Question on raising Salinity in tank.

My salinity is 1.023 or a slight bit less bout 1.225. How much salt should I add to the tank to raise it to 1.025 in a 55 gallon tank with 100lb LR. Would I be safe adding a 1/2 cup of instant ocean to the tank at a time while watching the salinity day by day. Would it be a problem changing the salinity from 1.023 to 1.025 in one day and would i be a problem adding directly to the tank?

 

Do you have anything in the tank besides LR?
I would premix the salt first in RO water and then add it directly to the tank if there isn't any livestock in the aquarium.
If there is livestock however, I would not make this change too fast.
They can adapt to slightly "off" water parameters but too much change too fast is never a good thing. Stability is the main goal

 

Just start doing your top-offs with mixed saltwater instead of fresh till you reach your target. It's by far the safest way.

 

Yea, theres plenty of Livestock. I did a 20% water change with salt water from the lfs and after doing 10% I check the salinity of the second container and saw that it was 1.017 so I boosted it with some salt to 1.025 but unfortunately had already dumped the first 10% in so when I checked my salinity it was down from the usual 1.024 to a bit below 1.023. I guess I'll just wait it out and top off with the remaining gallon of salt water but would rather just throw some salt in there if i could to atleast bring it back to 1.024 so im tryin to figure out if its safe to maybe dilute some salt in a cup and mix it directly in the tank and how much I would need in a 55 to bring it up just a bit.

 

I agree with what pack leader said. Just top off your aquarium with mix saltwater each day until target salinity is reached.
I wouldn't add salt straight to the aquarium unmixed though because it can stay in your sump undissolved and then suddenly spike your salinity when it finally dissolves.
Hope it helps.

 

When you mix up top off water, just make it be the salinity you eventually want your tank to be at. For instance, if you want it at 1.025 then make your top off water this mark. Keep it in one of those 5 gallon buckets and let the salt dissolve, no need to aerate it or heat it just keep it separate. Also, once you reach the salinity you want, stop using salt topoff water and start just using regular water with no salt. The reason for this is that water evaporates but salt does not, so if you keep adding salt water it will only make your salinity raise even higher than you want. You definatly want to just use topoff water to raise the salinity slowly because any startling change will affect your inhabitants.

 

...I never measure the amount of salt, I've always just eyeballed it (dumping it in a 5g bucket) perhaps because I use to work at a pet store & I got use to it? If I had to measure it, I'd say it would be about 2 cups. I've also never used premixed, or RO water...just plain ol dechlored tap water-on the warmer side-to help dissolve the salt, a quick swish with my arm & in it goes...I know...but bad habits are hard to break.

 

I had this happen to me and my LFS suggested I drain some water from my tank mix some salt in it and then add it back. This way actually worked really well. I am kind of new at this but it did work.

 

+1 on that!!!

 

U know I had problems with instant ocean when Ifirst setup my tank. MY salinity kept fluctuating. I switched to crystal sea about 4 months ago and aint had any problems since.