adding salt

[rngrjt]

when you guys conduct your weekly checks and find that your salinity is running low how do you guys add salt. I read that pouring the salt straight into the tank was lethal. I dont do it that way however i think i may be just as dangerous even though i have been doing it in my 90 gal for about a year now. I grab a big plastic cup (like a biggie size coke from BK) and i fill half way with salt and the other half with tank water and i stir until the water wont absorb anymore of the salt then i pour the liquid into the tank. and repeat the process until i have all the salt added to the tank.

Also, i heard that the temp of the water has a lot to do with the salinity readings is this correct?

 

[ryguy]

Temperature will change your readings but as long as you are operating your tank in the "normal" zone, the hydrometers and refractometers are temperature corrected to give you an accurate reading for the warmer water.

You should never really have salinity issues though. Your water should be mixed and tested and then adjusted to get the salinity you desire. After that, you stock the tank, and all added top-off water is freshwater. Your salinity will rise slightly until you do your evaporation top-offs, then it will balance out again. Salt never evaporates, you only lose salt from saltcreep.

Your PWC water should be mixed at least 24 hrs before you do your water change. That gives you enough time to mix the salt properly, bring it up to temp and adjust the salinity to match your display tank salinity.

It all stays the same and you should never have salinity issues that way.

 

[tecwzrd]

Most important thing is to adjust sg slowly, especially if increasing it. The easiest way is to add well mixed (24+ hours with a ph) SW for top off instead of fresh so it increases your sg slowly over days and not all at one time.

For FOWLR a sg range of 1.018-1.022 is fine. If a reef setup then keeping it closer to 1.024-1.026 is better for your stock. Slight decreases or increases is fine but if your sg is swinging wildly then you are not topping off enough or your sg meter is ineffective.

Swing arm hydrometers will give you the widest fluctuations IME because they are sensitive to temps and are prone to damage easily which will give you different readings each time you use it.

Floating hydrometers are slightly more accurate and the 10+” ones are better then the smaller ones. If using a floating hydrometer do not keep it in the tank all the time since deposits that build up on it can affect the reading. Make sure you turn off all pumps so the water is steady & read the measurement from the bottom looking up.

A Refractometer will give you the most accurate reading and automatically adjusts to temperatures.