First Water Change

well I did my first water change and it went pretty well. I mixed the water (RO) to add in a 33 gal garbage can I purchased just for water changes. I put in a small pump (Rio+ 2100), heater, and added salt mix. I tested the sg and it was the same as my tank (.0124). When it was up to temp, I did the change. The next day my sg was (.0126). Why the increase? Was the salt mix not completely dissolved? It appeared to be. just curious.

 

Sounds good well the reason for the salt increase is probably what you said. it takes a while for salt to fully mix with the water...but 1.026 of still ok, i would just take some salt water out and add some nice RO

 

will do. I'm only 1 month into this and the learning curve is pretty steep. btw what level of sg do you keep your tanks at?

 

What I do at every water change , is I leave maybe 5 gallons or so out of the tank, let the newly added water mix in for a few minutes and then test salinity. Seems like sometimes the last few gallon need to be just plain RO water. I have done that for 5 years and my salinity never jumps up after a water change. So, test the tank salinity right before adding the last few gallons of new SW.

 

1.026 for a reef ,lower for fowlr, lower still for fish only

 

Good idea about testing before the last 5 gal. thanks I'll try that.

 

It does take time for the salt to dissolve. You can't take a reading right after you mix the salt in the ro water. Though, some salts dissolve faster than others.