salinity

[Emily]

I do weekly 25% water changes with pre mixed salt water from LFS, but can't seem to get my salinity below 1.030. All other levels are fine. Any ideas? Everything in my tank is doing great, corals, fish, BTA'S, except my new hammer head coral turned to brown slime within 2 week. What's up?

 

[Seagars]

add rodi water to the salt mix or get the LFS to lower their salinity. they should know better and be in the 1.024 - 1.026 level anyway.

 

[Emily]

I am still very new to this, my tank has been running 6 months. Dumb question: What is rodi water?

 

[mfief]

What are you measuring your salinity with? Are you topping off with fresh rodi water or salt water? RO/DI is reverse osmosis deionized here is a link to some facts about RO and DI there are many other articles out there as well. http://www.drsfostersmith.com/pic/article.cfm?aid=842

 

[HiddenUser]

I am still very new to this, my tank has been running 6 months. Dumb question: What is rodi water?

RODI = Reverse Osmosis Deionized Water...basically pure water.

You shouldn't be using tap water for your tank as it may contain contaminants or other things...mostly it just causes algae blooms.

 

[Arnie]

I am not an expert.... only had my tank running for 14 mths now.... but i mix my own saltwater to control what i add into my tank... if i check the salinity of the tank water and it reads 1.30 per say... then i would usually make a 5 gallon bucket of water and would only add a cup of reef crystals which will end up really low on salinity reading.... even half a cup only.... you have to compensate that you already have a lot of salt in your tank reading at 1.30, so when you add new saltwater the reading should be way lower than your tanks reading to balance out... hope i made sense....

 

[Emily]

Thank you Arnie, This does make sense

 

[Arnie]

Glad to help.....

 

[Emily]

Being that I am a single mother of 3 small children and have very little extra time, can I just add some distilled water to my premix water from LFS?

 

[HiddenUser]

Being that I am a single mother of 3 small children and have very little extra time, can I just add some distilled water to my premix water from LFS?

You can, but RO/DI would be best. If you have coral and what not, I'd maybe see if your LFS has the ability to fill a jug with RO/DI water. Or just ask the LFS to drop their salinity down to 1.025-ish. Convince them that they can save money by using less salt!

 

[Emily]

okay, thank you

 

[mfief]

You should have some of each water on hand. Premix and fresh rodi. You should be using a little bit of fresh to top of the evaporated water each day to keep your salinity as consistent as possible.

 

[Arnie]

You can buy 5g jugs of Reversed osmosis water from your local grocery and use that instead of distilled water. Then you can add that to your premixed saltwater from LFS...

 

[Emily]

Thanks again everyone? I'm sure I'll be back with more questions your all so great!