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View Full Version : High Salinity...what to do???!!!


cet98
03/01/2009, 10:21 AM
I have been using a hydrometer for years (go ahead, say what you will... but be nice :o ) and have been under the impression that my SG was always at 1.025...
well, I finally broke down and bought a refractometer and find my SG is actually at 1.030!!!!

What is the the best way to approach reducing my salinity levels down to 1.025?....is it as simple as just multiple small water changes with 1.025 water? or should I be more concerned and make a quicker adjustment?...of course I'm concerned with stressing everyone out, but I thought I should at least ask everyone...thanks in advance :)

nsmith_mma
03/01/2009, 10:25 AM
Take out a gallon of your water, replace it with a gallon of fresh water. Re-test the water, and repeat as necessary. I was skeptical to this approach at first when someone told me to do it, but if you have any kind of flow in your tank the fresh water will get mixed in with your water nicely.

cet98
03/01/2009, 10:33 AM
really, fresh RO water?....that does seem like an extreme change
I would think that would be a bit stressful on everyone, no?...
thanks nsmith_mma :)

anyone else have an opinion?...

russgrass
03/01/2009, 10:37 AM
if it's for your 14gal i wouldn't change a gallon at a time maybe half or quarter gallon every 12hrs until you reach your target salinity.

saltkreep88
03/01/2009, 10:39 AM
If you have been using the hydrometer for awhile, then the salinity has stayed about the same. With some time your tank adjusts to conditions, they are used to the high salinity. Decreasing the salinity fast will hurt more than it helps. If you replaced a gallon of water in a 14 gallon you drop it by about a point and a half. In my opinion this is to fast. With anything in this hobby go slow. I would do a small wc (2-3 gallons every couple days with water with a gravity of .017 or so

betamed
03/01/2009, 10:40 AM
make sure your refractometer is accurate and properly calibrated before you do anything.

nsmith_mma
03/01/2009, 10:41 AM
Haha I didn't notice the size of your tank. Yeah if it's for the 14 gallon bio cube, I don't know that I would go with a full gallon. Maybe start off with a half gallon of fresh water or a little less. That would give it a gradual introduction and maybe not be such a drastic change in salinity. I didn't know what size tank you were using, so I just based it on what I would do for my 30. I know they will be fine though if you go that route because I did it a few times in my tank and everything survived.

If you don't feel comfortable with that though, what you could do is just make a gallon of water with a much lower salinity than you usually use and replace a gallon of your water with that. Use about half to two thirds the amount of salt you would normally use.

cet98
03/01/2009, 10:49 AM
yes...it is for my 14g BC

and yes betamed, the refractometer has been calibrated with RO and allowed 30 sec for temp ajustment...thank you! but you mentioned "accurate"...calibrated I can varify, but how do you varify "accurate"...isn't that the same as calibrated or am I misunderstanding?...thanks!!!

saltkreep88, I agree with you...everyone does seem to be OK with the current SG, so I was thinking I would go with 1.025 WC's every 3-4 days...do you think that is too slow?....

thanks to everyone, so far!!!!

alanscott
03/01/2009, 10:54 AM
Just slowly bring it down with each water change. You don't want to do anything drastic with such a small tank. Everything has lived for the past year in those conditions, so nothing to stress about.

cet98
03/01/2009, 10:56 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14509231#post14509231 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by alanscott
Just slowly bring it down with each water change. You don't want to do anything drastic with such a small tank. Everything has lived for the past year in those conditions, so nothing to stress about. that's what I thought :)

thank you all!!....

Sisterlimonpot
03/01/2009, 11:14 AM
slower is better. Randy Holmes-Farley has an article about how to safely raise and lower salinity in the RK magazine. under reef alchemy.

cet98
03/01/2009, 11:31 AM
hey, thanks Sisterlimonpot...did a search, but can't find it...
would you happen to have the issue reference?...

dwd5813
03/01/2009, 11:52 AM
do you have an ato on the tank? you could take a cup or two of water out and just let the ato top it off, thus lowering your salinity. i wouldn't do much more than a cup at a time though, so it's not a huge swing all at once. otherwise, water changes with the proper salinity will get you where you need to be after a few.

