Right way to lower the salinity..

[msuhaizie]

I have 5 gallon tank without any refegium n protein skimmer with some corals like bubble, button, mushroom n leather toadstool.. What is the rght way to add up some ro water to decrease the salinity concentration.. I dont want my living things getting stress due to additional of ro water.. Anyone can give suggestions?

 

[tlkng1]

Take out some of the saltwater, mix in equal portion with the RO, repour back into tank in as high a waterflow area as you can find. This will mix the lower salinity water with the higher. Depending on how far it needs to come down, you might need to do this each day for a few days.

How high is your salinity?

 

[msuhaizie]

What do u mean by mix in equal portion? Can u gv an exmple? Sorry..

 

[tlkng1]

Example...

Take out 1 gallon of water in the tank, put in a bucket or similar. Pour out half so you only have maybe a half gallon of the saltwater form the tank. Mix in an equal amount of RO water to get back to the entire amount you originally took out. Pour this back into the aquarium. In other words, what you are doing is simply lowering the salinity of a small amount of the tank water rather than pouring in RO water directly into the tank.

What I posted is a slower way of doing it but shouldn't stress the inhabitants. As I also indicated, if your salinity is running high, you may need to do this same procedure every day or every other day until it stabilizes.

 

[austinsdad]

How high is it by the way? May just be able to remove a gallon of SW and replace it with fresh. That's more than 20% of your water volume since rocks displace your water. In other words, there's not really 5g of water in that tank. Maybe start off with a half gallon replacement and see what that does to your readings. I'd prefer not to change the salinity level more than .01 daily so it doesn't shock/stress snything in there.

 

[spoonman]

Why is the salinity high? Are you topping off with Saltwater? Should figure out the problem first, then the solution.

 

[msuhaizie]

Ok thanks a lot.. Actually my salinity is about 1.028.. It increase may cause when i'm doing my water changes once a week n the salinity for new water changes is about 1.025.. What salinity should i maintain if i have corals like polyp, button, mushroom n bubble?

 

[austinsdad]

1.025 is good.

 

[tlkng1]

If your salinity is running 1.028 in between water changes due to evaporation, you have to counter it with the new water. You might want to mix your new water a little lower, maybe at 1.023. It goes without saying you should probably check your tank salinity prior to the water change..maybe a day ahead of time so you can adjust your replacement water accordingly.