need help...

[redrider]

ok well i recently started up my tank again only down for a few weeks, its just cycling no fish or anything. the thing is, i had bout 25-30 gals of water in the tank already(salt mix and all) so i figured why not just add 20 gals of fresh water to the tank and let cycle for a week and see what the salt level is after a week. well i checked it and well my hydrometer shoots the salt level way pass what it is recommended. so i got my uncles hydrometer to double check and his did the same thing. im not getting why after adding 20-25 gals of fresh water my salt level is so high? should i just seiphane(sp) out some of the water and add more fresh water, but save the stuff i suck out? also if that is the solution how much to take out and add back in of fresh? thanks...

 

[flower]

I did the exact same thing about maybe two years ago.
The salt was so concentrated. I just added fresh water...still it was so high. I did remove some water keeping some of it in buckets just in case I overshot the fresh and kept mixing them until the SG was at the level I wanted.
The up side is this...All those little pesky aiptasia, majano and other bad critters died because of the salt levels. As well as hair algae and the like. The rock was fine and eventually rejuvenated. All the bad little pests were gone and never returned.
I still have the rock from that time and I only have a problem (aiptasia) with new rock that I have added since. I know exactly what is in my tank. I just have to be careful not to introduce any bad hitchers. Everything is dipped before it goes into the DT.

 

[tank a holic]

my 125 takes 2 gallons of water to lower salinity .001
so your's will take probably 1 gallon to do the same
take a gallon jug, fill it up half with tank water, and see how much fresh it takes to get to the desired salinity, then you'll know about how much....
if you fill the jug up before it's right, you know you need to do a 50% water change
if you save the old, you need to put it in a container with a power head or it won't keep very well
also, i recommend getting a refractometer

 

[redrider]

thanks for the help may i ask what the refractometer is?

 

[redrider]

well i did the milk jug idea, and found out that i need to do about 10-15 gal water change of just adding fresh water. im going to do that in the next day or so, let it cycle for a few days and check the salinity again to make sure it is at the ideal level.... i will keep ya'll posted lol