The Puffer Forum

soggydrysuit wrote:There's also not much wrong with weighing out salt to a known volume of water. So I don't think your's is a silly Q. If not for any other reason, I like to check tank salinity to check for evap losses. Just belt and braces - by weighing, you know what it should be. By using a device like these, you measure the actual salinity.

Also, the salinity you get seems to change for a given weight of salt and volume of water depending on the brand of salt. One brand I have used, seems to give less than I would expect.

Then there is water absorbtion, by salt. Not a massive problem, but given a chance, salt in a bag or bucket will pick up whatever water it can from the air if nowhere else but you'd have to leave something open to damp for weeks to really have a problem. It forms hard clumps and leaks seawater, eventualy, if you have not seen it this way. But I've also used salt that looks fine but I get less salinity for the weight than I should or as written on the box.

One last thing, I've found with one brand of salt, different from the last brand was that I get a massive nitrite reading in my mixing tank if I leave it mixing for three days onward. Sometimes, I think that's due to bits of seaweed I can see in it as it dissolves. Up to two days mixing seems fine and 24 hrs mixing and aeration seems to be recomended.

Just passing on what I've found with mixing salt (snore)!

soggydrysuit wrote:There's also not much wrong with weighing out salt to a known volume of water. So I don't think your's is a silly Q. If not for any other reason, I like to check tank salinity to check for evap losses. Just belt and braces - by weighing, you know what it should be. By using a device like these, you measure the actual salinity.

Also, the salinity you get seems to change for a given weight of salt and volume of water depending on the brand of salt. One brand I have used, seems to give less than I would expect.

Then there is water absorbtion, by salt. Not a massive problem, but given a chance, salt in a bag or bucket will pick up whatever water it can from the air if nowhere else but you'd have to leave something open to damp for weeks to really have a problem. It forms hard clumps and leaks seawater, eventualy, if you have not seen it this way. But I've also used salt that looks fine but I get less salinity for the weight than I should or as written on the box.

One last thing, I've found with one brand of salt, different from the last brand was that I get a massive nitrite reading in my mixing tank if I leave it mixing for three days onward. Sometimes, I think that's due to bits of seaweed I can see in it as it dissolves. Up to two days mixing seems fine and 24 hrs mixing and aeration seems to be recomended.

Just passing on what I've found with mixing salt (snore)!