salinity spiked to 1.029 from 1.024
 

I am giving a water change should I try to lower the salinity during this water change? or over the course of a day or two???

I would do it slowly over a day or two. You don't want to stress anything out byu doing it too fast :wink:

How did it "spike" so high?

I dont know! lol evaporation perhaps? I could have made a mistake too though I am new... I have done a 25 percent water change and lowered it to 1.027 tomorrow I will try to get it back to 1.025 does this sound good?

Any chance your adding salt into your top offs?

What size is your tank? That's quite the increase.

How are you checking your salinity? What size of tank do you have to have that big of a salinity swing.

its only 20 gallons and The last top off I did I saw there was evaporation so I figured the full dose of sat was not required in fact I did less then half! I use a hydrometer by instant ocean. Should I just be adding fresh water for top offs? or very very mild amount of salt water? again guys I am new so I am making cllassic mistakes I'm sure

When topping up your tank due to evaporation only use RO. No need to add any salt at all since the salt does not evaporate.

ok thanks I will do this in the future! Again sorry you guys I didnt know and thats why I'm here!

One thing I learned when using my coralife hydrometer is that if I didn't rinse it out with freshwater everytime I used it, salt residue and bubbles would cause inaccurate readings (Learned the hard way) I have since got a refractometer because of better accuracy.

yes so I have heard. I am now in the market for one as well... didnt realize I was going to be spending $80++ ugh...

That will be fine. It is more stressful to inhabitants to go up in salinity than to go down. For example, when doing a hyposalinity treatment you can take fish down to 1.009 in 24 hours, but going back up will take 5-7 days depending how the fish are coping.

I am wondering if the effect is the same with soft and hard corals

wow who sells refractometers for 80+? we sell the vertex ones for 50.... never have failed yet...

Steve

Big als. I need some reliable equiptment though, I'm tired of wasting my money! lol if its a good refractometer I will get it lol, what are your hours on saturdays?

It is a good idea to check a hydrometer at least every 6 months against a refractometer. In my experience most hydrometers are somewhat accuracy (+/- 0.003) for the first year or so, but wander off as time goes on. I have two hydrometers and they are off by 0.006 and 0.008 which is plenty enough to cause some serious issues in the tank! Both of my hydrometers read lower than they are, so the one reads 1.026 when the water is actually 1.034! :eek: I like to use hydrometers for daily use though because it is quick and easy. I just use a Sharpie to mark the numbers I like to use. Rubbing alcohol will take the Sharpie off to re-mark when I re-calibrate.

Corals don't tolerate hyposalinity, so there should never be a great swing. Some LFS keep their salinity at 1.020 or 1.023 though and I have never had trouble swinging from that to 1.026 or going the other way.

yeah I hear that haha, mine read 1.029 but the refractometer said 1.032 (YIKES!!!) so I know its off but .003 as well for now, I would still like to invest in one though to prevent further mishaps... I can see why many people give up so quickly lol, but not me my tanks are my hobby. gotta figure out all the tricks then I will have no problem

my only coral that is affected is my xenia, so hopefully it can come back nce the salinity is back to normal, I hope to have it ate 1.023-1.024 by sunday (its at 1.027 now

normal would be considered 1.026

K so I'm just about there then. My clown seems a little bit stressed from the change but he's still eating and swimming so I think he's ok?

I'm sure he's fine.

Let your water mix over night. You will ensure salinity if you know it's mixed well.

Smaller water changes over the next week or so. 5 g every day or two. Use 1.021-1.022 as your new water. You will be fine.

Evaporate is a bitch. I keep my SG at about 1.023 so any evaporation is negligible.

I got mine off ebay for 20$ and it's got automatic temperature compensation (ATC) and it's been working flawlesslly for 2 years. no need to pay 80$

True ocean water is can be as low as 1.022.

1.026 is what hobby states as good average.

If you keep it lower, you will never know. Again, my tank is 1.023 with "spikes" to 1.025 if I let the sump level drop.

