Salinity problem

[Dracovish]

This is my first salt water tank been active about a year I messed up bad it’s slowly dropped down about to 28 ppt salinity from about 35 there is a little salt built up where the water occasionally reaches like on the light and above the filter
Should I brush that salt in should I remove it and put new salt in over a few days or weeks what do I do

 

[EnterName]

Before you change anything, I would double check your salinity reading is accurate. What exactly are you using to measure salinity?
If you are using a refractometer or electronic salinity meter, how do you calibrate it?

Once you have actually verified the salinity is too low, we can figure out how much salt is actually missing and then add a fraction of that each day for two weeks or so.

You can get rid of the salt crust.

 

[Privateye]

Things should recover fine from 28 ppt. Definitely good to get it back up, but the outlook is still fine.

I can confirm from earlier this year that after 24 hours in 15 ppt water coralline algae will not survive. Yours still looks quite healthy!

Is that Caulerpa racemosa? I think that one is edible. I'm curious how it tastes...

 

[Dracovish]

Before you change anything, I would double check your salinity reading is accurate. What exactly are you using to measure salinity?
If you are using a refractometer or electronic salinity meter, how do you calibrate it?

Once you have actually verified the salinity is too low, we can figure out how much salt is actually missing and then add a fraction of that each day for two weeks or so.

You can get rid of the salt crust.

The refractometer that came with my tank kit and refracto juice

 

[EnterName]

The refractometer that came with my tank kit and refracto juice

The sold calibration standards seem to be a bit of a gamble so I can recommend creating your own by dissolving 3.65g of sodium chloride (NaCl) in 96.35g (mL) of purified fresh water according to Randy's DIY calibration solution. However, I don't think the calibration solution will be that far off, so we can assume your salinity is actually low. If you tell me how much water is in your tank, we can work out the amount of salt that is "missing" to get to 35ppt and then you can simply add this over a few days

 

[Dracovish]

Things should recover fine from 28 ppt. Definitely good to get it back up, but the outlook is still fine.

I can confirm from earlier this year that after 24 hours in 15 ppt water coralline algae will not survive. Yours still looks quite healthy!

Is that Caulerpa racemosa? I think that one is edible. I'm curious how it tastes...

Thank you for the information about coraline algae and I’m not certain what it is although it does look similar the images I’m seeing online look different in shape and quantity of the bulbs

 

[Dracovish]

The refractometer that came with my tank kit and refracto juice

The sold calibration standards seem to be a bit of a gamble so I can recommend creating your own by dissolving 3.65g of sodium chloride (NaCl) in 96.35g (mL) of purified fresh water according to Randy's DIY calibration solution. However, I don't think the calibration solution will be that far off, so we can assume your salinity is actually low. If you tell me how much water is in your tank, we can work out the amount of salt that is "missing" to get to 35ppt and then you can simply add this over a few days

Thank you it’s a fifteen gallon tank although that number includes space taken up by my sand bed and rock

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I agree with double checking with a diy or science standard, not a hobby standard.