Losing Salt? Any help

[reefandreptileautomation]

So I am noticing that my salt level is slowing going down day by day. I am trying to figure out what could be the culprit. My ATO is working as normal with no issues from the looks of it.

I will explain my setup and someone chime in if they might know.

I have an AWC that adds and removes daily 1 gallon of water. I have a rollermat, skimmer, and a ATS. I have a small carbon reactor as well.

Any suggestions what could be the cause?

Thank you.

 

[Jon Fishman]

Is your AWC setup to simultaneously or quickly remove/replace the water? I don't really get how AWC's work, so just throwing it out there, that maybe your AWC is removing water, and your ATO is replacing it before the AWC has a chance to...... so Salt out, Fresh back in.... continuously and slowly....

 

[Rover]

So I am noticing that my salt level is slowing going down day by day. I am trying to figure out what could be the culprit. My ATO is working as normal with no issues from the looks of it.

I will explain my setup and someone chime in if they might know.

I have an AWC that adds and removes daily 1 gallon of water. I have a rollermat, skimmer, and a ATS. I have a small carbon reactor as well.

Any suggestions what could be the cause?

Thank you.

Not sure the mechanics behind your AWC.... Is your ATO responding at the same time and trying to fill the tank while the AWC is in process? Does the AWC measure out a gallon and measure in a gallon? How does it do this? Could be a discreprancy there that is causing it to take more then a gallon, and give back less then a gallon, and leave the auto-top off to 'fix' the problem.

Suggestion is stop your AWC setup, and see if it stabilizes.

Unless you are noticing excessive salt-creep .... it can't just vanish!

How big is the tank? What are you using to measure your salt content?

 

[road_runner]

How are you measuring and deciding the salinity? Are you using in sump prob?
Be careful some of these probs are notoriously inaccurate and drift in time...

 

[reefandreptileautomation]

Yea I am using a probe and it is usually spot on. I match it with my refract along with my Pinpoint monitor. The AWC always adds water then after draws water. I will turn it off for a few days and see if it stablizes. I have it set to measure exactly a gallon into the tank and then remove exactly a gallon. Unless that is not accurate or it needs to be re-calibrated. The ATO is never on during the same time as I have it programmed to turn off while the AWC is running.

 

[dhuynh]

Most like your awc is drawing more water out than it's putting in.. turn off your ato and see if your water drop after a wc.

 

[Jon Fishman]

Most like your awc is drawing more water out than it's putting in.. turn off your ato and see if your water drop after a wc.

I would imagine it won't be a noticeable amount.... and if it takes several water changes to lose salinity, then he can't account for evaporation. I would switch to manual water-changes for awhile.

 

[BestMomEver]

Ok... so here’s what I know... my hubby is a chemist and the quality manager at a large chemical plant. They use pH monitors and Salinity monitors every day... the really expensive, industrial ones. He says that any salinity probe left in water for any length of time without calibration will gradually get less and less accurate. They calibrate their probes every time they use them. I don’t pay too much attention to my probes. I check Salinity every few days. Also check how much salt creep you have around the perimeter of your tank and sump. Knock it all back in the tank.

 

[Brett S]

Salt doesn’t evaporate or get used up, so the only thing that will lower the salinity in your tank is physically removing the salt by taking out salt water and replacing it with fresh water.

There are typically only a few ways this can happen. The skimmer will remove some salt water as it operates and it will cause your salinity to drift down over a long period of time, but usually the effect is so small that it’s difficult to measure over a few days or even a few weeks. So unless you’re pulling out a lot of skimmate then I think this can be ruled out.

The auto water change does seem like the likely culprit. Either it’s not calibrated exactly right and it’s pulling out more water than it’s putting in or the ATO is running while the AWC is happening and adding extra fresh water. I think stopping the AWC for a few days is probably the right move here. Also, can you post some details about exactly how your AWC works?

Finally the only other possibility I can think of is that your tank or plumbing has a leak and salt water is slowly leaking out and getting replaced with freshwater by the ATO. But I feel like if it was leaking enough to make an impact on your salinity you would have noticed a puddle somewhere.

 

[reefandreptileautomation]

Based on my probe we are losing about .3-.5 ppt per day right now. So it is somewhat significant. I have checked for leaks and not seeing any. I have disabled the AWC for a few days and I will to see if it remains stable. If it does then I will recalibrate the pumps cause obviously as you said it it probably taking out more than it is putting in. I am using Spectrapure Litermeters so they only work for AWC when used with pumps.

 

[reefandreptileautomation]

Here is the salt drop.

 

[lapin]

What happens around 7 am each day?

 

[dadnjesse]

What are you using for top off. I know my Tunze osmolator, if turned off and on it puts in water when turning back on even though the water level isn't low.

 

[reefandreptileautomation]

I use the Neptune ATK. I ntoiced that too. Nothing at 7am that I am aware of.

 

[Brett S]

What are you using for top off. I know my Tunze osmolator, if turned off and on it puts in water when turning back on even though the water level isn't low.

As long as it’s not turned back on during the AWC that should be OK. It might add a little extra freshwater to the tank when it gets turned back on, but the extra water will evaporate pretty quickly and it won’t affect the salinity in the end.

 

[reefandreptileautomation]

Yes I am going to just turn off the AWC for a few days and see if the salinity remains stable. That will be a good indicator.