salt per gallon

[liz+russ]

I was just thinking is there a way to know your salinity by measureing an exact amount of salt per gallon of water? And if so what is the amount per gallon to reach a SG of 1.025? I guess I could make a gallon of water and measure how much salt it takes but im not at home right now and just kind of currious. I would think if you could measure fairly acurately it would be a very exact way of making salt water, no?

[oz]

I switch to Crystal Sea recently and did water change 3 times.
Each time I used half cup per gallon and its always 1.025 and 8.2
pretty exact.

Before, I was using Reef Crystal and always had to tweak it to get it just right.

[liz+russ]

thats odd, unless the product is just very inconsistant I would think that the exact same amount of salt per gallon would yield the same SG. I take it there is a difference between salts on how much salt is needed to reach a certain SG? I would think that all salts would be fairly good at matching salt concentrations of NSW. So anyone have any info for IO salt?

[KDodds]

Even if the formula is consistent, there's no way to know exactly WHERE the NaCl is in the "powder". IOW, it may not be evenly distributed and could result in slightly different measurements. Your best bet is to ALWAYS measure.

[Summitpa]

I did the same test a while back with IO. 1/2 cup per gallon is about right. I don't mix exact gallons so I guestimate how many gallons of water I have and dump in enough salt -2 cups then tweak up with salt to get it right. I find it's easier to add salt than add water to get it right.

[liz+russ]

yea, I do always measure, I was just thinking about it is all... but if the NaCl is not evenly distributed throughout the mix then if you have less NaCl in one scoop then you will have more other elements in that scoop, or visa versa. I would think that could make for very unballenced water. Perhaps this topic is getting more into somthing that should be in Randys forum... oh well.

[axlerod]

I use tropic marin salt it takes 2 3/4 cups to five gallons of water to get it the sg of 1.025

[KDodds]

That's why I always mix up the mix before adding it. I use Coralife and have gotten consistent SGs. Of course, I usually don't mix less than ½ bag.

[liz+russ]

this makes me currious. If you were to take a cup of salt(pick the brand) and spread it out on the table. Then looked at all the individual granuals of it. Are the different granuals all formulated differently? ie is each one of the grains a complete sea salt mix, or are some grains NaCl and some other things? I would have assumed that each grain was a complete mixture and every grain was the same in chemical makeup. But we know what happens when you asume somthing.

[KDodds]

I wouldn't count on each grain being identical to the next. That kind of uniformity would be impossible to maintain.

[stereomandan]

Just did it last night. 2.5 cups of Kent Salt in 5 gallons of RO/DI water got me to about 1.024 at 81 degrees.

Dan