salinity issues,

[myles4miles]

So I recently upgraded to a refractometer and found out my salinity is a little above 32, I thought I was at 35 ppt, My question is, is there any harm in doing a 10-gallon water change at 40-42 ppt salinity to raise the salinity of the tank to 35ppt.
(60gallon tank-50 water volume)

 

[Tinnerito]

So I recently upgraded to a refractometer and found out my salinity is a little above 32, I thought I was at 35 ppt, My question is, is there any harm in doing a 10-gallon water change at 40-42 ppt salinity to raise the salinity of the tank to 35ppt.
(60gallon tank-50 water volume)

No harm. In fact that is a common way to raise salinity, by doing it during a water change. I do it all the time when my salinity is lower than it should be since it's not recommended to add salt directly to your tank.

 

[myles4miles]

No harm. In fact that is a common way to raise salinity, by doing it during a water change. I do it all the time when my salinity is lower than it should be since it's not recommended to add salt directly to your tank.

If I'm using the black bucket of red sea, is that not also dosing alk to fast or am I fine.

 

[Tinnerito]

If I'm using the black bucket of red sea, is that not also dosing alk to fast or am I fine.

It depends on how much higher your alk will get to, but typically whenever you do water changes your alk will always go up along with many other trace elements hence why you do water changes. So if you're just getting your salinity up to 35 ppt, then it shouldn't boost your alk nearly enough to affect anything considering your tank is already at a close 32.

 

[gbroadbridge]

So I recently upgraded to a refractometer and found out my salinity is a little above 32, I thought I was at 35 ppt, My question is, is there any harm in doing a 10-gallon water change at 40-42 ppt salinity to raise the salinity of the tank to 35ppt.
(60gallon tank-50 water volume)

You should not raise too fast if there are animals in the tank.

No more than 1 ppt per day max.

The best method is to replace evaporated water with correct salinity water until the tank is correct.

However before you do that, how have you calibrated the new device?
You need a calibration solution.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

A water change is an extremely inefficient way to boost salinity. You will use way more salt than if you just replace evaporated water with salt water until you reach your goal. That also cannot ever go too fast, as mentioned above.

 

[Tinnerito]

A water change is an extremely inefficient way to boost salinity. You will use way more salt than if you just replace evaporated water with salt water until you reach your goal. That also cannot ever go too fast, as mentioned above.

If you're doing a water change, aren't you already making the saltwater? The additional salt you use is to increase the salinity, and no "extra salt" is really being used, especially if you already were wanting to do a water change.

 

[yOyOYoo]

Not mentioned yet but make sure you are using calibration fluid on your refractometer to make sure your readings are accurate. This is how I found out my first refractometer was defective - it kept reading increasingly high salinity, even after calibration. My replacement refractometer is solid.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

If you're doing a water change, aren't you already making the saltwater? The additional salt you use is to increase the salinity, and no "extra salt" is really being used, especially if you already were wanting to do a water change.

If you are going to do that exact size water change anyway, yes. But it will take a lot of water changes to raise salinity slowly.

If you are doing extra water changes to raise salinity, it’s very inefficient, and is not better in some way.