Tank water evaporating Help???

I am setting up a 20 gallon tall tank with base rock (will be fowlr setup). I am experiencing two major problems

1) My water level keeps getting lower each day. I've sealed off the exposed areas of the tank lid and do not know what is causing this problem. (may be light evaporating water???)

2)Weird story: About 5 weeks ago I filled up my 20 gal. tank with saltwater and about 30 pounds of base rock. I read about cycling with fish food and added a lot to hopefully get the ammonia spike started. I let it sit for about 2 weeks tested and found Ammonia .5, nitrite .25. I let it sit for another week and decided to change some of the base rock (I had extra) and added some water because water level went down. I let it sit for another week (4 weeks so far). I than added a domino damsel figuring I had to restart the cycle. Its been in there a week (5 weeks total) and I decided to test the water. To my surprise the ammonia was 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 20. DID MY TANK REALLY CYCLE?? I appreciate any responses thanks

 

very well could have cycled, check out this site
Reef-Relief :: Automated Aquatic Top Off Controller

 

how much water are you evap. each day? and it is posible that it is cycled mine did in about 4.5 weeks wit wilve rock and 1 fish

 

my neighbor has a 90 gallon tank that never cycled at all lol.its a nice looking reef with fish and all.it just never showed as going through a cycle.i guess its about 11 months along

 

There is various methods of kick starting your tank, that will make the cycle go a lot smoother with little side effects. Live sand and fully cured liverock is a great way to begin. The downside, people only use 1 fish then, when the bacteria is there to sustain a lot more and it just dies off. The tank will not have more bacteria then it can handle cause it will starve.

 

Well you best open the hood up .. And let oxygen in and get the CO2's out from under there.

As fas as if its totally cycled ? Not to the point I'd put any money onto animals other the that damsel and put them in there, And a Domino was a bad choice to start with they get live a long time get big turn gray and mean Good luck

 

You do want evaporation to happen, just make sure to replace it with high quality water -- no salt. The water will evaporate increasing your salinity so you can just replace the water that evaporated, doesn't take extra salt each time. The evaporation also performs a gas exchange you want.

 

And evapotation can be significant...especially if you have a lot of flow in your tank. I have about 85 gallons in my system, and in the winter months, when the heat in the house is on, I bet I loose 1-1.5 gallons of water a day to evaporation. And that is in Atlanta, where the heat does not run all the time. I would imagine in northern climates it is even worse.

Also, I think it is important to restate the comment that you replace the water with good, clean (RO/DI if you have it) fresh water. Remember that the salt stays behind when the water evaporates...so you just need fresh water.

 

I have to add 4-5 gallons to my 125 every 3/4 days.

Yes...always use fresh water...BUT keep eye on salinity in tank. If you have significant salt creep, or a very busy skimmer, your water may be losing salt content.

If noticeable, add a little salt to top-off water now and then to get back up to level you want.

Scott

 

Living in Phoenix I now just droped down to loosing about 1 gallon a day, down from 1.5 to 2 which i was getting a month a go on my 75g tank.