quick salt question

[hud3339]

: I just took out 15 g of salt and added 15g fresh. My sal was at .032 now it only went down to .030 does that sound right. It's about 250 gallons total water volume

 

[jeffmuse]

That sounds about right... 250 gallons is a pretty high volume of water, so it may take a bigger water change really move the salinity. For what it is worth it is healthier for the system to have the salinity drop in small increments, so you are doing the right thing.

 

[hud3339]

The tank just finished cycling, the only thing in there is some hermit crabs so im not worried about the swing right now.

 

[jeffmuse]

hud3339;716745 wrote: The tank just finished cycling, the only thing in there is some hermit crabs so im not worried about the swing right now.

Ok cool, if there are no fish or corals in the system then the salinity swing should not matter very much. It seems like it takes a REALLY Large water change to significantly change your salinity. I have a 150 gallon tank (180 gallon total volume) and after starting up my tank, I had a pretty low salinity (something like 1.021 on the hydrometer). When performing water changes, I made up a much higher batch of salt mix (1.026) and performed a 25 gallon water change the first week and then a 20 gallon change the next week (using this higher salinity mix). After 2 weeks of changes, my system salinity only went up to 1.023.

After a month or so, I have slowly raised the salinity up to 1.024-1.025, but it took a good bit of water changes to get there.