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sticks_wife

Decreasing salinity?

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6 Comments
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sticks_wife
, 01-11-2012 at 06:38 PM (2282 Views)
We are having a problem with decreasing salinity. It has only happened over the last couple of weeks. We have an ATO system, and we change water once a week. We use the same salinity measurements every water change. What is causing this? The drop is going from 025 down to 020. I know you have to replace evaporated water with RO, but the salt should stay because it doesn't evaporate. Any suggestions?

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Categories
‎ Water Chemistry , ‎ Questions - Need some input

Comments

  1. Midnight's Avatar
    You can loose salt in any number of reasons. Primary ways to loose salt are through salt creep, leeks, and spills. I am assuming that you are measuring salinity with a refractometer and temperature is the same between tank and new salt mix? Contrary to popular belief some salt is lost through evaporation.
  2. sticks_wife's Avatar
    Yes, same temp and salinity between the two. Sorry I should have said that. No creep, leaks or spills. Yes on the refractometer, and we even calibrated it
  3. Midnight's Avatar
    The only other way that is popping into my head at the moment is wet skimming. this can take lots of salt water with it and the top off is replacing it so it drifts downward.
  4. Myhahockeykid's Avatar
    what size tank do you have? remember that small systems can have huge swings really easily.
  5. jlemoine2's Avatar
    Knowing the size of tank would help give us some scale. It's much easier to drop your salinity quickly on a smaller tank than a large one. How much top-off are you going through in a day? Are you wet skimming? If so, how often must you empty your skimmer cup?
  6. melev's Avatar
    Whenever you test for salinity, do it two or three times in a row to make sure the refractometer is reading accurately. The first measurement may be off because the glass is cold, for example.

    If you are tossing out more skimmate than usual, salinity will drop as top off water replenishes the system in greater volume.