Salinity reducing over time. Adding supplements/salt/etc to your ATO Water?

MrPatel

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I'm currently running a 15G AIO with a RO water ATO, and I noticed that my salinity is dropping about 0.001SG every week. I have to add additional salt to mitigate this on a regular basis. My suspicion is the protein skimmer taking tank water along with the skimmate which is subsequently replaced by the RO.

My first thought was to add just a little salt to the ATO Reservoir to passively replace salt, but that got me thinking. Is it feasible to add other things that are dosed on regular intervals to the reservoir and remove the need for manual dosing? Such as Kalkwasser, trace minerals, or whatever else might be stable in such a solution? Would love some feedback from people who tried this.
 

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Can you not just skim a little dryer?? I'd just do weekly water changes to bring it back up tbh.
 

exnisstech

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I'm currently running a 15G AIO with a RO water ATO, and I noticed that my salinity is dropping about 0.001SG every week. I have to add additional salt to mitigate this on a regular basis. My suspicion is the protein skimmer taking tank water along with the skimmate which is subsequently replaced by the RO.

My first thought was to add just a little salt to the ATO Reservoir to passively replace salt, but that got me thinking. Is it feasible to add other things that are dosed on regular intervals to the reservoir and remove the need for manual dosing? Such as Kalkwasser, trace minerals, or whatever else might be stable in such a solution? Would love some feedback from people who tried this.
My evaporation rate varies too much to be a reliable way to dose anything. Some people have used the ato as a way to add kalk but I've never heard of anything else being added.
 

V A R I A N T

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Salinity will drop with skimming and testing your water. Simple solution is to take 300-500MLs of mixed saltwater and pour it into the sump area. Evaporation will naturally raise the salinity over time and will be less shock to your system. I would advise keeping your ATO strictly RODI.
 

thatmanMIKEson

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a good reason to preform routine weekly water changes. if your going for 1.026 and you notice in a week on your water change day it's at 1.025 you remove 5 gallons of 1.025 water and replace 5 gallons of 1.027 water it should roughly be correct. I wouldn't worry about .001 unless you never do waterchanges or check and correct and you allow it to drop significantly.

this is one good reason to do the weekly water change thing it helps you catch and correct issues like this it's not all about nutrient removal with wc's
 

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.001 in a week is nothing
I've been trying. Admittedly I'm still getting the hang of my skimmer as this tank is only two months old; plus the small size.
Like it's been said .001 is such a small scahne over a week I wouldn't worry to much unless corals are showing some stress. Which I doubt . Don't worry about it . What are the nitrate and phosphate levels btw .
 

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.001 in a week is nothing
Like it's been said .001 is such a small scahne over a week I wouldn't worry to much unless corals are showing some stress. Which I doubt . Don't worry about it . What are the nitrate and phosphate levels btw .
*Change
 

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