I set up a brackish tank with a .012 salinity about 3 months ago and everything has been going great. Today I was getting ready to do a water change and thought I'd check the salinity before I got started and to my surprise, it was at 0! I thought my hydrometer was broken, but I checked it on my seahorse aquarium and it is working fine. I know salt doesn't evaporate, but there was salt, and now there is none. This is my guess: the aquarium is only filled about 3/4 full and I have a waterfall set up. My olive nerite snails like to sit in the flow of water, causing it to splash all over the glass (and a little on the floor). The glass seems to have quite a bit of salt built up on it. But, could all of the salt from the water really have got taken out this way?? My filter or red mangraves couldn't have filtered it out, right? I know the answer is no, this just seems so weird I wanted to consider all the possibilities.
Where did the salt go?!
- Thread starter sixpack_ey
- Start date
When you do your water changes, are you putting saltwater back in the tank. Yes, the salt does not evaporate like the water does but, when you take the saltwater out by doing water changes then you have to put more saltwater back in the tank. When they say that salt doesn't evaporate they are talking about when you water level goes down due to evaporation and you need to add a small amount of water to get it back up to proper level then you do not need to add saltwater then but when you do a water change and take out a large amount of saltwater then you have to add more saltwater to keep your salinity the same. You should be testing with a hydrometer at least once a week if not more to make sure your salt levels stay where they need to be.
I hate to admit, this was going to be my first water change since I switched it to brackish. I have lots of plants- mangroves and water sprite that keep the nitrate down. My parameters are good so I haven't done any water changes. I know this isn't ideal, but when you own a business and have a 1 year old, everything else gets pushed to the backburner.
When I set up the tank the water level was about 5 or 6 inches below the top of the aquarium and I keep it at that level. The water evaporates pretty fast, since I can't have a cover do to the mangroves, so I have to add water every few days to top it off. I'm not sure how in a few months the salinity went from .012 to 0. I did lose a ruby scat a while back, but all my fish and plants are doing great now. I'm not sure how long the salinity has been at 0, I didn't think I needed to check it since I keep the water level topped off and I haven't taken any water out. It just doesn't make sense. I'm going to add more SW this week and slowly raise the salinity and I will keep a close eye on it this time and try to figure out how this happened.
While the nitartes in the tank haven't risen in the past few months the levels of other things like dissolved organics have. Some get used by plants but other accumulate and can't be tested for. The reason nitrates are often used as an indicator of water changes are becuase they are an easy tes, but only in tanks where nitartes actually accumulates.
But since you tank water is old and the SG has done such a drastic change, I would proceed with a very slow water change regeime to not shock the fish and other inhabitants. Do now more than a 0.002 SG change every few days with small water changes to eventually get things back to normal and then get back on a more schedualed regeime.
I would agree that the fish and plnats have probably used the salt.
But since you tank water is old and the SG has done such a drastic change, I would proceed with a very slow water change regeime to not shock the fish and other inhabitants. Do now more than a 0.002 SG change every few days with small water changes to eventually get things back to normal and then get back on a more schedualed regeime.
I would agree that the fish and plnats have probably used the salt.
I didn't know the fish and plants would use the salt. I think a lot of it is on the glass because the glass is almost white and when you run your finger across it there is lots of salt on your finger. I have already started to slowly change the water back to brackish.
Test before each water change as well. If the mangroves did "suck" up excess salt then they may very well release it as the salinity starts to climb. Just a guess on my part and not based on anything I have experienced.
Mangroves do suck up salt out of the water, but its passed through their systems and released through the leaves. You should wipe down the leaves on your mangroves once a week or so to remove any accumulated salt they are passing through.