Right and true, but again, I’m not looking for an exact “put this many cups and every time it’ll be 35ppt” sort of thing, but more of a basis to at least start from. Like to learn if I put X=amount it’ll get me at least ballpark and then I can adjust from there sort of thing.
OK.. The container my salt comes in says 1.4 cups per 5 gallons. If 1 cup is 290 grams than 1.4 cups is 406 grams.
You can do without if you are home, top up 3 times a day, before you go out, in the evening and before bed, yes an ATO is good to have, but they do come with issues, you just need your sock or floss to get clogged up with detritus, that Will slow the water flow down, triggering the ATO when it shouldn’t be going off, so as said if you can top off 3 times a day that would be fine u til you have the money and understand better how to keep your salinity stable…I top off manually, got sick of my ATO triggering by mistake.
You cannot weigh out 35 g of salt because there is typically a large amount of moisture in the salts used, especially in the calcium and magnesium components which form specific crystals that hold water in them.
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That's true, and will certainly be affected by how much moisture your salt has been exposed to (e.g. keeping it stored in a sealed bucket vs a cardboard box). I've had no issues using this as a basis for mixing 60L of water at a time. I just check it once it's had a day circulating and adjust if necessary.
I already agreed and added that it will be further affected by exposure to moisture. I would still use this as a starting point. I'm not weighing out 60kg of water, just using a molded line in a drum. I'm going to have a margin of error and without knowing the specifics of the hydrous ingredients, all I really know is that I won't be adding too much salt to my mixture as a starting point.
Technically PSU is the measure you should using if you're measuring using a conductivity meter.
3 times a day!? Surely water doesn't evaporate THAT fast, does it?? And are ATOs that unreliable and finicky? Are there not some that have some kind of security mechanism to avoid triggering by mistake or is it that common?
Haha that is a good point! I'm also curious where I'll be with it all in a year or so! I guess that's part of the beauty of the hobby, right?
Yes, depending on the size, my tank is only very small but it needs around 500ml a day, some need many litres a day.
I apologize if I missed any info you posted about tank size/age and livestock but I'm making the assumption that your tank is pretty new and you only have a couple of fish (no difficult corals).
They are close.
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Many/most ATO have some kind of failsafe built in but it still isn’t unheard of for them to fail. Having an ATO stay on when it shouldn’t can potentially be catastrophic for the tank and your house depending on how much water it can pump into your tank from the reservoir.
Thanks for the response!
