converting freshwater to brackish

[brooklyn]

so for the time being before i can get my bigger tank, i still need to be converting my tank slowly to brackish by adding salt. my question is how much should i add at a time (the man at the LFS said put a small dish with salt in the tank but didnt give specifics) and how often should i be adding. i know it said to raise .002 weekly but im not sure how much salt that would require every week. also, i know (NOW) that you should be using marine salt and not aquarium salt, but if i already started adding aquarium salt is it too late to switch to marine salt?

[busybones]

No it isn't too late. Aquarium salt shouldn't harm anything...how much did you add? If you added a lot you may want to do a 50% FW water change. Please reveiw this post about brackish water mixing.

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19348

[bigfatfish]

Do you have a refractometer to measure the salinity?

[Pufferpunk]

Either hydrometer or refractometer.

[brooklyn]

i havent added much, just about 2 tablespoons every week when i do water changes and then yesterday when i purchased the f8's and he told me to put a small dish in with salt i did that and the dish had about 4 tablespoons in it and that is already dissolved. i still need to purchase a hydrometer soon

[PolishPuff]

with aquarium salt your SG will not go up, got to use a sea salt like instant ocean.

[brooklyn]

ok so the marine salt is a must, gotcha. so then when i get that and start REALLY converting, use the technique of mixing in the bucket with salt then adding to the tank when i do the water changes right? (using the formulas on the chart link above)

[PolishPuff]

correct

[Pufferpunk]

with aquarium salt your SG will not go up, got to use a sea salt like instant ocean.

Although the incorrect salt for BW, aquarium salt will still register on a hydrometer/refractometer.

[OCgatergal]

mixie mixie till your hydrometer reads what you want

[brooklyn]

i think i got the hang of mixing the water. i did a water change last night and it came out perfect! thanx everyone for your help

[busybones]

No problem Brooklyn! Sounds like you got everything under control