How do I raise my salinity level?

[davercomeau]

I have a 90 gallon brackish water tank that is low on salt; it's at 1.003 and I need to get it to 1.010. Does anyone know of a converter for raising salinity level by .005 increments? Thanks for the help.

[BV77]

ummm maybe add salt a bit at a time till you reach the desired salinity?

[davercomeau]

I thought about that but there must be an easier way to avoid a mistake. Also, I have to mix the salt beforehand, which I do in a 10 gallon bucket. I was hoping to drain ten gallons out of my tank and then pour the salt-mix water in.

[kay-bee]

Are there any fish in the tank and are you under a time constraint? You could top-off do your regular water changes with saltwater (1.020-1.027 SG) until your target salinity is achieved. This will take time though to increase salinity up to where you want it.

If there is nothing living in the tank (including viable biologic filtration), you could probably add super-saline water to the tank.

If adding water in 10gal increments is what you want to do, then remove 10gal of tank water and replace it with 10gal of water with a salinity of 1.040. The volume of the water in the tank would dilute it back down to approximately 1.007 SG. You'd probably have to do this twice.

10gal of 1.080 SG water should bring it up to approximately 1.010 SG in one go, though.

You do not want to try this if you've got life in your tank.