Water change / Top Off HELP

[djcanis]

Ok, so I seem to have a ton of evaporation in my tank, its a 30 gal, and I seem to be putting about 3 gals of water a week in just to top it off. I have dry blower heat in my house and the tank loses water like crazy. I have been wondering what to do in regards to water changes. I know the recommended wc is 10%, but I add 10% of new water every week. Its usually 1 gal salt mix, 2 gal fresh. It keeeps the SG down, since usually by the end of the week its up near 1.03. Shoud I still be doing a 10% WC on top of the 10% addition of fresh water? My nitrates have been high lately, but I have been overfeeding a bit. Before that levels were perfect, I would do a wc every 2 months or so when I would vacuum the CC bed. Any thoughts? Thanks

 

[lion_crazz]

I would still definitely do the water change in addition to the topping off. The water lost in the top off is only water. No nitrates are evaporating out of the water. The water change is what is removing your nitrates for you.
As for your top off, I would think about installing an auto top off so that you do not have such a fluctuation in your specific gravity from day to day.
You will need to begin to do a bit larger water changes for the next few weeks in order to get the nitrates down. 10% water changes will not lower high nitrates.

 

[djcanis]

I've been doing about a gal and a half a day the last 5 days. It has gone from over 80 to about 50 or so now. So its gettign better. I increades my cleaner crew by a couple hermits and a couple more snails, cut the feeding and cut the light a couple hours. I was also having a bit of a red slime problem. its only been a week, but there is deffinately a noticable improvement. I have never seen one of those auto top off's, how do they work?

 

[earlybird]

I have to add about 1/2 gallon to my 29 every day. I normally top off in the morning and at night. Evaporation is good for your tank. lioncrazz good to see you on.

 

[djcanis]

I'm just having a real tough time keeping the SG at a constant with the ammount of evop. In the summer it is fine, but from Dec to April, its horrible. Damm the North East, go global warming!!! lol,

 

[earlybird]

You can get a 1/2 g milk container and clean it real good. Put a piece of airline tubing with a valve. Fill it up with RO and you can control the drip. I've done this with good success but realized that it was easier for me to just manually top off.

 

[dragonzim]

I add 1-2 gallons a day to my 75 just from evaporation in addition to changing out 10 gallons every week or 2.

 

[scubaguy]

I have a 35 gallon and I have to top it off each day with 1/2 to 3/4 a gallon every day. I fill it every morning and then by the next morning it is down