Salinity slowly dropping

[fishybuisness]

So ive had my 55 set up for a few weeks now. I'm topping off about a gallon a day and it's been slowly dropping my salinity. i started at just under 1.026. and im down to just under .024. how can i stop this? i just added a bunch of sps and cant afford salinity drops.

btw this was over the course of about 2 weeks so it wasnt a sharp decline!

 

[bond300]

Are you just adding fresh water without mixed salt?

 

[Mattyfelts]

possibly salt creep? not to sure

 

[BigRedsReefs10]

Are you using a refractometer?

 

[fishybuisness]

Yes just adding fresh water. And no I didn't get my ref Refractometer in yet but I have two different of the ....brainfart..other salinity measurers that read the same. What's salt creep?

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[TheTodd]

Salt creep is the salt that dried up outside your tank, usually along the edges or holes. That would be my guess too, because salt does not escape with evaporation. If you don't have a leak (where salt is exiting with water), that could be the culprit.

 

[fishybuisness]

How do I stop salt creep? When I emptied my slimmer I noticed salt build up around the skimmer

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[Mattyfelts]

How do I stop salt creep? When I emptied my slimmer I noticed salt build up around the skimmer

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not really sure how to stop it? ive heard people putting the salt back in but i dont know if its the fix.

 

[Sniperhank]

You can minimize salt creep by ensuring that there isn't any violent or turbulent breaking of the water surface.

 

[briggsy43]

How much water is your skimmer removing? If your making a fairly wet ski mate, and replacing that with freshwater, this will slowly lower salinity.

 

[fishybuisness]

About a cup every few days..I'll try and target where the salt creep is and let you guys know...in the mean time should I add a gallon of high salinity saltwater (1.028-9) to raise my salinity..

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[TheTodd]

I would just add a little salt to what is normally just pure water when topping off or up the salinity with a water change.

The skimmer idea is something to consider too. I'm tuning my new skimmer on my cube right now as it is very wet. I'm checking the salinity every couple days. Once it gets dialed in, I usually only check salinity with water changes twice a month.

 

[Ztkirkpatric]

I have my sump in my garage and had the same issue.... I began looking at the pipe between my tank and sump... One of the fitting was leaking barely.... Slowly enough that it never created any water issues on the floor... But the sat creep on the pipe was building quickly... Anytime salt goes out and freshwater goes in, salinity drops... Double check all hoses and pipe to look for leaks.

 

[54seaweed]

topping off with fresh water is ok
but remember those weekly water changes that will help resolve your salinity drop
top offs don't count for water changes
if you only top off in a months time that counts as a big salinity drop
especially if you don't do a water change to replenish the lost salt and to maintain the right balance

 

[fishybuisness]

I top off about a gallon daily..and still haven't found any salt creep..I found that of I add a cup of salt to a gallon of wetter that I use to top off daily it brings the salinity up about half a notch so I did that until I got my salinity up..I'm due for a water change soon it's been about two weeks since I've had it up so I'll keep looking for the salt creep!

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