Evaporation and Salt Creep

[fish_bay]

75 gallon tank . sand mixed with crushed coral , 75 lbs of live rock , i have to filters that are on the back of the tank , im loosing water to evaporation pretty bad , tank is located by the window but is not that much sun on it , avg temp in the house is 79 , cristalizes alot on the filters and the edge of the tank. what should i do

 

[Castryn]

Both my dad and I have the same 29 gallon tank and we both have this issue. I'm not really sure if there is anything you can really do to fix it other than simply cleaning off the cristalized surfaces and replace the lost water.

 

[HN1]

Moved to SW & Reef- getting started.

 

[Nu-Nu the eel]

Do you have a top or canopy on your tank? That helps with evaporation

 

[Schism]

How much evaporation per day are we talking here? What you describe is normal evaporation and salt creep. Would like to know what you consider "a lot".

 

[Mpfaff77]

I have a 90 gal with 55 sump/refugium. I loose about gallon a day.

 

[OscarFan76]

I have a 40g breeder and a 20g sump. I lose over a gallon a day. I think it is normal with open top systems. Auto topoff systems would keep the water level more stable but requires running ro/di lines to your sump. I just replace with fresh ro/di daily using a bucket.

 

[Mrc8858]

I have a 40g breeder and a 20g sump. I lose over a gallon a day. I think it is normal with open top systems. Auto topoff systems would keep the water level more stable but requires running ro/di lines to your sump. I just replace with fresh ro/di daily using a bucket.

You dont need to run a line to your tank just keep a container to store Ro/Di water and run a pump or use a gravity fed line with a float valve...a 5 gallon bucket or something should be plenty for most average sized aquariums for a week so you would only need to do weekly top offs over doing them every day or 2

 

[Mpfaff77]

You dont need to run a line to your tank just keep a container to store Ro/Di water and run a pump or use a gravity fed line with a float valve...a 5 gallon bucket or something should be plenty for most average sized aquariums for a week so you would only need to do weekly top offs over doing them every day or 2

++++1. You should never have RO lines go right into tank. That could be disaster. A top off jug is always recommended since only so much can go in at a time. I also use a 5 gal jug and only have 4 gallons in at a time. So I can't top off too much ever if float valves fail.

 

[mr_X]

If you have a lot of salt creep, it's from bubbles or splashing water. Stop the bubbles and any splashing, and you will stop the salt creep.

 

[Heera]

If you have a lot of salt creep, it's from bubbles or splashing water. Stop the bubbles and any splashing, and you will stop the salt creep.

+1 to stopping bubbles and splashes.