Rookie looking for some answers

[gdubb]

I started my first saltwater tank on Aug 26th. I have a reading of 1.028 and cant seem to get it down.

The salinity was fine up till 3 weeks ago and it has not gone down since. For the last 3 sundays I have taken out 8 gallons and put another 8 in with NO salt, just water. It will go down to about 1.023-1.025 but by Monday afternoon it will be high again.

There is nothing in the tank but sand for right now. Now I attached a pic to see you guys think I have too much sand that could be throwing the salinity up.




Also I bought this set up used and it came with rock that was put up in newspaper for several months. I put the rock in a rubbermaid tub with a jet and some bubbles(sept 8th). A week later I picked up a few live pieces and placed with the other rock. How long does the process usually take to make the rock live again and do I need to do anything else because there does not seem to be much development.



Any help would be appreciated.

 

[extremepb319]

ummm I dont think too many things will be alive on a rock thats been wrapped up for months. and putting it in water wont grow stuff to my knowledge. And it will prolly take a while to make it live again with other live rock. not sure about ur salinity tho...

 

[gdubb]

http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u181 ... G_0896.jpg

http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u181 ... G_0892.jpg

 

[mr_X]

your situation with the salinity...is not possible. you cannot take salt out of the water, and then it returns on it's own. are you sure you didn't wait for some evaporation, and then add fresh water?
how did you make the salt water in your tank in the first place? did you pour salt into your tank and substrate, and then wait until it dissolved?

 

[gdubb]

your situation with the salinity...is not possible. you cannot take salt out of the water, and then it returns on it's own. are you sure you didn't wait for some evaporation, and then add fresh water?
how did you make the salt water in your tank in the first place? did you pour salt into your tank and substrate, and then wait until it dissolved?

I know it sounds crazy but thats exactly what I did, took about 8 gallons out then added fresh water, salinity went down then went up the next day.

Yes there was some evaporation but not much.

Lady at LFS told me like this
1) fill up half way
2)add salt and substrate
3)finish filling up tank.

I did wait a little bit in between 2+3.

 

[mr_X]

maybe the substrate captured the salt and is releasing it little by little?
try the removal again...gallons of salt for gallons of fresh.
sand won't raise the salinity, but if you poured the salt in and didn't mix it, and it's laying on the sand bottom, it could be the problem. maybe you could stir things up again...just for the heck of it.

 

[metalac]

maybe try and stir up the sand a bit . then see if the salinity increases when things settle down. If so then it means that there is some salt in that sand. It's so crazy that it just might work

 

[cindre2000]

You will probably have a good bit of micro organisms on the 'dry' rock after approximately one month. But you will not have a whole bunch of noticeable life for several more. Tossing in more nice seed rock will speed up the process; but you still going to have to wait some time.

Ditto to stirring up the sand.

 

[gdubb]

Thanks for the advice, I will stir up the sand and give it a whirl.

As for the rocks, I put a few frozen shrimp in there. LFS told me this might help the process as well.

I heard good things about this forum so I wanted to join, thanks again.

 

[extremepb319]

Yea i bet its salt in the sand. happened to me the first time i set up a SW. dont know why i forgot about that before...must not have been thinking. I just took all my sand out and threw it out and bought new sand but i only had a 10 gallon so it wasnt a problem for me too much.

 

[gdubb]

I just took alot of sand out of the tank and while I was doing that I DID find chunks of salt that had deposited in the sand without dissolving. I then did about a 12 gallon water change and hoping the salinity will level out.

THanks for the ideas and advice.

 

[Anonymous]

your situation with the salinity...is not possible.

:wink: my bet would be a faulty swing arm hydrometer.

 

[Kasey]

:wink: my bet would be a faulty swing arm hydrometer.


I recently found out my used swing arm was reading 1.023, when my LFS used their refractometer it was 1.019!

I threw out my swing arm, bought a new one for now and ordered a refractometer of my own.

You could check by mixing exact amount of salt to distilled water, wait 24 hours and use you hydrometer to verify....

 

[mr_X]

i have 2 swing arms...one reads .21, and the other .26!

 

[gdubb]

i have 2 swing arms...one reads .21, and the other .26!

which do you trust? I just opened a new one(instant ocean) and it was reading higher than my used one (coral life)

 

[Kasey]

Did you "cure" the new one by letting the saltwater sit in it for 24 hours first?

My Instant Ocean was the faulty one and my new Coral Life one matched my LFS.

 

[mr_X]

i don't trust either one. i'm ordering a refractometer.

 

[gdubb]

Did you "cure" the new one by letting the saltwater sit in it for 24 hours first?

My Instant Ocean was the faulty one and my new Coral Life one matched my LFS.

no but I did go by the instructions and soaked it in vinegar and then rinsed out well.

I did throw it in there for a few hours also last night.

 

[Kasey]

Another common high reading is bubbles. I stick a plastic chopstick in the top hole and tap the needle to shake off any bubbles....

You could take a sample to the LFS and compare with your reading.

 

[Newportreefer]

http://mynewportreef.blogspot.com/

Here are some recent pics of my 2 reefs - with comments.