waaaay too much salt

[csababubbles]

I accidentally dropped a lot of salt (150 gallons worth) into a 100 gallon container that was half way filled up with water. Measured salinity and it was like over 120mS. Obviously your not supposed to do this. I will not be using this saltwater for water changes for my reef tanks but would it still be ok to use for my FOWLR tanks if I add enough freshwater to bring the salinity back to nsw levels?

What actually happens to this mixture? Does calcium precipitate out or something?

 

[91YOTA]

basically, when mixing too much too quickly the essential minerals precip out... i would think you should be just fine diluting it back down to the proper salinity for a FOWLR tank since the fish dont care about calcium, mag, etc. like corals do

 

[DonW]

Dont you hate it when that happens. You loose alot of ca and mg. The mg will go back into the solution over time but the ca is gone for good. I can tell you that you can gain almost 10ppm of ca when mixing IO with the drill method. So My guess is yours took a pretty good hit.

Don

 

[Reeferdude]

Why not use it for the Reef. You can always add Calcium or Magnesium if it's too far off (It's probably not though). IMO it should not hurt a thing and should be fine for most saltwater systems...

 

[csababubbles]

right, but it may screw up my alk and calcium levels since all I use is kalkwater. i dont have any supplemental products because my levels stay stable and are where they need to be by just using kalk in my auto top-off. my reef tanks have low usage and I don't want to risk messing it up with this batch.

 

[Reeferdude]

I understand. I guess what I'm saying is before you completely rule out using it for your reef, test it. I'll betcha once your sg is where you want it, other readings will not be far off enough to change you tank parameters to a point of concern....Ultimately....It's up to you, but I'd check it first...