Fixing some salinity issues - best way to do it?

hllb

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Well, it finally happened to me - my EB832 on my Apex EL system died (looks like the 12V power supply and I will not be fixing it myself) yesterday while literally in the middle of a water change. So, as I was pulling water out, the pumps kicked back on and my system dumped around 1 gallon of freshwater from my ATO (luckily that's all that was in it). It's a 65g tank with 50 to 55g of water volume. The salinity dropped from 34 (it was already lower than my target of 35 for some reason) down to 32. Once I realized what was going on (boy, is that a shock and then trying to figure out how to stop it when you're used to using Apex), I was able to switch the bulk of my stuff over to my EB8 (I was only using two outlets on it).

Once that was settled, I pulled some water out and swapped it and brought the salinity up to 33. I overfilled the sump a bit (maybe a gallon) thinking that I'd just wait a few days for evaporation back to normal levels and it would help bring my salinity up. Then I realized my mistake as my sump turned into a skimmer as the higher water level made the skimmer overflow and turning off my return pump triggered the horribly loud high water alarm on my Tunze ATO. So I turned the skimmer down and pulled the extra water out. I figured I'd deal with the salinity today since it wasn't horribly low (my system is fish, softies, LPS, and the only SPS are encrusting montis). One of the last things to set up last night was my ATO, as I'd left it empty. I filled it up, it seemed fine, and I went to bed with salinity at 33. Turning off the return pump did not trigger the high water alarm.

I get up this morning and everything seems OK, but then I notice my ATO reservoir was surprisingly low. I look at the water level, and yup, its too high again. I don't know how that happened - I didn't move the ATO sensor at all, so I have no idea why it would have dumped another gallon or so of freshwater in. I turn the return pump off to check, and yup, high water alarm triggered. Any ideas why this would have happened? I feel like I'm missing something here.

Now my salinity is down to 32 again. What is the best way to fix that? Pull a gallon out, add a bunch of salt, put it back in? I also see my temp has been dropping steadily since yesterday so apparently my heater isn't working properly, so need to figure that out too. It's controlled by an Ink Bird, which has power, with Apex as a backup, so no clue what's going on there.

And did I mention I'm going out of the country on Friday? Because nothing ever breaks at a convenient time. I'll be calling Neptune once they're open, but even if they offer me a reduced cost EB832, I'm guessing it wouldn't be here in time, so I'll likely have to overnight it for full price from a vendor.
 

Cell

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Just top off with saltwater until you are back to where you want it.
 
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hllb

hllb

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I did fix the heater. I didn't realize that two outlets on the EB8 were defaulted to off - my heater and one of my power heads. Both fixed now.
 

PeterC99

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Here’s a a great calculator to help you determine your water change salinity to get you back to your desired aquarium salinity.

 

Borat

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Just add salt directly into sump.. Salt will dissolve very quickly.

And if your salinity is elevated - just remove some saltwater allowing it to be replaced with RO water.
 
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hllb

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Do you have any extra siphoning going on in your ATO that could be causing the sump overfilling?
Looks like the ATO line would have been slightly underwater when the return pump was turned off. Would that start a siphon, or would the pump have to turn on when the line was underwater? If I had the water level too high when the return was off, and then I plugged the ATO in, that initial running when its given power could have caused the issue, and I didn't notice since the pump wasn't running. I don't know that I did things in that order, but I also don't know that I didn't LOL.
 

fishyjoes

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Looks like the ATO line would have been slightly underwater when the return pump was turned off. Would that start a siphon
Siphon runs from high to low, so it would only be filling your sump if your top off container was higher than your sump (otherwise it would be drawing salty water into your top off container)
 
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hllb

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Siphon runs from high to low, so it would only be filling your sump if your top off container was higher than your sump (otherwise it would be drawing salty water into your top off container)
They're both in my stand, but the water level is higher in the ATO than the sump as it's taller. But it still wouldn't randomly siphon without the pump turning on first, right? It would just keep filling once the pump turned off if the line was underwater?
 

fishyjoes

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They're both in my sump, but the water level is higher in the ATO than the sump as it's taller. But it still wouldn't randomly siphon without the pump turning on first, right? It would just keep filling once the pump turned off if the line was underwater?
If the line is full of water with no air break at the source side it can siphon.

I don't have an ATO pump myself, but I think usually people install them lower than the sump water level with the outlet above the sump water line.
That way when the pump turns off the outlet tries to back-siphon into the top off container but there's an air break and it can't draw from the sump back into the ato container (like your return line can back-siphon when you turn the return pump off)
 

Nlara

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To increase salinity use salt water as your top off. Place your auto pump into a saltwater jug. It will gradually increase salinity.
 

KStatefan

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I get up this morning and everything seems OK, but then I notice my ATO reservoir was surprisingly low. I look at the water level, and yup, its too high again. I don't know how that happened - I didn't move the ATO sensor at all, so I have no idea why it would have dumped another gallon or so of freshwater in. I turn the return pump off to check, and yup, high water alarm triggered. Any ideas why this would have happened? I feel like I'm missing something here.

Can you explain this more? When you turn off your return pumb the level in the sump will go up and you should expect the high water alarm to sound.
 
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hllb

hllb

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Can you explain this more? When you turn off your return pumb the level in the sump will go up and you should expect the high water alarm to sound.
I set the float high enough that under typical water levels, that wouldn't happen. Because that's a horrible sound and I didn't want to go through the effort of modifying the unit to turn it off.
 

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