Raising NA Levels --How should I & Can I track my additions

[o2manyfish]

My NA levels on my Triton results for the past several months have been low. Most recent result was a little over 9000. I'm wondering if there is way to monitor/control adding raising the sodium level of the system?

I have a Hydrometer, An Apex conductivity Probe, and a Pinpoint salinity monitor/meter.

I was going to use Soda Ash (Sodium Chloride) to raise the sodium levels (because I have some on hand).

Does anyone have a better recommendation?

Secondly will there be a means to monitor the raising of the Sodium levels? Will adding Sodium Chloride affect (or register) on the what I have?

Thanks for the help...

Dave B

 

[JimWelsh]

First, I want to make sure you have seen this thread: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/re...ion-salinity-triton-icp-oes-test-results.html

I see that you have various ways of measuring salinity, and that probably is not the issue, but I thought I'd mention that it could just be low salinity.

Next, be careful -- Soda Ash is sodium carbonate (read: Alkalinity). Sodium chloride is common table salt. Be careful not to confuse the two.

Can you please post all your macro elements values, so we can see the Na in context?

 

[o2manyfish]

Jim,

I wanted to let you know that in just the first paragraph of your post I was lost. I managed to get through higher education without ever taking a chemistry class. But I did read through that entire post on the calculation of salinity, hoping at some point it was going to just 'click' for me. But alas it did not.

Below are my most recent results from May 5th. This system is kind of weird in that the salinity likes to run low. This system volume right now is just under 900 gallons. The salinity runs low at 1.020-1.022. I keep an Apex conductivity monitor on it. And while I don't trust it for accuracy I use it to let me know about drastic changes or changes in general. At the time these results were gathered the Apex was reading something between 28 and 30. A few days after these tests I added 2 50gal salt mix bags to the system. The salinity of the system went 28 to 32 - I would have thought a bigger change. But then within a couple of days it dropped back to 30. I cross check with an hydrometer, and the Pinpoint meter and the values between all 3 are in line. Once the Apex monitor drops back down to 30ish - it stays there. So I don't think I have a leak, I'm just not sure what happens to the salt.

 

[o2manyfish]

Jim,

Oops, I forgot to say, thank you for your post and directing me to your thread about the calculation. I appreciate the point in the correct direction, even if I couldn't comprehend it.

Dave B

 

[JimWelsh]

Dave, I probably should have pointed you to the post where I provided the spreadsheet. Scroll down to post #9 for the link.

Plugging your numbers into my spreadsheet, I come up with a Salinity of 29.42. That more or less agrees with what you have already stated. Once your values are normalized to a salinity of 35 PPT (in other words, multiplied by 35.00 / 29.42), or putting it another way, if no other changes were made, and you allowed evaporation to raise the salinity to 35 PPT, then your numbers would look like this:

Element	mg/l
Na	10722
Ca	503.6
Mg	1445
K	408.4
Br	81.60
B	6.043
Sr	10.80
S	981.4

As you can see, your concern about Na levels is unnecessary. Putting it another way, the solution to your low Na problem is to raise your salinity. Proportionally, at the salinity you are choosing to run your tank at, your Na value is right on target.

 

[o2manyfish]

Jim,

Thank you, thank you, Thank You!

You just saved me a whole bunch of "figurin" - not only the math but the correction dosage.

Now I just need to figure out why my salinity doesn't want to go up and stay up.... This is going to be much more difficult.

Have to just start adding more bags of salt mix.

Thanks again for the explanation and the solution!

Dave B

 

[JimWelsh]

Jim,

Thank you, thank you, Thank You!

My pleasure!

You might find this recent thread helpful: https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/re...y/199961-topoff-saltwater-raise-salinity.html

At any rate, go slowly. Raising salinity too quickly can be problematic.

 

[gpwdr]

I loose a lot of salinity if the protein skimmer level is set to high. The skimmer level needs to be set lower to produce a dryer foam.

The "Pure Salt" sold buy Triton is specifically design to raise the salinity in the triton system without adding a lot of elementz.

Gene

 

[JimWelsh]

Dave, Triton "Pure" salt is very expensive, and is designed for doing water changes for the purpose of reducing excess trace elements. There are no serious excesses of concern in the Triton test posted above, except perhaps Phosphate, which is better handled with GFO. It is not specifically designed for increasing salinity, but, rather for diluting excess trace elements. Your regular salt will work just fine for increasing salinity, *especially* on a system with the kind of total volume you have!