# How to top off?



## Ferchoz (Jul 29, 2009)

My water evaporates very fast since I dont have a top (read it was better this way). I tested my salinity and its a little too high and my LFS told me to top off my tank using fresh water not salwater... Right now I top off my tank with Saltwater I buy from my LFS, I wanted make sure I am doing the right thing when topping off my tank since my LFS have given me wrong information in the past. 

Thank you.


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## AZDesertRat (Apr 10, 2009)

Always top off with fresh water only, no salt, and prefferably RO/DI water. Salt does not evaporate so by adding salwater you raise the salinity ech time you add it. only use saltwater whan you are doing water changes and routine maintenance.

The use of RO, RO/DI or distilled water is recommended as tap water will always contain traces of contaminants again which will not evaporate and will accumulate in your tank over time. Some will adhere to the rocks and substrate where even water changes will not remove them. Fresh RO/DI is pure water at its best and adds no contaminants.

The next time it is low add fresh water only then after waiting a while test your salinity. If its still high remove some water and replace it with fresh until you get the salinity back to its normal range.


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## Imaexpat2 (Jun 17, 2009)

+ 1 to the above!


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## orion (May 31, 2009)

what he said


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## JIM (May 27, 2009)

**i/a* However, i might add that if you dont have access to R/O water, it always served me well to buy that in 5 gallon containers at my supplier, (Even a bunch is cheaper than a R/O unit.) And use that for your top off water.*


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## Imaexpat2 (Jun 17, 2009)

A cheap way to automatically top off a small tank like this is to buy a Dripper from the reptile sectioon of your local fish store or better yet get a 3 litter bottle and poke a hole in it and put a air line valve and make your own dripper. Fill with R/O water or "Lime Water" if you have a calcium demand in the tank. Adjust it to drip at an appropriate rate. This can help you to a considerable extent to keeping the tank full and keeping the SG steady.


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## Joey (May 27, 2009)

JIM said:


> **i/a* However, i might add that if you dont have access to R/O water, it always served me well to buy that in 5 gallon containers at my supplier, (Even a bunch is cheaper than a R/O unit.) And use that for your top off water.*


+ 1 on wit Jim i use to do the same thing *w3


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## AZDesertRat (Apr 10, 2009)

I would never buy water from anywhere, including my LFS, unless they test the conductivity or TDS in my presence or allow me to bring my TDS meter into the store. I have seen too many people get burned with bad water.
There is only one LFS in the entire Phoenix metrao area I would trust and even they have problems. Surprisingly though what I have found is some of the Water & Ice type stores have very good water quality for RO only water, by good I mean getting it from my tap water reading of 800 down to less than 10 TDS. Still not as good as RO/DI but pretty darn good.

If you must purchase water find a trusted source who will test it if you ask. I found the closest Water & Ice store was very interested when I explained it was for saltwater aquariums and fell all over themselves being helpful. They were proud of their store and equipment and it shows. On the other hand the closest LFS, in the same strip mall as the water store in fact, has horrible quality water and its represented as RO/DI.


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## marlenez (Jun 27, 2009)

One other thing to keep in mind if you use a skimmer there is a small amount of salt loss through the skimmate - eventually you need to adjust the specific gravity to make up for this so make sure you test at least once a week and you can then put enough salt in the FRESH top off water to make up the difference between what the SG is and what it should be.


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