Topoff with saltwater to raise salinity?

glb · May 1, 2015

Is it possible to slowly raise salinity by doing this? I use kalk in distilled water so the SG creeps down. Could I do it say every other day? I'm just curious.

ontop27 · May 1, 2015

You have an issue if your top off lowers your salinity. It should keep it constant

glb · May 1, 2015

ontop27 said:
You have an issue if your top off lowers your salinity. It should keep it constant

The kalk is dosed separately than the topoff water. My tank is too small to dose kalk continuously. I agree with you that the salinity should stay the same. I'm also trying to raise it to 1.025-6 from -1.022-3 because I have some SPS now.

Adam Baggett · May 1, 2015

You can do it this way but you must be careful as you do it. I looked but could not find a YouTube video of someone that did this very well. Basically he used a tank controller with a salinity probe, the controller controlled the ATO and depending on how salty the water was it drew from either salt or fresh water and it kept his salt level perfectly stable. If I find the YouTube video I will post the link as I have been thinking of doing this with my Apex.

ontop27 · May 1, 2015

Yea it sounds like a recipe for disaster personally. How do your drip it ? Tube with knot?

Adam Baggett · May 1, 2015

Here this is a great video where he is using the ATO to top off salt and fresh water as needed. Not the video I was thinking about but close. I am going to do this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFh5coAOGVQ

Reefing Madness · May 1, 2015

Your saying kalk is lowering your SG?? I don't think so.
But that being said, yes, I do this all the time to raise my SG back to normal ranges when it gets low. I just put in an overdosed top off to raise it up.

FL_Reefer · May 1, 2015

Yes this can be done but make sure you make your saltwater the level you want to achieve and do it slowly. If not, your levels will become crazy high and may affect your SPS. I've learned this from personal experience, lol

ontop27 · May 1, 2015

Kalk is dripped with ro which is lowering his sg

Reefing Madness · May 1, 2015

ontop27 said:
Kalk is dripped with ro which is lowering his sg

Only if he's overflowing his tank. Salt does not evaporate. The top off can only deliver so much water. Skimmer removal or heavy wet skimming, or leaks would be the only things that would lower the SG.

ontop27 · May 1, 2015

His top off is separate from his kalk drip so you have top off adding ro to a certain point which would normally make is stable. But he has a separate system dosing ro with kalk which is not related to water level. So you are adding more ro than evaporation can handle

Pete polyp · May 1, 2015

ontop27 said:
His top off is separate from his kalk drip so you have top off adding ro to a certain point which would normally make is stable. But he has a separate system dosing ro with kalk which is not related to water level. So you are adding more ro than evaporation can handle

Then where did the water go that didn't evaporate? The tank would overflow if you put more topoff, dosing elements or whatever you put in there than what evaporates.

ontop27 · May 1, 2015

That could be a mystery haha...maybe he dumps it. Or maybe he doesn't realize his kalk system isnt putting as much ro in as he thinks...we need a tank size and kalk rate...if its like an eight gallon I can imagine its a problem. If its like a forty breeder I don't think its an issue

Reefing Madness · May 1, 2015

Pete polyp said:
Then where did the water go that didn't evaporate? The tank would overflow if you put more topoff, dosing elements or whatever you put in there than what evaporates.

Pete polyp · May 1, 2015

After thinking about it for a minute I thought of something. I would be checking for a leak somewhere. I could see a small leak that's not very noticeable, like a drip, causing this.

Pete polyp · May 1, 2015

I guess I could actually offer information with regard to the original question. Yes it's possible for you to raise salinity by topping off with saltwater. Here's a tool for you to use that will help.

http://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/TargetSalinity.php

glb · May 1, 2015

Thanks everyone. It's not a leak. I do have wet skimmate so that could be part of it. I don't drip the kalk. I dose it when my Alk goes down only. I add a third cup which raises the kh by .2, but not every day. My tank is a 12g, which makes it more of an issue. Right now I'd say I add kalk maybe every 2-3 days. I measure Alk daily and that small of kalk amount keeps it pretty stable. My guess is I'm diluting the water by adding more topoff than needed. The skimmate water really should be replaced with SW the way I see it. Also there's the plan to gradually raise the SG to 1.025-6 for the SPS. I know gradually is the operative word. I know my kalk isn't lowering the SG per se. I'm thinking I'm not accounting for the kalk as part of my topoff water (meaning it's RO too)

glb · May 1, 2015

Ps - I'm actually a chick, not a dude. This always cracks me up and it happens all the time.

Pete polyp · May 1, 2015

glb said:
Ps - I'm actually a chick, not a dude. This always cracks me up and it happens all the time.

I think this is the third time this week I have gotten a laugh out of this.

heathd.hd · May 1, 2015

Maybe just try mixing your water changes a bit strong. So make the wc up to be .27. So every wc you would be compensating for the saltwater loss from skimming or creep. I lose some SG every 6 months or so but not very often and that's all I do is mix a water change a little fat!