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View Full Version : top off water- skimmer


yakfishin
12/19/2006, 02:41 PM
In setting up my aquarium I read where you should add water almost to the top of your sump without your skimmer and other pumps on, and then add water close to the top of your sump. You next turn on all your pumps and then mark the current water level and that is the level you want to keep the water in the sump. This all makes sense. But when you read about adding water to keep it at that level, they tell you to only add purified freshwater- not saltwater. Again this makes sense, however, I'm losing some water from just emptying out my skimmer cup every other day. Not much, but over time I would guess it adds up. Isn't the dirty water that is collected in the skimmer cup mostly saltwater? I would think if you just kept adding freshwater as you do your topoff, and didn't take into account the water your losing from skimming, then over time your salinity would drop. Is this true?

2NDTIME AROUND
12/19/2006, 03:04 PM
It makes sense to me. I am testing about every three days now as it is a new tank. If my salinity drops below my established baseline, I will top off with premixed salt water instead of ro/di water. I lose about 1/2 gallon a day due to evaporation.

geofrog
12/19/2006, 04:25 PM
I use an auto topoff for my fresh water to replenish the evaporation, but every two weeks I add 1/2 gallon of salt water to replace the 1/2 gallon of skimmate. This keeps my salinity constant.

Z-Man07
12/19/2006, 05:14 PM
I test for salinity regularly, then adjust the amount of freshwater topoff and saltwater topoff as needed. I usually add about a quart of saltwater in a week.

yakfishin
12/20/2006, 07:59 AM
Thanks for the suggestions, I have been keeping regular tabs on my salinity. My tank is a 215G, so changes seem to occur in very small amounts regardless. I just have never read anything giving advice to make sure newbies don't always just add pure water to replace water lost due to the loss of saltwater in the skimmate. Thanks again.