cm11599ps
11/19/2014, 06:23 PM
I make my saltwater in a 32 gallon brute. I keep it in there for my automatic water change system. Every other week or so I would just add new RO water to the can no matter how much saltwater was left and then add a few cups of salt and check with a refractometer. Obviously, I had to check the level multiple times with each batch.
I finally took the time today to see if there was an easier way to do this. I put a piece of straight tubing in my salt mix can and measured the current saltwater level at 3". I then made RO water to fill the can and stuck the tubing in again and measured the height of the water. Then I subtracted the 3" from that height. Finally, I measured the diameter of the can. Granted, it's not a completely vertical can and it has a slight, gradual slope outwards so I adjusted slightly for that. I then used an online calculator to find that I had made roughly 22 gallons of new water. It was almost exactly 22 gallons.
Now, 1/2 cup of reef crystals makes 1 gallon of saltwater and I needed 22 gallons which equates to 11 cups. I put exactly one cup of salt in a measuring cup. I then placed an empty jug on a small digital food scale and tared the weight. I then added the cup of salt to the jug and found that 1 cup of reef crystals comes to be 10.35oz. I needed 11 cups which comes to 113.85oz total. So I then just poured salt into the jug until the scale read 113.85 oz. I turned on the mixing pump in my can and dumped the salt in. I tested it 10 minutes later and got 1.025! :beer: I sprinkled a little more salt in for good measure to get closer to 1.026.
I'm pretty happy about all of this and this will make the process of making new salt water quicker and so much easier!
I finally took the time today to see if there was an easier way to do this. I put a piece of straight tubing in my salt mix can and measured the current saltwater level at 3". I then made RO water to fill the can and stuck the tubing in again and measured the height of the water. Then I subtracted the 3" from that height. Finally, I measured the diameter of the can. Granted, it's not a completely vertical can and it has a slight, gradual slope outwards so I adjusted slightly for that. I then used an online calculator to find that I had made roughly 22 gallons of new water. It was almost exactly 22 gallons.
Now, 1/2 cup of reef crystals makes 1 gallon of saltwater and I needed 22 gallons which equates to 11 cups. I put exactly one cup of salt in a measuring cup. I then placed an empty jug on a small digital food scale and tared the weight. I then added the cup of salt to the jug and found that 1 cup of reef crystals comes to be 10.35oz. I needed 11 cups which comes to 113.85oz total. So I then just poured salt into the jug until the scale read 113.85 oz. I turned on the mixing pump in my can and dumped the salt in. I tested it 10 minutes later and got 1.025! :beer: I sprinkled a little more salt in for good measure to get closer to 1.026.
I'm pretty happy about all of this and this will make the process of making new salt water quicker and so much easier!