GSMguy
03/01/2009, 11:58 AM
I think the red sea is more than 1.030 if everything is fine don't change anything too quickly.

Jflip2002
03/01/2009, 12:38 PM
Dont even bother changing it.... Just go about your water changes how your nomally would, insead, add in water thats 1.020. It'll slowly get there.

cet98
03/01/2009, 01:53 PM
thanks everyone...

dwd5813, no ATO...just daily freshwater additions in the rear chamber as needed...

GSMguy, Jflip2002...right on...have decided that I will continue as normal using 1.025 replacement water during WCs and eventually the system will stablize at same...

you all rock!...thanks again for everyone's advice :D
C

dwd5813
03/01/2009, 02:14 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14510222#post14510222 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cet98
have decided that I will continue as normal using 1.025 replacement water during WCs and eventually the system will stablize at same...


should work itself out just fine doing that. :)

snorvich
03/01/2009, 02:18 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14509017#post14509017 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by nsmith_mma
Take out a gallon of your water, replace it with a gallon of fresh water. Re-test the water, and repeat as necessary. I was skeptical to this approach at first when someone told me to do it, but if you have any kind of flow in your tank the fresh water will get mixed in with your water nicely.

Best approach. Go slowly with time in between.

dwd5813
03/01/2009, 02:45 PM
wait a second, i just re read the part where you talk about calibrating. you said you used ro water? i assume you then calibrated it to 1.000. this is actually a mistake, believe it or not. i suggest you get yourself a bottle of pinpoint calibration solution. you can find it here http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=18717, among other places.

randy explains the miscalibration that results from calibrating with ro or distilled water in this article
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-12/rhf/index.php

sorry i missed that first time around.

cet98
03/01/2009, 03:11 PM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14510570#post14510570 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dwd5813
wait a second, i just re read the part where you talk about calibrating. you said you used ro water? i assume you then calibrated it to 1.000. this is actually a mistake, believe it or not. I did calibrate with RO as stated by Milwaukee, however I did read Randy's article (thank you) and as I read it, he does not say RO calibration is wrong, he actually recommends a two step method.
First calibrating with FW RO and secondly with a "unkown" sample of seawater containing a refractive index of 35 ppt. With that, I am off to buy some salinity calibration fluid to validate my unit's accuracy...
I'll LYK the results!!!

thanks :)

dwd5813
03/01/2009, 03:25 PM
yeah, you're right. it does say to do the ro first. sorry, and thanks for pointing that out.

cet98
03/01/2009, 07:50 PM
dwd5813....you were spot on my friend!!!
after calibrating with salinity calibration fluid, the refractometer was in fact NOT calibrated accurately!
after recalibrating with salinity fluid, the actual correct SG reading was 1.027!!!

so after all that, it was nothing more than an inaccurately calibrated refractometer...:o

thanks again everyone!!!

dwd5813
03/02/2009, 04:24 PM
excellent! i'm glad you got it straightened out. :)

fwiw, your pointing out of the fact that randy recommends a two stage calibration led me to ask him about that. i asked


<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14518410#post14518410 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dwd5813
randy, i recently directed someone to your article on refractometers along with advising them to calibrate using the pinpoint solution rather than rodi water and they correctly pointed out to me that you say in that article that a two stage calibration using the rodi and the pinpoint is proper. could you elaborate a little on why you recommend the first step in that process, and perhaps share your thoughts on skipping that and using the pinpoint solution alone? thanks.

and he answered

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14518880#post14518880 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Randy Holmes-Farley
Since most refractometers are not seawater refractometers, the second step is the default step, and the first is likely not useful since the second will show it to be inaccurate. But a true seawater refractometer will show correctly in both steps without any calibration change in the second step. :)

either way, the pinpoint calibration results in correct readings. glad to hear it was a simple fix.

xpirtdesign
03/02/2009, 08:02 PM
try adding 1 gallon of r/o a day while taking out 1 gallon of old water.