Dosing aqua forest with salinity increase?

[litenyaup]

Has anyone found there salinity increasing while dosing the aqua forest balling 3 part? I have just started and have not seen it yet, but have been told to watch for it. The nature of the chemical “sodium” carbonate infers its make up of salt. I’m looking for anyone else’s experience and if there was an issue with having to check salinity level, and making adjustments every so often to counter its increase.

 

[Jonify]

Usually your regular water changes will handle the minute changes in salinity from dosing--you don't need to do anything. If you're not performing water changes, then consider doing so, if nothing else, to keep your salinity stable.

 

[litenyaup]

Usually your regular water changes will handle the minute changes in salinity from dosing--you don't need to do anything. If you're not performing water changes, then consider doing so, if nothing else, to keep your salinity stable.

Ya I figured it would be a very small amount added, and would take a very long time to effect the salinity level.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Effect should be slight.

 

[litenyaup]

Does anyone have any experience with this and actual facts on how much it did it didn’t raise bit?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Has anyone found there salinity increasing while dosing the aqua forest balling 3 part? I have just started and have not seen it yet, but have been told to watch for it. The nature of the chemical “sodium” carbonate infers its make up of salt. I’m looking for anyone else’s experience and if there was an issue with having to check salinity level, and making adjustments every so often to counter its increase.

Salinity rises with ALL two parts and Balling products. It is inherent to the system. Just remove some tank water and replace with RO/DI periodically.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I discuss it here:

The Many Methods for Supplementing Calcium and Alkalinity - REEFEDITION

The rise in salinity of these products over time can be very roughly calculated, though there are several reasons why this calculation is only an estimate. For every 1000 meq of alkalinity added in this fashion (and the matching amount of calcium) these products will deliver on the order of 60 grams of other ions to the tank. In a tank with a low calcification demand (defined later to be 18.3 thousand meq of alkalinity per year in a 100 gallon tank (0.4 dKH/day)) this effect will raise the salinity by 3 ppt per year (compared to a normal salinity of S ~35). In a high demand tank (defined later to be 219 thousand meq of alkalinity per year in a 100 gallon tank (4.4 dKH/day)), the salinity will rise by 35 ppt in a year, or approximately doubling the salinity. Consequently, the salinity should be monitored closely in using these types of additives, especially in a tank with high calcification rates.