Top off water! (1 Viewer)

[MarkieB]

Everything I have read until now, talks about top off water being just that...water. "salt does not evaporate, only the water does"

Recently I read that top off water should be actual salt water.
This was a first for me from Reef Central.


I think I missed this paradim shift when it occured.
Are you guys topping off with plain water or salt water?

 

[Niko5]

Plain water. Your right salt does not evap. You can loose salt from pulling stuff out of your tank (with water) and a few other places so you may need to topoff with alittle salt water every once in a while.

Where did you read that on RC?

 

[RobertR]

I agree with Nik, I only top off with fresh R/O DI water has needed and add a little salt when needed which is hardly ever.

 

[MarkieB]

I did not book mark it or remember what I was looking at, but I thought wow, I really missed something in the rules of Reefing. Glad to know plain ole water is still the top off.

 

[incysor]

RO/DI water....For every bit of water you lose to evap, you're not losing any salt, if you then replace that lost water with more salt water you're salinity levels are going to rise very quickly.

B

 

[Guest]

If you read that on RC, then either a) that person was an idiot or b) they were talking about using saline water to correct some other problem.

For example, I am trying to raise my salinity right now, so I have been topping off with slightly saline water for the last 2 weeks. Once I reach my target salinity I will switch back to pure RO/DI water.

There is also merit to adding a little salt to your topoff water if you wet skim. If you run your skimmer very wet (which is the trend among SPS keepers) you will remove a lot of saltwater in the process which will be replaced by RO water by your topoff system, so your salinity will drift down over time. To counteract this, you can add a little salt to the topoff water, although it would take some trial and error to figure out how much.

But yes, in most normal applications, you want to topoff with freshwater.