Maintaining SG

Oddball~

Oddball~

Brackhead
Nov 18, 2004
875
0
0
45
Dallas, TX
I do weekly 25% water changes on my 20 gallon and was wondering how maintaining the SG. 1/2 cups of marine salt in a 5 gallon bucket ups the SG by .002... I'm done rising the SG, before the water change, it was at 1.009. How do I maintain the SG, as in how much salt per 5 gallons of water switched...
 
What's the SG you are maintaining? Once you meet your goal, it's easy. Although I do 50% weekly water changes on all my tanks.
 
My goal is 1.007 for now, 1.007 decreasing to 1.005 in the fall, 1.008 maximum... its at 1.009, but I changed 5 gallons with 1 tblspoon of marine mix so I'm not sure. I'll get it tested with a refractometer at PetLand tomorrow, I dont have one since they cost like 1000 times more than a hydrometer, but 1000 times more accurate...

I'm starting 50% changes as soon as I get another bucket. How do you gravel vac that giant thing! How many 5 gallon buckets do you use?!?! :D
 
I use a Python & add salt to my box filter. 1 tbsp salt is nothing. When doing a 50% water change on my 29g tank, I add more or less 2 cups of salt, to reach a SG of 1.008-10. I paid around $40 for my refractometer.
 
Wow. Just, wow. Very nice setups btw. I'd like to show you my aquascape and ask you to make that better, but anywayysssss.....

Should I just add 1/4 cup of salt to the 5 gallons I change in the tank? Or should I just do one FW change one week, then one 1/2 cup of salt to make BW change the next, then keep switching FW, BW, FW, BW.....?

And for my inhabitants of the 20 gallon, should I take them out or something? When I gravel vac, I gravel vac rather zealously, because I'm paranoid of some random ammonia or nitrite spike. Should I stick them in a 5 gallon bucket of the new water im switching in?
 
I'm a fairly thorough gravelvac'er myself & it's never bothered anyone. They always seem to find their way to the other side of the tank. I generally try to keep the SG within +/- .002 of the SG of the water I'm changing. If 1/4 cup of salt is what you have removed w/the 5gal, then that is what you should replace. I think it would be more like 1 cup, but check w/your hydrometer.
 
As a point--while hydrometer's tend to be off by a bit--they are stable in that variance. Meaning, if you compare your reading to one taken by a refractometer, you can be comfortable that it will always vary by that amount, especially if you take care to rinse it well with FW after each use.
 
OrionGirl said:
As a point--while hydrometer's tend to be off by a bit--they are stable in that variance. Meaning, if you compare your reading to one taken by a refractometer, you can be comfortable that it will always vary by that amount, especially if you take care to rinse it well with FW after each use.
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I do a 50% water change every 3 weeks in my 36 gallon..... Use a hydrometer and slowly add salt until you get to the SG you want. I usually end up checking my hydrometer 2 or three times until I get it right. As long as its betewwn 1.008 and 1.010 I'm ok. The smaller the tank is the harder it is to be constant because less salt is needed to make a bigger change.....
 
50% every 3 weeks can cause shock to your fish.
 
Hmm, but I'm not sure exactly how much salt is lost when I change the water.
 
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