Effect of changing salinity on major elements.

[Empti]

Been testing at home for a month and just got my water retested by the LFS's spin touch. Salinity is at 1.024 and I was wondering what kind of % impact it increasing it will have on my calcium/mag/alk.

Currently at
alk 7.8 (was due to dose .5 dkh today but didn't get a chance to before the test)
ca 463
mg 1124 (always ran around 1200 as I was only dosing two part, adding calcium to 1350 now - have already dosed 50ppm today)

Will increasing my salinity from 1.024 > 1.026 give an appreciable increase in these elements - logically I'd expect 8.3% increase which would save me quite a bit of money on magnesium supplementation. My natural salt water usually runs .024-.025 can I just throw extra NSW into my top off's in place of RO to hit/maintain 1.026

 

[fishski13]

It should increase your elements by a certain percentage. You are basically putting more salt into water at 1.026 than 1.024. You should see the impact on your salt container. My salt bucket has the different levels of alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium written on it depending on what salinity I make it at.

And as for saving money, I dont think it will be much if any at all as you will be using more salt now than before. You will get a certain number of gallons less per bucket of salt if you increase salinity than what you are currently getting out of a bucket.

 

[nereefpat]

Will increasing my salinity from 1.024 > 1.026 give an appreciable increase in these elements

Yes, exactly.

I wouldn't treat a LFS' spin touch as gospel, however. How were you measuring salinity at home?

 

[Empti]

Yes, exactly.

I wouldn't treat a LFS' spin touch as gospel, however. How were you measuring salinity at home?

Hanna Salinity Tester but it hasnt been calibrated for a good 2 months so I'm going to go buy some more calibration media and check before increasing salinity

 

[Empti]

It should increase your elements by a certain percentage. You are basically putting more salt into water at 1.026 than 1.024. You should see the impact on your salt container. My salt bucket has the different levels of alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium written on it depending on what salinity I make it at.

And as for saving money, I dont think it will be much if any at all as you will be using more salt now than before. You will get a certain number of gallons less per bucket of salt if you increase salinity than what you are currently getting out of a bucket.

Thankfully I'm just using natural sea water (from LFS because its considerably cheaper then salt crystals for me) so the thought was either just let it evaporate a bit before I use it for water changes or just use it in place of RO to hit/maintain higher concentration