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Salt making question

D

duijver

Hi guys,

What is the guidelines for waiting 24 hours for using newly mixed salt water? Is it 24 hours from any changes or could I get away with a water change later tonight with this scenario?

I have had 32g's of salt water in the garage for about 26 hours now. When I first mixed the water and salt last night it was very cold so I estimated the amount of salt and threw the heater in. This morning the salinity was about 1.030, but the water was still too cold. I made/added some more water (3-4 hours ago) and added another 3-4 gallons to the mix. This dropped the salinity to 1.023. Then about an hour ago I added some more salt (1/2 cup or so) to attempt to bring it to 1.024.

I'm only using a hydrometer so it's a PIA, but normally I make water a week in advance. My dHk(15+) and alk(9+) are really really high so I need to do a WC. My chaeo and and some of my pom pom xenia are wilting (turning white). Calc, phosphate's, ammonia, and Mag are all pretty much in check - don't know about iodine or strom.

Thanks!
 
Phyl

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
The crux of it is to get the salt dissolved. With the lion's share of your salt dissoved, you'll probably be ok. Unfortunately, the worst thing you can do in the event of an emergency is panic (how counter intuitive) because undissolved salt will be worse on your corals than the problem you're seeing with your xenia. Once your sure your salt is dissolved turn off the pumps for 10-30m to allow any solids to settle and then go ahead and change the water.

How did your alk get up so high? You'll want to address that first and foremost!
 
D

duijver

Thanks Phyl!

This IO 5gal buckets are horrible with large pieces of undissolved salt pieces. Luckly, most of them fall to the bottom and this may have been the cause of my high alk?? I was being cheap and I used the bottom of the bucket water a week ago - although I was careful not to allow the big pieces into the 5gal bucket for transportation. And, I do roll the bucket for a few minutes and then shake it before taking salt from the bucket.



I actually just took another KH/alk test before posting. It seems like I may have misread the low res tests or it was two bad samples. I just did a full res test and it looks like my KH in dKH is 6.4 and the AK is 2.29. It looks like 2.9 should be the level I want to reach. I have DT's AK liquid but it was not clear if that would also increase dKH levels? Mag is like 1350 and cal is 500.

Is my AK low enough to cause drastic problems? Sorry, to be honest.. I have never really been good about water testing. A few people that I talked to, before entering the club, always swayed me against testing.

Thanks again!
 
P

pgordemer

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Let make sure we are all talking on the same page.


DKH is just a different measurement index of Alkalinity.

So its is either 7-11 DKH or 2.5 to 3.5 meg/l or 125 to 196 PPM. These are all measurement scales for the same alkalinity.
 
D

duijver

Thanks Phil. I sort of figured that was the case, but I did want to verify. I guess I could have just kept my mouth quiet and dosed with the alkalinity and verify that the dHK number increased as well.

It's also good to know that 2.5 to 3.5 is a safe range for meg/l. Considering I'm already on the topic do certain corals prefer certain Alkalinity levels? For example, what would be the optimal level for softies (xenia, zoas, leather, etc) to maximize health and growth?

Thank you again,
Ben
 
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