A Complete Guide to Water Evaporation: Saltwater Aquarium Guide
- Jan 09, 2022
- Anshika Mishra
- 604 0 0
Your saltwater tanks are going to evaporate water. There is a right and wrong way to deal with it, and every reefer did it wrong on day one.
In this article, we are going to show you how to deal with evaporation, but how to deal with it easily with an Auto Top Off.
The challenge here is that the tank is going to evaporate water.
Water Evaporation
Something that you will see with the naked eye is dropping water levels, but what you can't see is that as the water leaves, the salt stays behind. So, the water gets more concentrated, and salinity rises every day.
Until, of course, you come by and top it off with fresh water and all the levels go back to normal. Here we will share with you what type of water to top off the tank, how often to do it, and probably, the single most common system upgrade, the Auto-top off, which does all of you.
Some are better than others, so we are going to share which is the right one for your tank. This is the part where most reefers go wrong on day one. It just seems like you should top off a saltwater tank with saltwater for some reason. But, that is not the case.
If you do that, you will increase the salinity every time you do it. Keep in mind that when water evaporates, it is just water leaving the tank. All the salt stays behind in the tank. So, when you replace the evaporated water, commonly referred to as topping it off, this is done with freshwater, preferably purified RO/DI water.
As to how often to do it, well, smaller tanks usually evaporate half a gallon a day, so a few gallons a week. You can probably get away once a week with forgiving corals, but the better practice is perhaps a couple of times a week.
We suggest keeping a five-gallon bucket of fresh water below the tank and just scooping some out as needed when you feed your fish. It is just a 30-second process.
That's really all there is to it!
Increase Stability or Reduce Maintenance.
Pouring some freshwater once in a while, ensuring that the tanks stay full. What makes reefing a hobby for many is acquiring and applying knowledge then using that combined with technology to solve issues.
In the same way, a protein skimmer reduces the need for water changes related work and, in turn, increases the water quality. And Auto top-off reduces the work by doing it for you automatically, which in turn increases tank stability.
Stable salinity means most other elements in the water are stable as well, at least on a day-to-day basis. An auto-top-off is just water level sensory, either optical eye or float switch which recognizes evaporated and then turns on a pump to replace it.
In this case, you can throw the same five-gallon bucket under the tank, which with small tanks should last about a week. You could also get a fancy 5-gallon or 10-gallon auto top-off reservoirs from trigger systems.
Best ATO
This is one of those rare instances where one of the most costly options is also the most popular by the magnitude of two to three X. The reefing community has adopted the Tunze Osmolatore as the most trusted and reliable option.
Trust is important because they can fold the tank and your floor with water if they get stuck on. Anyone who had used a low-quality ATO and had it flood will say you don't have to learn the hard way.
The combination of optical sensors, backed up with a mechanical flow, backed with an internal timer, and the ability to tune the pump speed just works. This is one of those specific pieces of gear that almost everyone ends up somewhere in their reefing journey.
You can also save some money by starting here. We suggest you top it off by hand until it fits the budget. However, the Tunze Osmolator also comes in a nano version which is half the cost and good for tanks up to 50-gallons.
The nano does not have an optical eye but maintains a float switch and a timer backup and backup that turns it off if it detects it's been running too long.
A little jumper inside lets you increase the time if needed. But you should start with the default one out of the box with the shorter timer.
You can also consider the nano osmolator that comes with its pump at half the cost, which is probably the cheapest reliable option. If budget is a real thing, you can use the lower cost nano in smaller tank with five-gallon bucket under the tank.
Happy Reefing!
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