high salinity

[kev1964]

i checkedtank prems to find my salinity @10.30 my question is can it course unwanted alge growth i have brown hair alge im in the middle of bringing it back down to 10.26 and i added a po3 remover about 3 weeks ago

mag = 1450
trates = 0
trites 12.1
am =0
ph =8.4
cal a little bit high

lights mh 150 watt 1 14k 1 20k on for 8 hours per day

[wataugachicken]

lol.

salinity.

[ooja3k]

salinity 10.30?? you mean 1.030?


and no, i don't believe it can cause extra algae growth..

check your phosphates... they might be elevated..

also, what kind of water do you use? ro/di? tap?

[mandy21]

lol i thought the same thing. I was like, yea I have a high level of sanity right now too lol


did you mean you nitrates were 10 and nitrites were at 0? because nitrites should be lower. I don't think high salinity would be a cause for algae.

what kind of water do you use? do you test for phosphate? are you overfeeding?

[ooja3k]

ya, 12.1 for trites is ridiculously high

[clown-lover]

I wouldn't believe that it would cause an algae bloom. As far as your salinity goes I'm assuming you meant 1.026, but you should be able to safely lower this just by removing saltwater and replacing with fresh RO/DI water.
Here is a link that will help you calculate how much water you'd have to remove and replace with fresh water to reach the desired salinity. What you need to do is put in your total gallons in your system. The current salinity in the salinity box and then you can change the amount of gallons in the make up water box to bring your value down to the normal range. I would do this gradually however and probably in several steps. But thats just me personally I don't like drastic changes in my system.

Algae itslef only requires three components to grow. Light, Nitrates and Phosphates.

[clown-lover]

lol i thought the same thing. I was like, yea I have a high level of sanity right now too lol


did you mean you nitrates were 10 and nitrites were at 0? because nitrites should be lower. I don't think high salinity would be a cause for algae.

what kind of water do you use? do you test for phosphate? are you overfeeding?

Good catch

[kev1964]

e

[kev1964]

trates and trites are round wrong way and i feed once aday yes it is 1.030

[kev1964]

and corals every third day i use ro/di water and yes it is sanity im losing mine lol

[Grins]

1.030? Are you topping off with saltwater by any chance?

[clown-lover]

There is another link that I posted in a topic to wantvws I'm not at my home computer so I don't have it right now. But you can look for it. I will allow you to calculate what your salinity should be at for your water change water based on what your tank water is set at during that time.

BTW I know greatly about that whole sanity part. But I do love the hobby. As I was once told by Niko it shouldn't be stressful, it should be enjoyable.

[kev1964]

no i have auto top off and it is ro/di water im in the middle of getting it back to 1.026.
it has no salt added to topoff

[Grins]

Odd that it got that high, especially if you have an ATO to make sure the level doesn't go down to a point that the salt would be concentrated.

[mandy21]

are you testing the salinity before you add it to the tank or perhaps you are just measuring the salt, putting it in the water without testing that?

[wantvws]

Here is the link to the salinity adjuster calculator that clown-lover posted about....I couldn't get the results to come out to anything sensible by entering the SG....only by converting the SG to PPT and using those numbers. It could very well be that I'm a total doorknob also:D

http://www.saltyzoo.com/SaltyCalcs/SalinityAdjust.php

Very handy. Thanks again, clown!
Hope this helps!
Robbie

[Slappy*McFish]

What are you using to test your S/G and or Salinity? Is it calibrated correctly?

[clown-lover]

Thanks for posting that link again Robbie.. Here I have an example for you or others on how to use it with an explaination.

1. Enter in the total gallons in your system. Tank, sump (if you have one) etc.

2. Enter current salinity in PPT (my example uses 34)

3. Enter in target salinity in PPT (my example uses 35)

4. Enter the number of PPT you wish to change this water change, if the difference is more than like 3 I'd do it in two changes personally.

5. Enter in the number of gallons of your water change.

6. Hit calculate. The line that shows my results with the header that states.. This plan calls for 1 water change (if you had a difference of 4 ppt between actual and target and you had put the maximum change as 2 ppt you'd have two lines here)

7. Understanding your results.
Tank salinity before 1.026 sg or /34ppt.. Water change of 20 gallons means your water your going to add needs to be 1.030 sg or 39.3 ppt which will give you the 1.26 (they round to hundreds instead of thousands and is a flaw) with 35 ppt sg.

[kev1964]

i use refractor and it was calibrated with distilled water the only thing i can think of is i misread it other than that i have no clue as to how it happened