At what temp does salt water freeze?

[Minnreefer]

Does anyone know at what temp does salt water at our "normal" salinity freeze?

Thanks

Jon

[gregt]

I believe sea water freezes at roughly 0 degrees F. It gets "thick" before that however. I could be wrong though. I'm just remembering back to something about Farenheit using sea water as his metric for his temperature scale, hence 0F being the freezing point of sea water.

[Doug1]

Jon 2 things, never accept answer from a Floridian and if you are asking the question, insulate the new garage/doghouse
Not sure on the answer, tho I seem to recall from a navy dive journal that its still fluid at <20 deg F.
Normally I would think thats no biggie, but I hear it cools off a tad in Minnesota

[Rick O]

Back when I was in HVAC school if I asked a question like that my instructor would send me to the lab and not let me out until I found out the answer for myself.

So get busy ya slug.

[gregt]

Well, I can find nothing in any text in the house or on the net that confirms my statement. I did find a site on the web that says I'm full of patooty.

[gregt]

Originally posted by Rick O
Back when I was in HVAC school if I asked a question like that my instructor would send me to the lab and not let me out until I found out the answer for myself.

So get busy ya slug.

Cop out.

Just say you don't know like the rest of us losers.

[Rick O]

Ok. I don't know.

[Toadfish]

It depends on the overall salinity. If the SG is .020 it will freeze at a lower temp than at .030. I don't know the formula but in Antartica the frozen water is all fresh. Kinda like evaporation. The salt doesn't evapoarte it crystalizes. I think it is similar with freezing. Only the FW will freeze.

[Spanky]

About 28F.

WHY JON?

[gregt]

Jerel - look at Jon's last two posts on this thread: http://www.thereeftank.com/forums/sh...?postid=184981

[Spanky]

oooooooh LOL He's up to no good again.

Jon, dig a trench and bury it.

[Minnreefer]

Originally posted by Spanky
Jon, dig a trench and bury it.

I have thought about that, our ground temp is an average of 54 degrees but I would have to dig down 4+ feet to get below frost line.

Jon

[galleon]

This is a tricky question. At surface pressures and a salinity of 35 ppt, seawater starts to freeze at about -2.0 *C. However, as sea ice begins to form, a majority of the ions (salts) that were in the water that is now frozen, now reside in the water surrounding the ice, driving up the salinity, and making the freezing point much lower. So, its like an upside down x^2 curve on a graph, with salinity on the x axis and freezing point on the y axis. As x (salinity) increases, y (freezing temperature) decreases exponentially, approaching a vertical asymptote.

[gregt]

Originally posted by galleon
This is a tricky question. At surface pressures and a salinity of 35 ppt, seawater starts to freeze at about -2.0 *C. However, as sea ice begins to form, a majority of the ions (salts) that were in the water that is now frozen, now reside in the water surrounding the ice, driving up the salinity, and making the freezing point much lower. So, its like an upside down x^2 curve on a graph, with salinity on the x axis and freezing point on the y axis. As x (salinity) increases, y (freezing temperature) decreases exponentially, approaching a vertical asymptote.

Or, in English, it's starts to get slushy at 28F and doesn't actually freeze solid unless it's really really really cold.

[Doug1]

So chris how deep does Jon have to bury the line, and how much heat tape do you recommend