My 5 gallon dwarf seahorse tank build

[Dylan5359]

In my tank the salinity was at a .020 went to lower it with some freshwater before the PWC, but I lowered it a little too much to a .019, how can I up the salinity by 1 without a dramatic change? Will putting SW at a .019 do anything or will it bump it too high?

 

[iDream]

add SW as top off water, that should be good

 

[Dylan5359]

SW at a .019? Also when the tank is at a .019, can I do my PWC, and nothing will change?

 

[iDream]

Yeah, adding SW of any salinity to SW without topping off with FW will raise the salinity, if that makes sense. The salt doesn't evaporate, hence why we add FW to top off.

And if the salinity of the water you add back in is .019, then yes that should be the case

 

[Dylan5359]

Thanks Idream, what happened to your full name? Lol, and this kind of makes me uneasy why did the salinity change from .019 to .020 ? Or could it just be it was always off due to the lack of accuracy my hydrometer tested? I really need a refractometer...

 

[iDream]

Could be the hydrometer, but what I think it is is that SW evaporated, and wasn't topped back up all the way. Or inaccuracies in the mixing, like you added a few extra grains and it was at say .0198 or something

 

[Dylan5359]

It was probably the evaporated water, I didn't know you had to always replace it or the salinity went up, thanks.

 

[iDream]

Exactly why people have Auto-top offs, so they don't have to think about it! I think in a case for a tank like your's you could go the easy DIY route if you wanted one though

 

[Dylan5359]

Auto top offs? Whats that? Oh and what's a RO/di unit? Something like that.

 

[iDream]

Auto-top offs replace the lost water so you don't have to. And RO/DI is the kind of water you should be using for a SW reef. An RO/DI unit will make it for you, but those are usually fairly pricey. Try getting your water from the grocery store Glacier or Culligan machines, cheap and it's better than tap water by far

 

[Dylan5359]

I've been using tap water, declorinizing it, and adding the salt? Is this okay?

 

[iDream]

Not in the long run, you'll end up with cyano and HA like I'm currently having.

 

[Dylan5359]

What's cyano?

 

[hackteck]

Aquarium Cyanobacteria

 

[iDream]

A bad algae/bacteria cause from excess nutrients and high nitrates and phosphates.

 

[Dylan5359]

Won't I not need to worry, considering I'll be feeding the seahorses Copepods?

 

[iDream]

How would that help? Like I said I got it from using tap water, just to top off

 

[Dylan5359]

I saw in that article, it said try starving them out if you have them, because many fish foods contain something that they eat. Did you declorinise it though? And I've been using Poland spring to top it off, will I still get them in the future?

 

[hackteck]

just an example my tap water has 1.0 phosphates so if i used tap water in my tank i would have a bad algae outbreak eventually with all those phosphates

 

[iDream]

The tap water? Yes I used Prime. Now I have RO or RODI to top off (not sure which) that I'm buying from my LFS along with the SW I buy for my PWCs

You probably will get it if you continue to use tap/bottled drinking water