I recommend this, especially to someone new in the hobby. Any evap and now SG is too high with 1.026. My corals LOVE my tank.

thanks you guys, I would be lost with out all the advice, My clown seems better today, and my xenia is still mad. so we' see what happens with it.

Nice. got it down safely to 1.026 today, still the only coral affected by all of this is my xenia.. I'm not sure its going to come back.

Darn. I am sure long term , losing Xenia will be a good thing. It will over run your tank to the point where you won't be able to GIVE it away!

Good luck and good work.

yeah So I have heard, its still kind of a bummer if it goes though, cause I'm new and I don't want to lose anything lol but I'm sure everyone has.

Yup.

I lost about 10 zoa colonies this past few months due to Asterina stars. It sucks.

I recommend not adding any coral until full research. Xenia can be a weed and as you add coral you want... The Xenia may over grow it.

Patience and diligence = success.

Keep your system simple... At least at first... And as your knowledge grows so will your tank.

Enjoy.

yea I just have zoos mushrooms and ricordea, no asternia stars luckily

I doubt that salinity in a reef is 1.022. Do you successfully keep any SPS at that salinity? if so, what do you keep and for how long?

I would not keep a reef tank at 1.022 but that's me. Things grow much better and faster at 1.025 or near that.

SPS don't like "spikes"

other more resistant corals will probably be ok.

asterina star? or your salinity at 1.023 and the spikes at 1.025?

zoanthids need a lot of stability in alkalinity and salinity otherwise they will melt. So you should get your parameters stable and your zoanthids will not melt any longer. Even a very small shift in alkalinity can make a colony melt. I had this problem before I got my dosing pump but since I got my dosing pump my alkalinity stay stable as a rock and no more zoanthids have melted for the last 2 months.

actually its me were talking about here not him, lol but my tank is stable now again, and I haven't lost anything, it just appears that maybe a xenia might be the only casualty, but its still tough to tell, my ricordea is growing nicely and one ore 2 zoos have begun to split, so other then my hiccup I'm pleased with my progress thus far. P.s. guys NO HIJACKING! ;)

For reference

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/jetstream//o...g_salinity.pdf

Thanks. I'm glad I got the problem fixed. What a head ache lol.

Nice! thanks a lot!

Nanomano, sorry about this but I thought it was important to mention. As for you, I think you should get a refractometer or at least get your hydrometer checked against a good refractometer so you will know just how much it is off and you will be able to compensate.

Lowering the salinity is not too hard on living things, as long as it is the proper salinity, it is rising it that is harsh usualy on fish and must not be done more than 0.003 point per day.

No Daniella. My parameters are stable. As I mentioned... Asterina stars are taking over. Must have over a thousand and they are smothering / eating them.

If you read my post again, it might make sense.

Daniella... Yea. I keep SPS.

Sorry. I think Daniella simply midunderstood. The info was for you.

YOu wrote "Again, my tank is 1.023 with "spikes" to 1.025 if I let the sump level drop"

Those "spikes" are not good and more than enough to make zoanthids melt.

That for me is making more sense for zoanthids melting than asterina starfish. I too have tons of them, and at the end they were not responsible for the melting. After I got my alkalinity stable with dosing a little bit each hour, the melting stopped, although I still have as many asterinas and yes they do crawl on my polyps but the polyps open when the starfish is gone. When I see them on my frag I throw them away just in case. Zoanthids are so sensite, it is unbeleivable. I dosed "Kent Iron and magnaneese" a litle bit less than what is recommanded on the bottle and instantly my magicians closed. It took them 2 weeks of TLC to recover from that! They shriveled so much that I was sure they would melt. All that was left was a tiny shaft with melted tentacles. I was dosing this for my alveopora and goniopora. Next time I will dose a very small quantity and more often. Lesson learned. I know it's the product because the reaction from it was immediate and long lasting. I had to do 2 30% water change to bring them back to health.

If you have that many asterinas and you think they are doing dammage, maybe you should get an harlequin shrimp? They only eat starfish. After your asterinas are gone you would have to feed it a starfish eavery 2 weeks or sell it.

Sorry again for the hijack :)