what's the general concensus?

[ryguy]

Who scrapes salt creep back into their system? who removes it altogether? Just trying to figure out if it has a downside to being recycled back into the system.

Question 2.,

Who tests water before AND after pwc's? or just before/just after....

let's talk about it

 

[Marc118]

I test before and after. I dont have a salt problem though.

 

[Devilishturtles]

I just tip salt creep back into the system. But again, I always have a very small amount.

I test before and after water changes occasionally, but usually just after.

 

[AndyH5512]

I scrape it into the overflow, never had any issues doing so.

 

[EELectric]

I usually remove the saltcreep and test after the PWC. No specific reasons why.

 

[Fluff]

I don't get alot of salt creep but I never put it back in the tank. I was told long ago that the salt if it lands on a fish or coral can burn them. Not sure how true that is but never bothered to risk it.

 

[AMANIQU77]

i normally test before pwc (I only do pwc once a month). If the numbers aren't well, I do a pwc. Then, during the preparation of the replacement water, I test that too. I just want to know what's about to get into the tank.

Finally, I test water again one hour after the pwc so that I can make adjustments when necessary.

I've heard of people screw up their arithmetic on the salt/water proportion and don't test during water prep. Then when they do pwc, the salinity or sg goes down significantly. And then they don't test after the pwc. It's not only until the next day that their specimen starts crashing and stuff. Then you'll see a post that says "extreme salinity drop. Crashed the Tank". And they seem to not know why.

Just my two cents. Testing is the easy part. We should do testing a lot because it's our eye in the parameters.

 

[ryguy]

thanks for the input folks...

I just got to thinkin' about how I do my own stuff and wondered if anyone had different routines for this, based around info that I was unaware of.

I generally test Nitrates before the PWC, which is typically undetectable, then I do my Ca, Alk, PO4, an hour after the PWC.

I only seem to get salt creep in my outer portion of the overflow box and in the sump.
It manages to always coat my fuge bulb, even though I don't see a whole lot of splashing in there... It finds a way to cake the upper edges of my sump too.

So I thought I'd check to see if anyone had ever heard of a reason not to place the salt creep back into the system. I had heard that it could burn the fish if it landed on them, but because I wasn't replacing it back into the main, I still wondered about any other possible negative effects.

Cheers,
Ryan

 

[angelscrx]

One of the reasons we are told to not make water for WC and add it right away is to ensure that the salt mixes completely. You want the water to sit at least over night with a power head to mix it and point it to the top of the water for gas exchange. I never thought about that when I first started and wondered why my arm tingled when I stuck my hand in the water shortly after adding salt. (Some people notice that some don't) but the undissolved salt will irritate a Fish' gills and they may start scratching agains the rocks. Learned this at a fish conference once back in Washington.