When salt level is low

[momodig]

New to brackish tanks, trying it out.

I have 2 spotted puffers in my tank and 2 F8, my salt level is around 1.005, which I believei s a bit low right? What is the best way to add more marine salt into the tank with out overflooding the fish with a brief mixer of high concentrated salt
Thanks

[Boxermom]

1.005 is just right for F8s but is low for adult GSPs, they require different SG. As I indicated in your other thread, your tank is too small to support all of them. Its only big enough for one GSP or two F8s, but not more than that.

[momodig]

Well I'm giving my other puffer back to the petstore, in trade from some more scenery, seems my puffers just float up and down the walls -- guess that means more... so now that I'm going to have only 1 spotted puffer, how should I go about getting water changed and increasing the the salt level I have 31 gal aqurium and not that good at math

[Boxermom]

You'll need either a refractometer or hydrometer to measure it. Don't raise it more than .002 per week to prevent killing off all the bacteria and causing a cycle to kick up.

[momodig]

What's the best way to slowly raise it .002? (as in adding a higher concentration of salt water in the tank) A hydrometer is the one that floats in a tank right? (well it only goes in increments of .005)

Currently my GSP is just over an inch, and my sal reading is 1.005 is that ok, or should i slowly raise it?

Also when I do a tank clean, I need to take out 50% of the water right? I have a 20 galon pail to mix the salt water in, how do i know how much salt to put in to bring it up to the level it was previously at... thanks

[Boxermom]

That's why you need a good hydrometer or refractometer, to measure the salinity of the water being placed into the tank.

Here's some vital reading:
http://www.thepufferforum.com/articles/ ... togsp.html

[momodig]

If read that article many times, I read that 1 cup of salt, to one litre raises it .005, but i can only raise it .002 max weekly, how do I calculate how much to put in my 15 gal pale, which is half of my tank, when i'm adding water.

Thanks, sorry if I sound stupid

[Boxermom]

No worries, I have a hard time figuring it out too, which is why I invested in a refractometer. Less figuring out to do in my head.

Well, my math says going by that, a third of a cup of salt per 5 gallons (not liter!) would raise it by .0016, which is pretty close to .002. You don't have to raise it by exactly .002, just not more than that. So for 15 gallons, that would be 1 cup of salt to raise the 15 gallons to .0016? Yes?

[momodig]

Thank you very much, but if i'm taking out 15 gals of water, how will i replace the salt in the aqurium back to 1.005? now that my 15 gallon pale has a salt content reading of .0016... I hope that makes sense?

[Boxermom]

Well hell, you know I flunked math, don't you? You're not asking for much. First, I mistyped it before, water starts off at 1.000. So one cup of salt in 5 gallons raises it to 1.005, therefore to raise 15 gallons to 1.005 would mean 3 cups of salt? Yes? Am I figuring that right? I think so.

[momodig]

so to raise my aqurium by .002 I would have to add 4 cups which would equal -- 1.005 plus .0016?

[Boxermom]

That sounds right to me.

[momodig]

Was just thinking, if I added 4 cups of salt to my 15 gal pale the salt rating would be 1.066, but would I have to add another cup of salt into the pale since the salt content in my half full aqurium would only be 1.005 -- does that make sense, I need to add the other cup of salt to account for the water in the aqurium lol

[Boxermom]

Yup, sounds about right.

[momodig]

Thanks for all the info it's begging to make sense to me