properly raising salinity

[jrhein]

How do you properly raise the salinity within a reef tank?

[prof]

Add salt water :)

I am guessing that you have a tank that is full but a little low on salinity...

Do a 5% water change. Mix up some high salinity water for the replacement water. This will bring the salinity up and you can do it as slow as you want, (ie, multiple water changes until your salinity is where you want it)

[jrhein]

I'm at 1.021 and want to raise it to 1.025. I will take it up by adding topoff water with salt instead of just plain ro/di water. Would that work?

[GaryP]

Two ways:

1. Use salt water instead of fresh for makeup.

2. Make up very high saline water and do a water change.

3. Drip in high saline water as make up water (recommended).

In either case you should make the change very slowly so as to not cause osmotic shock to your more sensitive critters, especially things like shrimp. That's one advantage to the makeup water method. The change will be over several days. However, depending on how much make up water your tank requires you don't want to dump a bunch in at one time. Ideally, you would want to make a change of .00025-.0005 every few hours or so.

[jrhein]

Thanks for all the information. Is 1.025 the correct salinity for a reef tank? I used to keep my tanks at 1.022 but saw that the natural parameters in the ocean are usually at 1.025. Thanks for the all the input.


Jason

[GaryP]

Most reefers will try to stay in the 1.024-1.026 range.