Emptied my ATO tank!

[geddavis]

I have a 10g nano with a5 gallon ATO and just dumped 2 gallons into the tank. It has an SG if 20 right now. I’m doing a 90% water change but the salt is till mixing. I only have corals no fish. I think it happened 2 hours ago

 

[AlkCalmist]

I have a 10g nano with a5 gallon ATO and just dumped 2 gallons into the tank. It has an SG if 20 right now. I’m doing a 90% water change but the salt is till mixing. I only have corals no fish. I think it happened 2 hours ago

Don't panic. You're going to be fine. What's your salinity? Did you check it? Even if it was 2 gallons, '90s pretty aggressive. Check your salinity see where you're at. You've got time until the salt mixes anyway. I'd start with a 50% at max.

 

[Albertan22]

You will need a higher salinity in your water change water than you think to bring it back. Here is a calculator that will help https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/TargetSalinity.php

 

[Albertan22]

The calculator above if doing a partial WC, but if you are going 90 then you may not need it.

 

[AlkCalmist]

That is a really awesome calculator. Thank you albertan22 didn't even know there was one for that.

 

[Albertan22]

That is a really awesome calculator. Thank you albertan22 didn't even know there was one for that.

I love it, I use it to bring salinity back up whenever I decide to do hyposalinity in QT instead of copper.

 

[AlkCalmist]

How low you normally take it? And for how long?

 

[Albertan22]

To bring fish out of hyposalinity I usually take 6 or 7 days. I bring them up 1.003 SG per day.

 

[geddavis]

Don't panic. You're going to be fine. What's your salinity? Did you check it? Even if it was 2 gallons, '90s pretty aggressive. Check your salinity see where you're at. You've got time until the salt mixes anyway. I'd start with a 50% at max.

Ok thanks. my salinity is at an SG of 1.018

 

[Albertan22]

Ok thanks. my salinity is at an SG of 1.018

That’s pretty low for coral and inverts. What were you at before all this?

 

[Albertan22]

I’m not sure whether I’d go back to normal with a single change or stop off somewhere around 1.023 or 1.024 for a day if you were up at 1.026.

 

[AlkCalmist]

That's pretty low, I've never used hyposalinity before. How much of an effect on pH does that have?

 

[jradishness]

I’d be careful mixing too strong a batch for correction. At some point ( I don’t know what point that is) but I understand your nutrients (Ca, Mag, etc.) will begin to dissipate out of the solution. I don’t know how strong you can mix a batch of salt before having to worry about this, but it’s been something that’s kept me from ever going higher than 40ppt with a correction solution. Hopefully some of the veterans and experts can speak better on this.

 

[Albertan22]

That's pretty low, I've never used hyposalinity before. How much of an effect on pH does that have?

Sorry, I wasn’t clear. I drop to 1.009 over a 3 day period then hold for 30 days. Then take 6-8 days to bring it back up in 1.003 increments. It lowers ph, you need to buffer it with baking soda.

 

[AlkCalmist]

Albertan22 has the good advice, nothing good happens fast. You can only change things so much.

 

[Albertan22]

I’d be careful mixing too strong a batch for correction. At some point ( I don’t know what point that is) but I understand your nutrients (Ca, Mag, etc.) will begin to dissipate out of the solution. I don’t know how strong you can mix a batch of salt before having to worry about this, but it’s been something that’s kept me from ever going higher than 40ppt with a correction solution. Hopefully some of the veterans and experts can speak better on this.

You are correct in that you can precipitate Ca out of too strong a mix. Given he situation I’d be more inclined to get the salinity back up then correct the other parameters with normal water changes. Salinity that low will kill inverts a lot faster than low calcium. My opinion only of course, i’m no chemistry expert.

 

[AlkCalmist]

As to the salt mixing, it's actually a very interesting answer. It depends on the manufacturer of the salt. Different salts have different mixing guidelines. Mine recommends not mixing for more than 4 hours. Because I have added supplements in the salt (Kal,cal,mag). Reason for this, The corals take the alkalinity ions and the calcium ions and combine them to make calcium carbonate. That same thing can happen inside your salt vat. Those atoms are colliding around inside the water column. Well the chances of them actually colliding with one another and combining are miniscule. Leave it mixing for 24 hours and it can happen. If you use deionized water, this intensifies that effect. So what's actually occurring is not evaporation of the elements, put actual combination and sinkage or adhering. All that nasty gunk that can build up in your salt vat. Never realized coral skeletons.

 

[AlkCalmist]

I work at a science museum, teaching the chemistry part of the fish tank is one of my favorite parts. I like to tell people, this is my tank full of Atom smashers. Cuz that's all corals do is grab atoms and smash them together and form molecules.

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Did you find the root cause?

 

[geddavis]

I knew the cause. I had an awc I forgot about and it ran until the the new saltwater was gone and kept pumping. then the ATO kept refilling it with fresh water.