Salinity ?

T

TangPolice

Banned
I know any evaporation is replaced with R/O water but wheres the Salt go ? tank drops 1 to 2 points in 4 to 7 days and have to add salt weekly .tank is kept at 1.024 and we use a refractometer purchased at the LFS and not a cheap Hydrometer
 
I never heard this problem. The salinity most of the time went up instead of went down. May be your top off water putting in too much R/O. Check the tank leaking then RO top off too much (I am guessing).
 
If you skim really wet you're pulling sw out of your tank. And ato is replacing the lost sw with fresh water lowering your salinity
 
+1 on skimming... Depending on the size of your tank...and how much skimmate you pull out.... this could be a cause or at least a contributor. The other is salt creep.... but you would have to have a ton of it building this time of the year. Of course... you should rule out a leak somewhere... I have heard of guys having a very small leak... that went unnoticed for what ever reason.
 
Joe5688 said:
If you skim really wet you're pulling sw out of your tank. And ato is replacing the lost sw with fresh water lowering your salinity
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makes sense i walked in the door tuesday from the Keys and tank was at 1.024 when i left friday and checked it this morn and it was under 1.023 just added Salt .
 
TangPolice said:
RO water and setting at 0
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You might want to get calibration fluid. Go on bulk reef supplies website and check their videos on refractometers. It should explain why you need calibration fluid. RO calibration will give you inaccurate readings.
 
TangPolice said:
RO water and setting at 0
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Well that's unfortunately one problem which has been discussed a lot on this forum. It is incorrect to calibrate with ro water. You must calibrate with a calibration solution at 35 ppt or risk incorrect readings.

HTH

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
 
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You definitely need proper calibration fluid, but regardless - if you don't recalibrate in between each testing, than both the earlier 1.024 test and the later 1.023 test would be skewed in the same direction, still indicating that there is a leak/extra loss of SW somewhere (skimmer, creep, leak, whatever). Maybe try turning off your ato for a day (while at home) and monitor it? Then you can see how quickly you are losing water? Whatever it is, continue searching for the cause, good luck!
 
Siebo said:
Are you recalibrating your refractometer every time? If so stop. Just trying to rule out human error.
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YEP every morning ,and very rarely do i have to reset it . If i test the LFS salt water i have in a container its SOLD as 1.025 and it tests out at 1.025
thanks
 
If you feel like calibrating with ro water well its your tank. I just don't see why someone would skimp on calibration fluid when the directions clearly state not to use ro water and our reefs have such financial and personal value. To each their own. Good luck.

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It's pretty common, I would use rodi though, not to. Calibration fluid is a solid investment though.

What color skimmate are you pulling out? Is it dark and smelly or more like green tea? What size tank and how much water are you adding per day? Are you using ato or adding manually?
 
sparky5785 said:
If you feel like calibrating with ro water well its your tank. I just don't see why someone would skimp on calibration fluid when the directions clearly state not to use ro water and our reefs have such financial and personal value. To each their own. Good luck.

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
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Skimping LOL i must have missed that part,did'nt know you could Skimp when doing Saltwater .. FYI when i bought the refracto from the LFS solution was never mentioned or it would be in the equiptment room with the other 3 pick up loads of stuff .carry on
 
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