Topoff with saltwater to raise salinity?

glb · May 1, 2015

Pete polyp said:
I think this is the third time this week I have gotten a laugh out of this.

Oh I know. My husband probably wonders what in the world I'm doing to make such an impression. He's highly amused.

glb · May 1, 2015

heathd.hd said:
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!

I think you've hit upon the most sensible solution. That will make it gradual and I'll just keep a close eye on topoff to make sure I'm not adding too much.

glb · May 1, 2015

glb said:
I think you've hit upon the most sensible solution. That will make it gradual and I'll just keep a close eye on topoff to make sure I'm not adding too much.

I didn't even think about creep. I had some when I just had an airstone in the water while I was waiting for the skimmer.

heathd.hd · May 1, 2015

Well u can't really add 2 much top off. Full is full. But there's alot of reasons why your SG could go down slowly.

Starting with the simple fact you have a small tank. I give you credit here because us guys that have 150+ gallons of water don't notice things like you do with 12 gallons. A cup loss of water is a big deal in your tank.

Where always messing around in our tanks sticking arms and tools in there. All that is loss of water. Just the water on your arm is something.

You may be a habitual tester also. So every 10 ml test adds up over time. Yah I may never notice it with my 150g but you will.

You also may frag a bit or dip some corals. I do. And I never add salt back in my tank when I pull a cup out for dipping.

Seems like your not doing anything wrong to me but just losing some water. So make you water changes a bit more on the SG than what your water currently is. If it's 1.024 make the wc 1.025 and keep going up until your water sits where you want it.

miamiangler · May 1, 2015

Hi GLB,

Very simple solution . I have the same tank . put a mark at your water level where the return pump chamber is . now when the water evaporates it should be lower then the mark you made . all you have to do is fill the RO and kalk mix to that mark and it should always be at the same SG . you can raise your SG with Salt water ,just you have to do it slow and not at one time . better over a week .

ontop27 · May 1, 2015

miamiangler said:
Hi GLB,

Very simple solution . I have the same tank . put a mark at your water level where the return pump chamber is . now when the water evaporates it should be lower then the mark you made . all you have to do is fill the RO and kalk mix to that mark and it should always be at the same SG . you can raise your SG with Salt water ,just you have to do it slow and not at one time . better over a week .

Why would they do that over using her top off?? And she said she can't put the kalk in the top off because she would be over dosing, this would have the same effect. If it were me I would just use a large top off container and little kalk so you were only dosing a minimal amount

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 1, 2015

Pete polyp said:
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.

In fact, IMO, this is the best way to raise salinity slowly enough to not be any concern to the creatures.

glb · May 1, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
In fact, IMO, this is the best way to raise salinity slowly enough to not be any concern to the creatures.

Cool. It could be the combo of the skimmer water loss and my endless need to test. I'll just add some and keep a close eye on SG. Thanks everyone!

miamiangler · May 1, 2015

ontop27 said:
Why would they do that over using her top off?? And she said she can't put the kalk in the top off because she would be over dosing, this would have the same effect. If it were me I would just use a large top off container and little kalk so you were only dosing a minimal amount

I use Kalkwasser in my ATO topoff I mix 10gals of it at a time and that's all I use in my containers. How can you overdose when it is only filling evaporated water ? I have been doing this now for 8 months and never overdosed . actually my tank s are doing much better now then a year ago . everything is stable .
OK, you are saying the same thing didn't read It through .

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 1, 2015

glb said:
Cool. It could be the combo of the skimmer water loss and my endless need to test. I'll just add some and keep a close eye on SG. Thanks everyone!

You're welcome.

Happy Reefing.

glb · May 4, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
In fact, IMO, this is the best way to raise salinity slowly enough to not be any concern to the creatures.

It's working great. I mixed up a gallon of saltwater and I'm using it and RODI to topoff. My salinity started at 1.024 last week and is now 1.0245ish. I'm going to bring it up slowly to 1.026.

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 4, 2015

Sounds good.

Happy Reefing.

glb · May 13, 2015

Ok Randy I have a question. I've been adding SW as topoff every other time and SG is slowly going up. I noticed my Alk dipping a bit so I tested my SW topoff and the Alk had dropped to 3.8kh! I know this happens sometimes when SW sits around. How do I work around this? I added a little kalk to the SW topoff yesterday but I'm not sure that's the right way to go about it. Once my SG is up to 1.026 I can topoff with RO unless I see a dip.

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 13, 2015

What salt mix are you using? How are you storing it?

What salinity is the new salt water?

CastAway · May 13, 2015

I make adjustments in my Sg by adding salt water. I find that 1g of double strength salt water in my 210 system makes a about a 0.001 increase in Sg. Skimming, testing and so on continually decrease salinity. My towel seems to always be wet and salt water is continually exiting my tank.

glb · May 13, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
What salt mix are you using? How are you storing it?

What salinity is the new salt water?

I use reef crystals salt and store the SW in a plastic gallon carton the water came in. The SG of the new water is 1.026.

glb · May 13, 2015

CastAway said:
I make adjustments in my Sg by adding salt water. I find that 1g of double strength salt water in my 210 system makes a about a 0.001 increase in Sg. Skimming, testing and so on continually decrease salinity. My towel seems to always be wet and salt water is continually exiting my tank.

Thanks. Same here. Skimmer water, testing and a little salt creep affect mine. And in a 12g nano those things can make a big difference!

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 14, 2015

CastAway said:
I make adjustments in my Sg by adding salt water. I find that 1g of double strength salt water in my 210 system makes a about a 0.001 increase in Sg. Skimming, testing and so on continually decrease salinity. My towel seems to always be wet and salt water is continually exiting my tank.

FWIW, making double strength salt water is not generally a good plan as it leads to precipitation of calcium carbonate since both alkalinity and calcium are double the normal values.

Randy Holmes-Farley · May 14, 2015

glb said:
I use reef crystals salt and store the SW in a plastic gallon carton the water came in. The SG of the new water is 1.026.

It seems unusual that the alk would drop that much. There will be some precipitation of calcium carbonate, but not usually that much.

CastAway · May 14, 2015

Randy Holmes-Farley said:
FWIW, making double strength salt water is not generally a good plan as it leads to precipitation of calcium carbonate since both alkalinity and calcium are double the normal values.

Does this hold true once the 1g of concentrate is added to the 210g system? Doesn't a ratio of 1:210 make the precipitation risk negligible at best? Or, perhaps the precipitation concern is for the one gallon solution only, and timing is the key factor?