Reef nutrition

Two part raising my salinity

Flagg37 said:
I know you said you don’t have room for a carx but you might need to make room. I think one of our members has theirs in a closet on the other side of the wall from the tank.

Your doser probably doesn’t take up much room but I’m sure your reservoirs do (unless you’re refilling them constantly).
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I have the Neptune DDR and have to fill it about every 3-4 ish weeks.
 
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No room...I already have my ATO reservoir and 2 vortech battery backups hiding behind my couch sitting next to the tank.
 
That isn't all that much 2 part. Per the diesyst calculator even at 50 gallons water volume that's only 0.73 dKH/day. Per one of Randy HF's articles a while ago that puts your salinity rise somewhere in the range of 5.8 PPT/year, or converted to SG per month, 0.00037 sg/month, which works out to just about noise on a weekly basis.
Assuming you're returning your tank to 1.026 SG each week and rising up to 1.028 or 1.029 I see a few possibilities:

1) There's a whole bunch of other stuff in B-ionic I'm not accounting for. This seems unlikely
2) I messed up my math somewhere.
3) You aren't getting your salinity back down each week, so it isn't so much raising up as just staying high.
4) There are additions from other sources (top-off being done with salt water, lots of other dosing of say Mg, etc).
5) Measurement error.

Are you by chance slightly overfilling your system when you do water changes (IE leaving the water level above the ATO fill point)?
 
Nope. But I do have a habit of letting it rise for a few weeks before I get frustrated.

I just with there was a product other than a calcium reactor that would mess with the salinity.
 
Rostato said:
Nope. But I do have a habit of letting it rise for a few weeks before I get frustrated.

I just with there was a product other than a calcium reactor that would mess with the salinity.
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I hear you. BUT...
It clearly isn’t broke. Don’t “fix” it.
Keep on keeping on.
Maybe mix water change water to 1.025 instead of 1.026?
It’s all just number fucking with you.
Your corals are healthy and growIng. Don’t over think it!
 
Rostato said:
Nope. But I do have a habit of letting it rise for a few weeks before I get frustrated.

I just with there was a product other than a calcium reactor that would mess with the salinity.
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Per your 2 part dosing it shouldn't take 3 weeks for your salinity to rise that much, it should take 6 months, there is something more to this. Give that I don't think changing your 2 part dosing is going to make your apparent issue go away.

+1 on trying weaker change water or something else, but if anything figure out where the real issue is, assuming there is one.
 
I really think the only issue is me going crazy.

I use the same water for my display and frag tanks.

The frag tank stays dead on all day every day. The display raises fairly quickly.

The only difference between the two tanks is I dont dose the frag tank

I’ll just keep on keeping on.


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I had a 30 gallon tank that would soak up the Mg for some reason. So I started dosing Mg in large quantities. I had no idea that it was increasing my salinity. It got up to like 1.031 before I caught it. I think @jccaclimber is on to something with thinking it’s more than just your 2 part that is the cause of the rise.
 
I can't be the only one who doesn't have any of these issues. Bruce thinks Im in the stone age for doing things manually , I don't run any reactors of any kind. Yeah I get a little algea here and there but fish and corals are for the most part happy as hell. I don't over think my tanks and push the kiss method all the time.
 
I run a little GFO, I dose Red Sea reef energy daily, and trace elements weekly.

I never dose mag unless it’s low.

That’s really it.
 
No. I dont do anything to the frag tank but top it off. It’s only got zoas in it.

I top off about a gallon a day in the main tank.


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This is still a problem for me. I left my tank 2 weeks ago at 1.026 salinity. Went on vacation for 11 days and when testing before a water change yesterday I was at 1.028-9! It’s super annoying

I have had less evaporation due to the hotter weather and have had to up my dosing again to keep up with demand.


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Yep, Sodium Carbonate or bicarbonate plus Calcium Chloride results in Sodium Chloride. Dosing is an expensive way to make salt! I once (documented in my tank thread) dumped calcium chloride solution into my Alk dosing container. Instant salt!

The best options seem to be wet skimming or removing a little water every day to let the ATO replace with fresh.
 
bondolo said:
Yep, Sodium Carbonate or bicarbonate plus Calcium Chloride results in Sodium Chloride. Dosing is an expensive way to make salt! I once (documented in my tank thread) dumped calcium chloride solution into my Alk dosing container. Instant salt!

The best options seem to be wet skimming or removing a little water every day to let the ATO replace with fresh.
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Yeah I’m going to need to start doing that.

I already skim wet.

I need to find room (and money) for a calcium reactor
 
Update.

I’m not afraid to admit when I’m wrong, so I was wrong.

I must have been adding too much water during water changes. I made a much more conscious effort to add as little water as possible during the change and to let the top off throw a bit of water in the sump to get back to level.

It’s been two water changes and my salinity is steady at 1.026

Sorry for wasting everyone’s time. I feel stupid [emoji2359]


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Here I was going to make an offer on the mining rights to your salt production machine.
Not all bad though, it prompted me to learn a bit about calculating salinity swing based on 2 part addition, and you learned a bit more about maintaining salinity.
Thank you for posting the update.
 
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