Low salinity level question

[Rhetoric]

Thanks to everyone who helps out the newbies through the large learning curve that is marine aquariums.

75g to be a reef eventually
38g sump
Running about 100g in the cycle

I just did a water change yesterday. The water I added was around 1.023 but I didn't check the existing water in the tank before adding it.

I checked it out just now and it appears to be about 1.020 or so. I don't have any sensitive coral yet fortunately since I understand that low salinity can harm coral and other inverts. I do have quite a few snails and mushrooms. I obviously need to get the salinity back up to the 1.025 range. What is the best way to do this?

Can salt be added directly into the sump? or should I just do another water change (how much water?) with water at a higher salinity (1.027 or so?)

Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

1: You're not curing live rock at the same time are you?
2: Anything else besides snails and shrooms?
3: Whats your current (approx) rate of evaporation?

All 3 of these equal up to my thoughts that you can (and probably should) just raise your SG by consistently using high SG makeup water instead of RO/DI and hold the water changes for quite a while.

I would never just dump salt in the sump, even if I had no livestock at all.. - Most salt mixes precipitate at mixing, I prefer to leave that stuff in the mixing bucket instead of in the tank.

And also, I and others like to run at around 1.023.. So you're not really doing as bad as you might think.. - Are the snails still out moving around? - Shrooms expanded to take in light?

 

[Rhetoric]

Thanks for the response! Here's what I've got going on:

1. Not curing any live rock
2. Snails, shrooms, some feather dusters, hermits, emeralds, 4 green chromis, about 80lbs live rock...that's pretty much it I think
3. Evap rate - hmmm...maybe between 1/2-3/4 gallon a day...I seem to add about a gallon every 2 days or so...

Snails are still moving around as far as I can tell, shrooms are open for sure.

So you're saying to top off every couple days with the high SG water rather than what I've been doing, right? And then hold off on water changes for a little while?

Thanks a ton!

 

[Anonymous]

Yep.

Basically, depending on how long you want to take to get there (and longer is generally better) all you need to do is keep adding pre mixed saltwater (at the SG you want to get to) to your topoff rather than fresh RO/DI and it will slowly bring your SG up.

Just make sure you monitor it daily and once it gets to the point you want it at, stop using mixed water and go back to using RO/DI..


And yeah, with that low of a bioload, as long as your rock has been in there a while (a few weeks or more) you probably won't need to do a water change for a few months, if even then..

You have a good skimmer right? - That'll make the biggest difference in how often you'll need to do changes.

 

[Anonymous]

What GD said . I'd just use water premixed at the target Sg as makeup water and montor it. FWIW, most people keep reef tanks at 1.025-26, most corals seems to do better at an SG that's closer to natural sea water.

 

[Rhetoric]

Thanks for the info. I have been topping off with the higher SG water for several days now and the overall SG is up to 1.021. Will continue with this.

Appreciate the help!

 

[guara]

Lawdawq , I ve been keeping my tank around 1026 is that bad?

 

[Anonymous]

Not at all, most of us keep tanks at 1.025-027.

 

[guara]

Tks for that, I ll continue to keep it like that.....