High Tide Aquatics

Help quick question my Salinatiy is 1.032

70Cuda

70Cuda

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So i been using a cheapy one cuz its easier and i noticed today it was broken so took out my refractometer and my Salinatiy is 1.032 ouch how much top off water do i need and how quickly or slowly can i lower it going to run out to buy some wondering how much ima need.
 
do it slowly. Personally, I would not more than 0.002 per day spread out through the day. Also, did you confirm 1.032 after calibrating with the 35pt standard?
 
Depends on the size of your tank. You should probably move it down slowly though, especially if your corals look ok. This summer I went to my local FS to get my hydrometers calibrated, and they (the LFS) found out their salinity was 1.03. It was during that really hot week when the temps were over 100. Needless to say, they added more top-off. Their corals didn't look too stressed though, so I guess you should go slow.

I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. :)
 
Wow... I don't know anything about your system, gallons etc. but a method i've always used if I find my salinity out of wack is to do a fresh water drip line into the tank. Make it as slow as you need. If it was my tank I'd take it down to about 1.027 first day over the course of a 2-3 hours. Then next day take it the rest of the way down to 1.025 over a couple hours again. My 2 cents...
 
For off how certain are you that the refractometer is calibrated correctly. Do you see any signs of stress in the corals and/or fish?

If you are sure and don't see any major signs of stress I would say better then just adding top off water. How about taking out say 2 of water from your tank and replacing it with 2 gallons of RODI water each day in the sump over the next week until you salinity comes back down.

Disclaimer- this will surely bring it down and I believe relatively slow in your tank (assuming about 220 in water volume) but I don't have any specific numbers. Would wait as long as you can for someone more chemisty knowledgeable them me but in case no one else chimes in quickly. That is what I personally would do.
 
Ok... gomer is way more catious than I. He's probably right with the .002 a day concept. I base mine off the fact than typically LFS salinitys are wack and I've never had a problem acclimating any fish with no ill effect over the course of 2-3 hours. I've just applied the same concept in adjusting my tanks salinity.
 
Lets just say that my only almost tank crash (didn't lose anything, buy the tank was totally bleached) when I was new, was dropping my salinity from 1.03x to 1.024 over the course of a day.
 
That's scary... Luckily i've never had my salinity go more than about 1.028. Looking back I've probably never swung my salinity more than about .004 over the course of 2 hours. I'll be sure to remember this feedback in case I ever run accross a more extreme example. Thanks!
 
I just added 2 gallons of rodi and put one gallon on a slow drip tommorrow ima do a 20 gallon water change
after about 30 minutes ill see what the new number is. As to the calibration we did it about a month or so ago with someone who knew how to calibrate it i myself dont know how.
 
Wish this site had a salinity one for case like this but it is helpful for some other adjustment you might need to make at some point in the future

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html
 
ahh guess i better do some testing while im at it. *Rolling up my sleeves* Some corals are stressed. Yesterday lost that beautiful stag I got at BAYMAC thought it was stung but not im guessing it wasnt that. The acans are not puffy and one anemone has moved around quite a bit.
 
Once time the salinity on my tank got up the 1.035 or somewhere around there and everything was fine for some reasons.. I did slowly brough it down though.
 
my calcium is at 380 and magnesium is 1250 both were much higher so dont know if that is due to the new frags or the Salinity. Was able to bring it down just a tad now its at 1.028 still high but im hoping a little at a time. Think ive done enough for tonight. Should I dose to bring up Calcuim and Mg or just do a water change.
 
[quote author=seminolecpa link=topic=5594.msg70047#msg70047 date=1229489918]
Wish this site had a salinity one for case like this but it is helpful for some other adjustment you might need to make at some point in the future

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chemcalc.html
[/quote]

You can do something like this:

(system volume) x (desired salinity) = (system volume - fresh water volume) x (current salinity)

(system volume) x (desired salinity) / (current salinity) = (system volume - fresh water volume)

(fresh water volume) = (system volume) - ((system volume) x (desired salinity) / (current salinity))

(fresh water volume) = (system volume) x (1 - (desired salinity)/(current salinity))

So going by the last equation, if you have a 90 gallon system at 1.033 and you want to drop it to 1.031, you should replace part of your tank water with fresh water as follows:

(fresh water volume) = 90 x (1 - 31/33) = 5.45 gallons.

Then you recalculate for each successive water change.

Yes, you can use 31 instead of 1.031. Special mathemagical cheating is allowed :D
 
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