Effect of high Salinity
 

I was just about to do my weekly cleaning and was testing my replacement water & tank water to make sure they were close/same and my tank is showing 1.030 using a Coralife Deep Six Hydrometer.

I'll lower the salinity to 1.025-1.027, but I was wondering if there are any specific negative side effects to having a high salinity?

I know that other elements can be toxic, but what about NaCl?
How high before there are toxic effects?

Vic

is this the only reference point? because these are known to easily inaccurate enough to make 26 seem like 30. have you checked it with a refractometer? either way, some places in the ocean does have a high or low salinity. reefs can range from 1.017-1.031. don't worry to much. :mrgreen:

I was going to make a remark about using it ....
Unfortunately, for the time being, its my only reference. What I try to do is stay consistent at ~1.026 until I can get a refractometer.
BTW, the macro is doing really good.
Vic

Consistency is good, as long as things are reasonably stable you shouldn't have too much trouble. You could likely just keep it where it is, if things are doing well... do you have any corals? How are they doing?

The rate of change can be more fatal then endpoints, so be careful with adjustments.

Toss the needle based hydrometer and get a refractometer. The variability of readings with those needle things is frankly scary. At the very least switch to a plumb/float style hydrometer (they break easy though so be careful with handling and etc.)

Hydrometers are handy, they are quick to use. I use one everyday, but I use my refractometer to check it every few months. Once the hydrometer has been calibrated with the refractometer it doesn't seem to wander off. I have one hydrometer that is dead on and one that is 0.007 off. That's huge.

Tony is right...don't change the salinity by too many points too quickly. I wouldn't go more than 0.002 per day, although going down in salinity isn't as harmful as going up in salinity.

All the coral seems to be doing good as well as the macro in the fuge.

The only new behaviour is from the goby who has decided that he doesn't like his live rock home and needs to dig a new basement - yet to be seen if he topples the live rock or not ?!? :lol:

I agree that I wouldn't trust the hydrometer, I'd prefer a refractometer but it'll need to wait until after the layoff :sad:

Does anyone know if there is any cuase & effect between brown/green algae growth and salinity? There is more green algae recently, but I chalked this up to a bit too much frozen food and a still newish tank.

Vic

I don't believe there to be a correlation between salinity and the type of algae growth. Though there will be some species that have certain ranges that they prefer. Personally, I'd rather have green algae than brown :wink: