Rasing salinity

[reefkeeper135]

So how many days would be safe to raise my salinity from 1.022 to 1.025? I have starting using salt water to top off tank but dont want to raise it too fast. Any idea on what is a safe time frame?

[tangtang81]

a few days should be fine IMO. My LFS keeps salinity at 1.22-23 I keep mine at 1.025 .....so new lifestock gets used to it fairly quickly...i drip for 4-8 hrs depending on what it is.

[jklnbrg]

I have mixed up hyper-salty RO/DI water and slowly added it through the overflow over a day. Worked fine and no ill effects.

[AquaReeferMan]

Dont add anything for top off. The evaporation will raise your salinity over time. Once its at the point where you want it to be. Add new saltwater to refill the tank.

[reefkeeper135]

I can only go maybe 2 days without top off do you think 2 days is enough to see any change?

[tangtang81]

Originally posted by AquaReeferMan
Dont add anything for top off. The evaporation will raise your salinity over time. Once its at the point where you want it to be. Add new saltwater to refill the tank.

Whats the difference? he is topping off what evaporated ..... adding SW while its evaporating bit by bit or doing it all at once at the end is the same thing. Or am I missing something

[poppin_fresh]

The nice thing about evap. is that it generally happens slowly and constantly... no shocks.

[Finding Emo]

Ya I'm with tangtang on this one. What's the difference?

[poppin_fresh]

Topping off evaporated water with NSW will raise the salinity much faster, maybe fast enough to be stressful to some organisms.

[Finding Emo]

ah ok gotcha

[tangtang81]

...that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. it does not raise salinity faster. you are only adding water that has already evaporated ...the salinity is already higher from the evaporation of freshwater.... topping off with SW of the same salinity is not going to affect anything (other than raising waterlevel in your sump and avoiding your pumps to suck air)....unless the salinity of the top off water is higher than the one in your tank ...and even then it would be a minimal change depending on how much water evaporation you have.

[poppin_fresh]

I think you missed my point. Yes, I agree with you that adding NSW with the same SG as the water in the tank will not raise the raise the salinity faster. I had made two assumptions that didn't clarify...my bad.

One: That Reefkeeper135 was attempting to use hypersaline water for top off. Not checking the level everyday and adding the matched top off water. Unfortunately most people dont.

two: That him/her had a large enough sump to allow the water to safely evap down to 1.025 before the pumps sucked air.

HTH

[tangtang81]

in that case i will have to agree