Went away for a week, came back to 1.60 salinity...??

[Aquattro]

Clearly we can't have a mature conversation about this, so everyone needs a break.
sphelps, next time you post as a condescending *****, you'll be leaving us.

[Delphinus]

Don't get grumpy, people are trying to help you. I have to ask the questions I asked because I don't know you, I don't know your tank and I don't know your setup so I have to try to fill in the blanks as best I can. I assume others are in a similar situation as well. Try not to be grumpy as we try to get the full picture here. I am legitimately trying to help here...

Anyhow if you follow my earlier post, 1.060 (I assume you meant 1.06, because 1.6 would be .. ketchup, maybe, or jello or something. For comparison's sake, I think the Great Salt Lake in Utah is in the ballpark of 1.17 and the Dead Sea is something like 1.25.)

If you follow my earlier post, going to 1.060 would take a rather extraordinary amount of salt which is why I find it easier to suspect a reading error. It doesn't take much to throw a refractometer off (an air bubble, an incomplete film of water between the glass and cover, or debris, etc.) In actual fact I would NOT suspect a calibration error because that it is so far off the charts.

But if you're absolutely certain there was no error in the reading then basically your water was too salty. (And, incidentally, I did the math and I agree that it would take 3, 30 gallon water changes (using 1.000 water) to take 120gal @1.060 down to 1.025, so if that is what you did, then I believe you that your water was that salty.)

But how you got there??? That is weird. Somehow something dissolved into the tank that added to the water's specific gravity, or that amount of salt was somehow added (either wittingly or unwantonly). Are you certain it hasn't been creeping up over a long period of time and things just came to a head while you were away?

Could something have died and melted and thus contributed to a temporary spike in SG? But you'd think you'd basically have a tank of death at that point with ammonia off the charts.

Do you run a calcium reactor by chance?

[Delphinus]

Wow a lot of posts happened in the 20 minutes it apparently took me to type that last reply in.

Good luck, I hope you get it all sorted out, whatever the case may be, or have been ...