Saliny low and it's Christmas Eve!

Kaiser · Dec 24, 2016

I just noticed My salinity is around 1.018 and i don't own a RODI unit yet so I have no way of raising it since it's Christmas Eve and I have no idea if any stores will be open tomorrow, I have about 3 gallons of RO water in a jug so I might be able to mix salt water should I get my hands on some salt. the tank I'm worried about is a 20 gallon with a sump/refugium, what should I do?! Should I be worried or will it be fine come Monday?

Diesel · Dec 25, 2016

You will be fine till Monday my friend.
One thing to let it come up slowly is shut ATO off or if you do it manually just don't top off.
Have a great Christmas and be the first on Monday at your LFS.

Kaiser · Dec 25, 2016

Alright thanks, one of my frogspawn was closing up earlier so I freaked out, those buggers have been the toughest coral for me to keep yet for some reason

Randy Holmes-Farley · Dec 25, 2016

You'd want to raise it slowly anyway, but one way to start is to add a little bit of salt to a sump if you think it will dissolve there before getting to the tank.

Kaiser · Dec 28, 2016

So I've been raising it slowly but I noticed something off about what my lfs was telling me and they basically won't admit to the fact that their own refractometer is off, so I happen to be topping off with 1.016 water now.... no idea what to do cause I can't really get saltwater from them now since it's lower than my own salinity which is at 1.019 now....

Jamesfl · Dec 28, 2016

If that is the case then I would just buy my own salt and then get freshwater RO/DI from them. This is what I do at the moment since I don't have my own RO system setup yet.

polyps707 · Dec 28, 2016

Make sure your salinity instrument is accurate and you can always scoop some aquarium water and add aquarium salt to that and mix well and slowly add it to your sump. Make sure your auto top off is off and your return pump doesn't run dry

try keeping an emergency back up of RODI and salt

I'm sure that's what your plan is though

have fun!

Kaiser · Dec 28, 2016

Ya believe me my instrument has been recalibrated 3 times using the 35ppt fluid since then, i like to make sure it's 100% accurate, but this whole fiasco made me go nuts, either I'm calibrating it wrong or they have no idea what they are doing when it comes to their refractometer. They kept claiming their refractometer was accurate because they just opened the box two days before, but the water in my quarantine that i just restarted a week ago using their water was around 1.023 according to my refractometer, while the water I picked up yesterday measured at 1.016, and my reef water is 1.019 according to me but it's 1.023-1.024 according to them. I don't know what to believe anymore lol. I'm going to go pick up salt in about an hour so hopefully I can get my salinity back up