"Dosing" to increase salinity?

[legrunt]

After my debacle with the refractometer, I've got a lot of advice about topping up with seawater, water change and replace with seawater etc.
Yes, one of my old mistakes was simply dumping salt into the tank... Which i won't repeat.

But I'm just wondering... What's the reason i shouldn't just mix up a batch of super high salinity water and "dose" a few ml each day, much the same way as dosing alk or calcium?

 

[Spare time]

I'd imagine becomes incredibly cost ineffective to use salt as a way to replace major elements. I'm sure there are other reasons but cost would be my main concern.

 

[legrunt]

I'd imagine becomes incredibly cost ineffective to use salt as a way to replace major elements. I'm sure there are other reasons but cost would be my main concern.

No no i don't mean as a way to replenish lost elements... I mean as a way to increase salinity

 

[LegendaryCG]

Probably could but you could end up going right past your target if your not careful.

 

[Silver14SS]

What's your current salinity and your target?

You may get precipitation trying to mix too high of a salinity. You'll also be adding alk, ca, mg, and everything else that's in the salt at a higher concentration.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

No no i don't mean as a way to replenish lost elements... I mean as a way to increase salinity

If you try to make seawater or salt mix too concentrated, calcium carbonate will precipitate. Just use normal salinity.

 

[legrunt]

What's your current salinity and your target?

You may get precipitation trying to mix too high of a salinity. You'll also be adding alk, ca, mg, and everything else that's in the salt at a higher concentration.

It was 1.020. target is 1.026.
After a few water changes and top ups, it's now 1.023

 

[GodZillaReef]

You could just add 1.025 SG instead of top off to bring SG up.

 

[Spare time]

No no i don't mean as a way to replenish lost elements... I mean as a way to increase salinity

Ah I understand. Personally I think it would be easier to just raise it slowly via small water changes. That way you are cleaning the tank at the same time.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

The tried and true way, and cheapest way, is to replace evaporation with normal seawater. Water changes are very inefficient at raising salinity.

 

[nkyreef]

I had to raise my salinity a bit so I just took my ATO pump out of the RODI and placed it in mixed 35ppt saltwater. I checked the salinity often enough so that when I reached my desired level in the DT I moved my pump back to the RODI.