salinity and water volume

[Zante]

Ok, this question may be silly, and the answer obvious, but i need to ask anyway:

I have a 20 litre bucket and I need to make 40 litres of salt water with a gravity of 1.025.

I have 40 litres worth of containers, but only the 20 litre bucket is any good for mixing.

can I mix 20 litres of 1.050 gravity water and once it is nicely mixed and heated dilute it in the other container?
The answer should be obvious, but you never know...

[Ron Reefman]

I think you math is OK... I think. But I also think you'll have a very hard time getting that much salt to dissolve in a 20 liter bucket at room temperatures. I find that even getting near 1.025 and getting the salt to dissolve requires a good pump to stir it up.

[tmz]

I think dissolving it at 1.050 will be difficult and may result in a loss of some calcium and carbonate via precipitation.

[disc1]

I think dissolving it at 1.050 will be difficult and may result in a loss of some calcium and carbonate via precipitation.

^^^This. You might get it to dissolve to that level, but you're probably going to lose a lot of calcium and alkalinity in the process. Seawater is already supersaturated with calcium and carbonate at normal levels. Taking it higher is a tough thing to do.

In reality, if it were easy to take the salinity any higher, then the ocean would have a higher salinity.