) would be reduced that much more now that there's that much more volume of water. *shrug*

I'll report my findings later this evening.

Thanks.

[David Corbett]

Just for fun fill the hydrometer up with tap water and see what you get, your hydrometer could be bad. DOC