Salinity swings in a nano

Kial · Apr 20, 2023

Hey

I'm currently running a waterbox 25g mini peninsula and I feel like the tanks a ticking time bomb

I've always had large tanks, now going to a nano type I'm a bit worried about big swings, salinity etc..

Today I came home and noticed the back chambers were high and the ATO was underwater. Looked like it had dumped a fair bit of RO as my salinity went from 1.025 - 1.023.

I think a snail had gone over the weir and blocked it, resulting in my return pump lowering the water level, kicking on my ATO

Everything seems fine, but I've only for some clowns, some soft coral and acan frag.

Is a swing like that going to cause issues if it keeps happening?

Tuan’s Reef · Apr 20, 2023

My Nuvo 20 many years ago had an ATO that would constantly overfill (it wasn't by much) Nothing ever came of it. Corals and fish didn't seem to care and went about their business as usual. I think you'll be just fine

Nano_Man · Apr 20, 2023

Salinity I use gravity fed diy auto fill up and I don’t need to even worry about salinity anymore bang on every time I test

CoastalTownLayabout · Apr 20, 2023

It’s something I came up against early on with the Waterbox10. You can get a snail guard for the weir from eBay that will sort this issue.

Tuan’s Reef · Apr 20, 2023

Nman said:
Salinity I use gravity fed diy auto fill up and I don’t need to even worry about salinity anymore bang on every time I test

Agreed. I now have a gravity feed ato for my Fusion 15. Cheap and worry free

doubleshot00 · Apr 20, 2023

Mine swings like that all the time. Most of my corals dont sweat it. I just watch my Duncan as hes my indicator if its way off.

I use a tunze nano.

jackson6745 · Apr 20, 2023

Which ATO are you using? I tried a 'nano' top off in the same tank but eventually went with a Tunze Osmolator 3155. The water level is precise now, no swings at all.

gwick16 · Apr 21, 2023

You can put your ATO on a timer, so it turns on only a couple times a day for about a minute. This should fix the issue.

nothing_fancy · Apr 21, 2023

Easy to have swings like that on a nano, even with just regular water changes. Second the gravity fed AIO although if you're not into that, the avast marine pressure sensor ATO works very well at avoiding those types of issues. I set one of those up for this reason. If you really wanna get crazy you can look into something with a float switch. And if you wanna go buck wild, an apex JR for that tank would be absolutely decadent.

Kial · Apr 22, 2023

CoastalTownLayabout said:
It’s something I came up against early on with the Waterbox10. You can get a snail guard for the weir from eBay that will sort this issue.

I had a look on ebay but can only see 1 weir guard. Feel like the snail will just block that as well

CoastalTownLayabout · Apr 22, 2023

It keeps the snails foot off the weir slots. Although a snail can impede the guard slots, water can still flow under and around. The actual weir slots are never blocked. Hope that makes sense mate!

I also use the Tunze 3155 on my WB. It has the float cut off redundancy which might give you extra peace of mind.