Salinity

[littlehermit0]

Do you guys have the same problem with open tanks? When my tank stays open the salinity raises to 1.030 and closed just maintains the same, but how do I stop that cuz one of my tanks need to always stay open and the salinity is crazy!

 

[scotty333]

Water evaporates and salt stays the same so it will rise unless you top up daily to compensate, most people use an automatic top up system

 

[littlehermit0]

Water evaporates and salt stays the same so it will rise unless you top up daily to compensate, most people use an automatic top up system

I thought salt evaporates too because I have alot of salt creep, but i top up really often

 

[Üter]

I thought salt evaporates too because I have alot of salt creep, but i top up really often

topping up with RO and not salt water?

 

[Dragen Fiend]

I thought salt evaporates too because I have alot of salt creep, but i top up really often

Are you testing salinity before or after water top off? Obviously if you test it before top off. Its going to be high. This it totally normal. Unless you are religious on manually topping off water. You need an ATO! My 15G tank can last 24hrs without being topped off before I would need to add water. My salinity goes from 1.025 to 1.026 at best and the return pump chamber water level is half way down.

Again geographical locations matter a lot on this. I might lose on a given day half a gallon in my tank. While some people could lose double or 3 times that.

 

[littlehermit0]

topping up with RO and not salt water?

RO

 

[Biokabe]

I thought salt evaporates too because I have alot of salt creep, but i top up really often

No, that's a different mechanism. Salt creep comes from microspray from water movement. Tiny little droplets of saltwater are flung out of your tank, where they land upon a variety of surfaces. The water evaporates, leaving the salt deposits behind. Over time, this builds up and turns into salt creep. That's why it builds up in certain places - those are the places that get hit by more microspray.

Salt can evaporate, but the energy requirements are much higher... water boils at 100C, but salt boils at 1413C. Obviously you don't need to get to the boiling point to evaporate - our tanks are nowhere near 100C, but we still have evaporation. But salt requires a lot more energy to gas off, enough so that it likely never happens at typical tank temperatures. So water will evaporate and leave your remaining water more saline.

That's why pretty much everyone runs an ATO of some kind.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Salt will never evaporate unless the temperature is thousands of degrees.

 

[Provate]

Are you testing salinity before or after water top off? Obviously if you test it before top off. Its going to be high. This it totally normal. Unless you are religious on manually topping off water. You need an ATO! My 15G tank can last 24hrs without being topped off before I would need to add water. My salinity goes from 1.025 to 1.026 at best and the return pump chamber water level is half way down.

Again geographical locations matter a lot on this. I might lose on a given day half a gallon in my tank. While some people could lose double or 3 times that.

Right

 

[MnFish1]

Do you guys have the same problem with open tanks? When my tank stays open the salinity raises to 1.030 and closed just maintains the same, but how do I stop that cuz one of my tanks need to always stay open and the salinity is crazy!

It's evaporation of water leaving a higher salinity. Additionally, sometimes when people's replacement water is not RODI, but saltwater instead.