Dosing salt water

Scap4Luna

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Was wondering if i dose 110 mills of salt water everyday, and dose the same amount of old water out will i run into any issues down the line! 3 year old mixed reef 200 gallons!!?
 

CasperOe

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Was wondering if i dose 110 mills of salt water everyday, and dose the same amount of old water out will i run into any issues down the line! 3 year old mixed reef 200 gallons!!?
As long as you're making sure to keep your salinity in line remembering to add RODI to replace evaporation at a ratio applicable to your tank, you should be fine
 

Sisterlimonpot

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Was wondering if i dose 110 mills of salt water everyday, and dose the same amount of old water out will i run into any issues down the line! 3 year old mixed reef 200 gallons!!?
What's you're describing is what we call AWC (auto water chabge). And it's been dubbed the easy way to conduct water changes.

I do it with 2 versa peristaltic pumps that run continuously at a slow rate to replace 15% of my total water in 7 days.
 

KStatefan

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I do 5.4 liters per day 225 ml/30 min in my 100 gallon system
 

Sisterlimonpot

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Yeah but adds up overtime! Dont want to eventually raise salt!
I'm not quite understanding what you're asking.

If you remove 1L of 35ppt old salt and replace it with 1L of 35ppt new salt, you're not riasing or lowering your salinity.

Their issue you might be thinking of is as the water in the tank starts to evaporate the salinity concentration starts to rise unless you replenish what's being evaporated with fresh water.

The awc doesn't negate the need for an ato (auto top off) you'll still need to address evaporation.
 

ナイトコア猫

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I'm not quite understanding what you're asking.

If you remove 1L of 35ppt old salt and replace it with 1L of 35ppt new salt, you're not riasing or lowering your salinity.

Their issue you might be thinking of is as the water in the tank starts to evaporate the salinity concentration starts to rise unless you replenish what's being evaporated with fresh water.

The awc doesn't negate the need for an ato (auto top off) you'll still need to address evaporation.

I think they are talking about error differences between rate_in and rate_out, because of small differences in calibration. However, this can be corrected with salinity verification every several weeks. The error over weeks for a 200 gal aquarium at 110 mL/day would be likely not perceivable.
 

Sisterlimonpot

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I think they are talking about error differences between rate_in and rate_out, because of small differences in calibration. However, this can be corrected with salinity verification every several weeks. The error over weeks for a 200 gal aquarium at 110 mL/day would be likely not perceivable.
Good extrapolation. Definitely worth discussing, the minute changes in salinity is definitely something to be aware of. Weekly inspections of salinity to ensure you're not tracking far off of desired point is not a bad idea. Depending on the tank volume more frequent inspections might be necessary.

Keeping in mind that salinity drift should be more of a concern for protien skimmers than awc systems. Ensuring proper calibration of the pumps that are removing and adding water is vital to ensuring drift doesn't happen too quickly.
 

MnFish1

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Was wondering if i dose 110 mills of salt water everyday, and dose the same amount of old water out will i run into any issues down the line! 3 year old mixed reef 200 gallons!!?
If you mean - you're going to take 110 ml of tank water out every day - and replace it with 'fresh' saltwater, you will still have to account for evaporation. However, using this method - especially if the fresh water has a slightly lower specific gravity, that will help mitigate the issue. If you don't replace at least some fresh water - the SG will (albeit slowly) increase. But - I'm confused because the terms you're using are not 'usual'. I.e. you do not dose 'saltwater'. You're basically doing a daily water change - again I might be misunderstanding your comment - Best wishes - hope this helps
 

MnFish1

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PS - If you use this calculator, you can see - that for example - with nitrate if it's accumulating at 0.5ppm/day - your nitrate will just keep going up. If you have no further nitrate input - it will basically stay the same over 30 days. Part of the answer depends on 'why' you're doing it.
 

Pistondog

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Awcs are a good thing. We do a little less than 1% per day, augmented with phyto.
 

MnFish1

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I'm not quite understanding what you're asking.

If you remove 1L of 35ppt old salt and replace it with 1L of 35ppt new salt, you're not riasing or lowering your salinity.

Their issue you might be thinking of is as the water in the tank starts to evaporate the salinity concentration starts to rise unless you replenish what's being evaporated with fresh water.

The awc doesn't negate the need for an ato (auto top off) you'll still need to address evaporation.
Part of the the problem IMHO - is that OP isn't framing is question to have only 1 answer. - it will eventually cause a raise in salinity if done exactly as he asked the question. Totally agree - there has to be some accounting for evaporation. And - a 110 ml (0.0290589 gallon) daily water change in a 200 gallon tank to me is throwing money down the drain for as others have said - an imperceptible benefit?
 
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