Increasing SG

Hi,

New to all of this, but have some questions regarding raising the SG of the tank. Currently my DT (65g) and QT (10g) have an SG of 1.022. The DT is 11 weeks of cycling and the QT was established from a water change from the DT 3 weeks ago. My LFS has and SG of 1.025 and we brought our first two fish home a week ago. The acclimation went OK, but I would really like to try and get my SG up in both tanks to match LFS and to help better with future acclimating. I understand the best way to do this is by using Salt water to add to the tank instead of RODI water. I am getting my water from LFS and want to know if adding the LFS salt water directly to each tank or if the water should be diluted some before adding?

Also, over what period of time should I expect the increase to happen. I certainly don't want to go too fast.

Finally,at what point should I take my SG readings,jus before adding water and then just after, or do I need to allow some amount of time to transpire before taking the SG after adding water to the tanks?

Thanks

Scott

 

You are on the right track, you can indeed simply top off with SW. Depending on your evaporation rate, I would expect that to raise the SG from 1.022 to 1.025 would only take a couple of days.

I suggest a refractometer to measure the SG value and to be safe measure prior to adding SW, wait about 30 min and check the SG after addition of the top off. After the first top off this should give you a rough estimate off how long it will take to reach the desired SG.

Approximately how much do you top off daily?

For the math gurus there is an equation but I believe you need the temp as well, temp should be approximately 80 F.

 

iv never had a QT tank (yes yes shame on me) but if i understand the concept correctly there is no need to "cycle" a QT tank. i mean the way i see it is you would fill your 10g tank with your "awesome" dt water, right!?

secondly you are right about bring it up slowly. so my best bet for you if you dont have an automated top off system is to add a little salt mix to your top off DI/RO water depending on your tank volume.

the corrects amounts are given with the salt mix you buy. personally i use X brand and they say 36g/liter (you do the maths) giving me an average of 1.025/6

....so i guess to help further we would need to know how much you top off in order to calculate the amounts...

assuming you dont have an automated top off. if you do then it comes to adding a little extra salt to your water change water, but again how much do you change and when?

personally, when i want to bring my SG up a little i add about 10-20 grams extra to my 20 l weekly water change

 

oh WHOOP IM A FEATHER STAR!!!! -.-, dont ever keep them!!!!

 

I do have a refractometer. Thanks for the advice on waiting 30 minutes after topping off. I think i am topping off a little more than a gallon per day on the DT. And probably 0.5 gallons per day on the QT.

Yes, I did the initial fill of the QT with water from the DT. However, going forward I am not using DT water in the QT.

I am NOT making my own water right now, I am purchasing from LFS.

 

my 2 cents: add an extra "portion" per gallon of salt to you top off every other day untill you get it where you want.

example, if i was toping one liter of water every other day i would do so with 36gr. mixed in the water