Vanishing salinity

[42jeff]

My tank seems to be eating its salt. Thirty gallon tank with 25 or so pounds of live rock. Bubble tip anenome, velvet clown, emerald crab, couple margarita snails and a few hermit crabs, feather duster ... um....I seem to be leaving something out...but I'm sure it will come to me as soon as I post this. Typical little things peeking their heads out of the rock that I have yet to identify.. BUT ANYWAY...

The salinity seems to be dropping everytime I check the tank. Although the water level is staying put. I had thought of adding salt in small quantities to unoccupied areas of the tank so it would disperse but my wife thought she'd heard that was bad...to pull water out..mix it and pour it back in.

Please don't tell me she was right yet again although what she's saying sounds more proper....

 

[jamal-188]

You never want to dump salt mix directly to your tank. IMO mixing the salt for 24hrs before adding to you tank is best.

I don't know how the SG of your tank could be "using" salt. The only way salt leaves the aquarium is when you manually do a water change. What are you using to measure the amount of salt in your water?

 

[RogerMcAllen]

Do you have any salt creep perhaps? Do you see any visible buildup of crystals on your lid, tank walls, etc?

 

[42jeff]

Sorry for the delay...

Salt creep....definitely. And in kind of an odd occurrence...it seems to be collecting on the bottom rim of the tank. Makes me wonder if it's starting to leak.

I use a floating hydrometer-thermometer combo dealy. It seems to work pretty well.

 

[Anemoneman]

I use a floating hydrometer-thermometer combo dealy

These can be unreliable.
Take a sample of your water to the LFS and have them check the salinity/specific gravity to see if it matches your readings.

 

[nutrak]

yeah the wife was right. you should know better than to doubt her by now. the last time i second guessed my girlfriend...not only was i wrong, i almost killed my tank!

 

[Bang Guy]

You would actually be better off adding a little salt to your topoff water instead of mixing some salt with tank water. The salt will mix a lot better.

 

[luntiz]

Re: Sorry for the delay...

Salt creep....definitely. And in kind of an odd occurrence...it seems to be collecting on the bottom rim of the tank. Makes me wonder if it's starting to leak.

I have that same problem, should we be worried?

 

[William]

I use a floating hydrometer-thermometer combo dealy

These can be unreliable.
Take a sample of your water to the LFS and have them check the salinity/specific gravity to see if it matches your readings.

Thats not always the case, tho..cause the ones I have around me use a cheap hydrometer to test, so theres no garuntee they'll be right either.