Does Mag drop when SG drops?

thanks folks. you think my acros will be ok. I noticed some stringy stuff coming out of one of them yesterday? Has this happened to you guys before? Did you have any loses> (coral, fish, snails, etc.)

 

Ditto from me.

 

ok. well ive been topping off with saltwater for a full day now and my SG hasnt budged? I dont know what is going on. I dont lose alot of water in a day but i would of thought it would of moved a bit. But i guess that trying to raise salinity in a 50gal system with minute top offs will take a long time. I am just concerned that mag, calc, alk will be too low throughout this process that something will happen to my livestock. Should i try to raise these levels while SLOWLY raising my SG?

 

Well all you have to do is test and see where they are going. Salt water will have a bit more or a bit less than what you have. So over all it should
not change a whole lot. Salinity is checkable too. There are calculators or you salt will have how much for how much water. So with 50 gallons at such a salinity will take this much to raise. Salinity can creep over time.... but it takes a good chunk to actually move it when it is out of line. I'm pretty sure nothing is wong and it will take a few days to move it up using small amounts of top of.

I mean think about it.... evaporate off the water you are topping off with and you would be left with a few spoons of salt a day.

And Available calcium and carbonate are going to effect grwoth, nothing is going to die. And normal salt water values are normal... not defficient. Defficient levels of calcium and carbonate are very low. Just test and see where they go.

 

Oh ya.... what are you using to measure your salinity. And what time period did it take to drop from 1.026 to 1.022?

 

i am using a refractometer to measure salinity. It must of dropped in like a week or so?

 

i dont think i should start another thread for this question i have now.
I got my salinity back to 1.026 and have just been manually topping off with ro water. Well today i checked my salinity with a refractometer and its reading 1.025 but my water level has dropped enough that i should add another half gallon or so of ro/top off water so my return pump doesnt start spitting bubbles into my display. But wont this lower my salinity even further?
Why is my salinity going down while my water is evaporating? I thought it went the other way?

 

bump

 

Yes... salinity will rise as water evaporates. Your refractometer could be off. Are you rinsing with ro/di water when done? Are you testing the same way every time?

 

My thought as well. Refractometers are also sensitive to temperature changes.