Salinity issue

I have been having issues keeping my salinity up. Has anyone ever had this problem?
One of my theories is that the problem is coming from my davy jones skimmate locker. It collects five gallons of skimmate and water before I dump it. I am wondering if perhaps when my freshwater ATO replenishes this water that it drops the salinity in my tank....what do you think?
Has anyone had any issues with erratic salinity readings from their apex?
How low of salinity is toxic to corals and fish? Mine drops from 35 to 33 in two weeks or so....

 

Thanks Floyd. I suck at math and will have to trust your calculations.

Sometimes I dump 5 gallons every five days, sometimes once every 10 days. Every once in awhile it will fill up in two days...but that is because my skimmers went nuts and dumped tons of water into the locker....before I got the skimmate locker the water would have filled the cups and overflowed into my sump....

And I lose a lot of water to evaporation. But I don't know how much. I would think close to 2-3 gallons a day.... But that water shouldn't figure into my salinity since the salt stays in the tank.

 

Oh yeah.....what are your thoughts on adding salt directly to my sump? I do it all the time to raise my salinity and am wondering if that is stupid.

 

I don't think I am skimming too wet. But I don't really know. It is hard to tell now that I have the skimmate locker I guess.

What I can tell you is that I have it set so all my foam goes up into my neck, and deposits scum on the top of the foaming chamber, the inside of the neck, and on my lid. I do not see any foam (or water) creeping up over the neck and into the collection cup. My collection cup doesn't really collect any scum for that matter.

Sometimes my skimmer will go beserk and shoot a lot of water up. In the past this event would overflow the collection cup and dump back into my sump. But now with the skimmate locker it overflows into the cup and down into the locker. note: I have not seen my skimmer overflow like this in sometime. I am only assuming it does it and that is what is filling up the locker. OK another thing is that I have TWO skimmers, and they are both hooked up to the skimmate locker. AND they are both large skimmers designed for 300 gallon tanks.

I don't know. It is driving me crazy.....and another thing that drives me crazy is that long haired hippy over at BRS.TV selling me all their wares. I am *this* close to buying one of those milwaukee digital salinity meters thanks to him.

 

The scum in my skimmer(s) body, neck and the undersides of my lid is thick, gunky, stinky, gross and disgusting. The collection cup is remarkably clean. The skimmate locker is clear liquid for the most part. Well, kinda diluted poopie water but mostly clear. I wouldn't feel horrible about adding it to my sump in an emergency water loss situation.

 

Bud,

Couple things.

1. Adding salt. I agree don't do it But since I do, I add it direct to my upper sump. It dissolves, then filters into my lower sump, then is pumped to my main system. I only add maybe six cups at the most at one time. The reason I have to do this is because of my salinity issues and because if you try to dissolve that much salt in water you have to add a lot of water and it just adds too much water to my system and is a PITA. I use Reef Crystals and they say right on the box you can add it to water and use it immediatly.

I still think don't do it but I am not convinced enough NOT to do it.

2. The clear skimmate I also believe is from an overflow. I don't add it back in. I was just saying if I had too it is clear enough where i wouldn't feel too bad about it.

3. Calibrating your refractometer should be done with calibration fluid. It is not recommended to calibrate with RODI water. Mainly because you are calibrating at zero. With the calibration fluid you are calibrating at 35 salinity which is much closer to the reading of the water you are reading (salt water).

4. Why two skimmers? Because I like to overdue it. And because Calfo told me to do it.

 

Thanks AJ. My skimmers sit in a 50 gallon rubbermaid. The water level never changes in it. The water drains from the first floor, down to the basement, into the rubbermaid with skimmers, then down into the sump.

Are you guys telling me your skimmers never overflow and go crazy? I thought this was normal......

 

I was just at home and I had water all over my floor. Interesting this happens the day after I post about all this. 
Anyways, the skimmate locker was full and overflowing. The air pressurized 'float' valve (auto shutoff) failed and didn't turn off my overflowing skimmer. Or perhaps the breakout box has failed or perhaps the apex failed. I didn't have the time to troubleshoot it fully. 
Either way I walked into the skimmate locker overflowing onto the floor and my skimmer was FLOWING WATER big time up into the collection cup. The chamber of my sump where I keep my reactor feed pumps was dry and my reactor pumps were running dry. The return pump was on and the water was dangerously low. 
I put the apex on maintenance mode which shuts down my sump system. Then sat back and took a big breath.....
OK the good part:
1.I got to monitor a malfunctioning skimmer in real time.2. I realize that I need to also shut my my reactor pumps when the low level sump switch activates. Right now just my return pump shuts off. 
The bad part:1. My skimmer: I still don't know what is wrong. I guess I will clean the pumps and hope for the best. 

 

I had my apex set wrong.....the skimmers were set to manual on. So that overrides the autoshutoff of the skimmate locker. That problem is solved. The overflowing skimmer problem is not solved.

I love this hobby and hate it too.