Salinity at 26 - got any pointers on how to get it to 35PPT?

[Shannono]

My 90 gallon tank is on day 15 of the cycle. My salinity is currently reading 26PPT. I'd like to get it to 35PPT, but I'm not sure how to go about it. Last night I removed approximately 5 gallons of tank water and replaced it with saltwater with a salinity of 35PPT, but as you can imagine this has had no impact. Should I continue to take out 5 gallons (more perhaps?) daily and replace it with saltwater to raise my salinity? Or should I top off daily with 1 gallon of saltwater and raise my salinity slowly (I might get to 35PPT by 2010 ). Got any great ideas to help me out?

 

[malkore]

Ok so this tank is empty? No fish, no corals, no inverts, just water, maybe sand, and a dead cocktail shrimp for cycling?

If so, mix a really concentrated batch of SW. It'll take you months to raise it 9PPT by using 35ppt water...you need to over dose since 5gallons is only 6% of your total tank volume (very crude math here, but you get my point).

Do that for a few days and you'll see the salinity rise.

 

[Shannono]

Ok so this tank is empty? No fish, no corals, no inverts, just water, maybe sand, and a dead cocktail shrimp for cycling?

Actually, I have 5 damsels cycling my tank. No live rock, just sand and dead corals.

 

[Phyl]

Since you've got fish in there you're going to want to do it a little at a time so as not to shock them. Here's what I'd do:

Change 1: change 20% of the water with 40PPT water ( 28.8 )
Change 2: change 20% of the water with 40PPT water ( 31 )
Change 3: change 20% of the water with 40PPT water ( 32.8 )
Change 4: change 20% of the water with *44*PPT water ( 34.9 )

You could do this every day for a week or you could do this once a week for a month. If you do it once a week for a month make sure that you take your evaporation into consideration while you're doing your adjusting so that you don't end up over the top.

As for your proposed fish list keep in mind that your list would put you up around 45" of adult fish. That's about 50% of your tank volume in fish inches. You want to be closer to 20-30% of your tank volume. The chromis are great in groups of 3 but just getting rid of that grouping brings you back down to 30" of fish which would be much better. A maroon will harass the life span out of fish as small as the neon goby so I would stick to the percs if they float your boat. Maroons are awesome but they definitely have their quirks.