Water Evaporation

Eric Noa

Reefing newb
Hello Guys..

How was does your tank water evaporate? Is it normal for it to evaporate fast? I just re-filled the tank 3 days ago because It needed more water and I have lost almost an inch of water from my sump. Is that normal.
 
How big is your tank, and what is the volume of the return section of your sump? Yes this is normal especially if you have HO lights. My return section is small volume so the normal half inch that would evaporate from the tank on my 55 drops several inches in the small volume return section.Basically the smaller your return section is compared to the tank the more inches it's going to drop. With my 55 and T5 lights I was having to top off a lot of water but I finally set up an auto top off system which is much more convenient.
 
evap is your friend it helps to cool the tank. 1 in in three days is not that much at all. i loose 5 or more gallons a day.(the reason i made an auto top off)
 
yea, i loose between half a gallon and a whole gallon every day, depending on if i turn on my AC in the house or not...
 
I can loose less then 1/2 g a day during the summer it was closer to a full gallon. My return only holds about 1.5 gallons, I will be adding an ATO next summer it got to much. I purposely designed my return area in my sump to be really small so the I would not have big salinity swings.
 
My 45 loses 1/2 gallon per day, and my 10 gallon looses maybe 1 cup/week, but it has no sump and it's completely covered w/ no vho lights.
 
Ok guys thanks I just wanted to make sure I wasn't loosing to much water fast... I have glass top with the lights on top of that then the canopy
 
I used to lose up to 10 gallons a day in my old 240.

I would recommend taking the glass tops off. They heat up the tank and inhibit gas exchange at the surface.
 
Guys I have another question... When Im going to top off my tank do I use fresh water or salt water? Im kinda confused..... I know that for a water change I need to use salt water.
 
Use fresh water for top offs, since when the water evaporates it leaves the salt behind. If your tank gets to low from excess evaporation, the salinity can get too high as a result.
 
+1 parrotchute

Consistency is key, if you can you should top your tank off daily. Its easy to do it at the same time you feed.

Or as some of us has done the auto top off is the best :)
 
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