need help salt question

FishFanatic13

FishFanatic13

I LOVE FISH!!!
Aug 25, 2007
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i started my first sw tank and i bought nutriseawater pre mixed and this morning when i checked the gravity it was up to 1.025 how can this be i know its got to be lower then that between 1.020 and 1.022. any reason why this happened and is there a way i can fix it
 
Never used that water but natural seawater is closer to 1.026. If it was in fact lower when you got it, you are probably seeing the results of evaporation. Remember that salt does NOT evaporate but water does so the end result is increased SG. You should be topping your tank off with fresh water (preferable RO/DI) daily (or as needed) to maintain a relatively constant SG.
 
1.025 is pretty good for a sw tank no worries

also that premixed SW is going to be pretty expensive i recommend trying you hand at mixing up your own SW for waterchanges. its easy buy a bag of marine salt from your LFS and if you have a good LFS they will sell RO water if not you can go to winn-dixie and the galcier ice machines out front are RO water and you can get it from there. Just add some salt to a bucket, toss a powerhead in(any cheapo powerhead you can pick up will do fine), let it mix up, equalize the temp with an el cheapo heater, check the salinity, do any adjustments necessary to match the salinity in your tank and proceed with your waterchange.
 
+1, 1.025 is good but if you don't pay attention to evaporation, it will be 1.027+ before you know it. I think this is a biocube tank so it should have a tight fitting lid that will reduce evaporation a bit. Just keep an eye on the water level dropping in the rear chambers. That's where you will see evaporation in a tank like yours.

Also excellent advice on mixing your own water from this point forward. Less expensive and you have control over what goes in your tank.
 
I think most people keep their tanks' SG at around 1.024-1.026. Mine is at 1.025.
 
thanks everyone i just set my tank up and i didnt want to mix all that salt water to start i was going to mix my own for water changes and yes it is a biocube and yes i knew to top off evap with pure water...another question could i use like poland spring water or any bottle water or does it need to be a specific kind of water
 
I don't recommend spring water at all. It can have plenty of impurities. I highly recommend you get an RO/DI unit as soon as you can to address any demands for water. You'll be glad you did after a very short period of time. You can get top-notch units for ~$125. If you cannot do this immediately, I recommend you look at your local Wal-Mart or other grocery stores and look for purified water kiosks where you can get dispensed purified water that works very well. I do recommend, though, in both cases, that you get a TDS meter to measure the amount of dissolved solids in the water (essentially a measure of relative purity). That way you'll know of the performance of your own unit and/or the purity of any water you buy.
 
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