Add brackish to wet to lower freezing point?
I want to add salt to my horses water bucket to lower the freezing warmth. If I have a 30 gallon bucket, how much salt should I add per gallon to lower the freezing point by a few degree?
He has a stock tank that is 100 gallons. I am thinking that I will jump out in the evening to take a big bucket of warm salted sea to put under his run in shed that I hope will not freeze. Then in the morning, I will budge out to break ice on his stock tank for the day and thieve the bucket home to refill for that evening.
I like Blackbunny's concept with the ball. It couldn't hurt to try.
No salt surrounded by the water...
You can use a portable heater OR...Without electricity for a heater...a 'fix' you can do is to drift a hard plastic ball in the trough. About the size of a volleyball...but it HAS to be HARD plastic...not flexible.
We've used this contained by the high desert where water would freeze within about an hour.
Because of the round shape of the ball...a horse learns to 'push' the globe down into the water...creating a 'drinking hole' in the water when it it frozen. The orb will always come back to the same gap, it doesn't hide under ice. This works inbetween the hours that you break the rime manually.
**edit...and they can 'play' with the ball...without dangerous anything. And it's guaranteed not to 'short out' or quit working!
If you own the access to electricity, you should look into a heater for the tank like the bird baths enjoy available.
becomes lower. Let's look at why a salt water solution have a freezing point below zero, and how you can use this fact to make rime cream!
At the right is a container of water with an ice dice in it. The water and ice are at 0°C, which is the melt point of ice and the freezing point of water.
Molecules of ice are constantly escaping into the sea (melting), and molecules of water are being captured on the surface of the rime (freezing).
When the rate of freezing is the same as the rate of melting, the amount of ice and the amount of dampen won't change. The ice and water are said to be contained by dynamic equilibrium with each other. The ice is melt, and the water is freezing, but both are occurring at the same rate, so there is no lattice change in either level.
This balance will be maintained as long as the water stays at 0°C, or unless something happen to favour one of the processes over the other.
Here is the same container, but where the marine temperature is -10°C.
The molecules of water are moving more slowly, because they contain less warmth. These slower-moving water molecules are more easily captured by the rime, and freezing occurs at a greater rate than melting.
Because there are more river molecules being captured by the ice (being frozen) than at hand are ice molecules turning to water, the net result is that the amount of hose down decreases, and the amount of ice increases.
Since more freezing is happening than melt, the water eventually all turns to ice.
This time we've warm the water to 10°C.
Now the water molecules are moving more quickly, because they contain much more bake. These faster-moving molecules can't easily be captured by the surface of the ice, so not really many of them freeze. Freezing occurs at a slower rate than melting.
Because nearby are fewer water molecules being capture by the ice (being frozen) than there are ice molecules turning to hose, the net result is that the amount of water increases, and the amount of ice decrease.
Since more melting is happening than freezing, the ice eventually adjectives turns to water.
Do not add brackish to your horse's water. The result will be to dehydrate, not hydrate, your horses. Over time, it could actually result in their demise. Not a good idea. There are heated buckets and tank heaters for keeping the river temp above freezing, which is the way to deal with this.
gallop is right, saltwater is dehydrating and could cause potentially life threatening problems if your horse consumes too much of it. Too incorporate enough salt to the water to lower the freezing point would motivation the water to be too salty for the horse's health. I would any put a water heater in the reservoir or get out your pick to break the ice.
No salt make water colder. It will melt ice, and next sink to the bottom. But the end result is colder water.
the solitary time i have heard of adding saline to water is if u have a ver dry horse that u want to make drink so when they drink a little bit they will want more. but if you required to stop ur buckets from freezeing put a tennis typr ball in or heat it or put ur beddign round it to relief keep it warm
Wait, you want to add saline to your horse's drinking water? What am I missing here?
i've never hear of that, before! seem kinda strange.
why not use a water heater? if you can not attain electric there, there's propane heaters, as well.
No NO NNOOO
What makes you come up with he'd even drink salt water ? I am with everyone else on this . Our hose down freezes here, too, but we go out to feed & break the ice. I don't know what state you're surrounded by , but if it's a thin cover , they will break it with teir muzzle on the first try. If it's thicker, a space heater is the way to go. I never have have to use a heater, check with others in your neighborhood to see what they are doing. Hopefully it is not accumulation salt !
You know how you have a cup of coffee & you put it down while you email everyone & how it gets cold hastily lke 10-15 minutes INDOORS ? Same thing is going to happen to that warm bucket of brackish water once the salt sinks to the bottom, it, too , will freeze. The ocean freezes whether it's cold enough like in Denmark !
Answers: Keeping water thaw in the winter is a problem, and I can see why you're trying to be creative in a solution. But the answer is not in tallying salt to a container of water. As others have already mentioned, salted water is unhealthy. You will need a impartial amount of salt to change the freezing point, and that salt will effect how your horse absorb and uses water. I'm sure you've heard that population can die of thirst by the ocean, and the reason is - drinking the extremely salty marine actually dehydrates them instead of increasing their fluid level. So your idea be origional, but isn't going to work.
You do have a few options. I'm not sure what your tempeture is, some of these concept will not work if it gets quite cold for long period of time.
First of all, the easiest long term solution is to buy a portable water heat element to add to your stock tank. These are justly inexpensive, depending on their power and the type. You can buy one for under $30, I think. They simple float on the top of the water, and produce roast which keeps the water in the trough thaw enough to not freeze. Obviously the larger your stock tank is, and the colder it gets at hours of darkness, the less likely these are to work. I normally own waterers with built in heaters, but a few years ago one broke in the middle of the winter and could not be repaired until spring. I took my prevailing conditions sized water trough, filled it with marine and added a portable heater. I had to build a cage over partially the waterer because my horses were otherwise trying to play with the heater, so hold on to that in mind. I didn't use my larger trough because then the electric fire wasn't sufficient to keep the water warm plenty. You may want to put a wooden fence post half in the trough, next to one part sticking out and the other in the water, this is an just the thing way to break ice. You simple grab the balustrade post and wiggle it hard, and you can break up the ice. I would throw adjectives the chunks off the water ever morning as they also chill the water, and you will call for to keep topping it off with fresh dampen.
The other solution is - buy one of the buckets for these purposes. There are two types. One is simply an insulated bucket without a warmer. You fill that bucket near warm water, hang it surrounded by the run in shed, and it will take longer to freeze than a regular bucket. There is another type of bucket that actually have a plug in. You fill it with heat up water, hang it in your shed and plug it within. The heat source will keep the bucket thawed adjectives night. This might be the simplest solution for you, and will likely cost under $40.
If you do not hold a nearby power source, can you string electric cords that far? If not, then your only chance is an insulated water bucket. And that won't be ideal, but if you are making absolute your horse has water all hours of daylight long he might be okay without water in the dark. Talk to your vet and get his opinion.
Good luck.
