Salinity stability with ATO

BAMslam93

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Hi all, I recently got this ATO for my 15 gallon AIO cube and it was working pretty well but I noticed that my salinity has dropped from 35 to 33 ppt. I figured with me opening my windows and having the house at 77F, I'd see more evaporation and 35-36 ppt.

Would lowering the sensor deeper into the return pump chamber possibly get things back on track? So far, none of my fish or inverts are in trouble.

I'm also planning to put my skimmer back online soon after this round of Flux Rx and I hope that won't complicate things!

 
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gbroadbridge

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As long as your ATO is topping up with RODI water and there are no leaks in the system, if the water level has not changed, neither has the salinity.

How are you certain that your salinity measurement is correct?
Salinity measurement is temperature sensitive.
 
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BAMslam93

BAMslam93

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As long as your ATO is topping up with RODI water and there are no leaks in the system, if the water level has not changed, neither has the salinity.

How are you certain that your salinity measurement is correct?
Salinity measurement is temperature sensitive.

It was fine for a while and the water line stayed consistent. I get a nagging feeling I may have moved the sensor up a bit when I upgraded my reservoir (oops). I use an ATC refractometer and use BRS's calibration solution to calibrate to 35 ppt before each reading.
 

gbroadbridge

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It was fine for a while and the water line stayed consistent. I get a nagging feeling I may have moved the sensor up a bit when I upgraded my reservoir (oops). I use an ATC refractometer and use BRS's calibration solution to calibrate to 35 ppt before each reading.

If that's the case I'd just move the sensor back down.

Alternately you can top up evaporated water with salt water until the salinity is back to where you want it, and then switch back to RODI.
 

Gumbies R Us

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When my tank's salinity was a little low, I used salt water to top it off. Once it returned to the level I was happy with, I replaced the salt water with R/O water and haven't had any issues with salinity since. (I use a Tunze ATO)
 
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BAMslam93

BAMslam93

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When my tank's salinity was a little low, I used salt water to top it off. Once it returned to the level I was happy with, I replaced the salt water with R/O water and haven't had any issues with salinity since. (I use a Tunze ATO)
Went ahead and kept my ato offline overnight and let the water in my return chamber evaporate. I just topped off with saltwater and will test in a few hours to see if that helped!
 
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BAMslam93

BAMslam93

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Retested and it's now at 34 instead of 33! Looks like things are slowly getting back on track :). I'm also waiting on replacement RO/DI filters and can't wait to hook everything back up to my ReefCan.
 

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As long as your ATO is topping up with RODI water and there are no leaks in the system, if the water level has not changed, neither has the salinity.

How are you certain that your salinity measurement is correct?
Salinity measurement is temperature sensitive.
take into account salt creep.......
 

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