salt water creep

[christine cohen]

What is salt water creep? I find that I have salt collecting at both sides of 37 gal tank on the bottom. I have been trying to lift my sal up, it was 1.025 but now it's 1.022 and everyday I have been adding salt, only one point a day, to find it back down the following morning. Someone said it might be salt water creep. This morning I thought it might be a leaky tank (tank is only 2 months old) but there isn't any water on the cabinet.

[mvandepeer]

saltwater creep is where water is either splashed up on sides and evaporates leaving salt which can wick up more water and evaporate more leaving more salt.... so on and so on...
I get it up the sides of my protein skimmer and other things....
As for the salt at the sides of the tank.... if there isn't water dripping down/running down side I would think the tank has small leak that lets out just enough water and it evaporates faster than it can collect... which would leave the salt residue behind.....

As for the salinity....? do you premix your water and salt before it's added to tank? If anything, try mixing a denser solution and adding that to the tank to help balance it out... salt needs some time to fully dissolve into water which can give you different readings as it mixes in.....whenever I have to mix I use a 5gal bucket and add salt slowly with a power head to keep the water moving and heater in it until it balances out without fluctuation... I don't think the salt creep would cause the salinity to drop... water is also lost with the presence of salt....
My first concern would deffinately find out if there is a leak!!!

Good luck

[Gawain1974]

Ph and alkalinity can also affect your readings. I'd check to make sure you aren't getting major fluctuations in your Ph and alkalinity during the course of the day. If you are, that could explain your readings. Also, if your temperature stable? That makes a difference as well.

If you're checking your salinity in the morning, I'd wait a few hours and check in the afternoon and see if there's any difference in your readings. If the temperature is stable, I'd guess that the problem is unstable Ph and alkalinity.