Fish store water 48 ppt / 1.035

[syncro]

Just bought a new Bengaii Cardinalfish. The bag of water it came in has a salinity of about 48ppt / 1.035.

Is this normal?

How quickly/slowly should I reduce the salinity in the quarantine tank to match my display tank?

[Myka]

That's ridiculous. I would phone the LFS and let them know because either they don't know the salinity is that high or your testing instruments are not accurate. How are you measuring salinity?

Fish going down in salinity require no special treatment. Going up in salinity can be a big deal depending on what type of fish and how much.

[Cal_stir]

it's usually low because they are cheap with the salt

[syncro]

Whoa. Thanks for the reminder Myka. I recalibrated my refractometer - it was reading +14 ppt.

The fish store water was probably near 34 ppt and my tank is running at 17 ppt. I now have a hyopsalinity problem. I figure I'll top off evaporation with 31 ppt water to raise the salinity.

[mike31154]

Never a bad idea to have a second hydrometer kicking around, even a cheap swingarm one. You can put a mark on them based on an accurate refractometer reading & then you have a fairly reliable & quick backup check for salinity. I had a glass floating hydrometer a while back which was actually very accurate (alas, I broke it), more so than any swingarm. Just need to compensate a bit for temperature if it's too far out of the floater's tested temp.

Photos that follow are of two swingarms & the floater that I had, showing the difference in readings with the same water. I believe my refractometer was reading just above 1.024, validating that the glass floater yielded the same reading, therefore accurate. I've since put marks on the swing arms at what should be the 1.025 mark when compared to the refractometer. So they're still useful as a backup instead of turfing them in the trash.

Coralife swingarm



IO Deep Six swingarm



Made in Taiwan floating glass hydrometer with built in thermometer



I actually still have a floating hydrometer, but it's for beer & wine making. Should still measure salinity though, since it has a specific gravity scale on it as well.

And almost forgot, I purchased an urchin at a LFS in Kelowna a month or so back & their water was way high in salinity on my refractometer.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by syncro

Whoa. Thanks for the reminder Myka. I recalibrated my refractometer - it was reading +14 ppt.

The fish store water was probably near 34 ppt and my tank is running at 17 ppt. I now have a hyopsalinity problem. I figure I'll top off evaporation with 31 ppt water to raise the salinity.

Whoa! That's a biggie! Is it a reef or FOWLR? If it is a reef you should be keeping salinity at 1.025-6. Your idea to top off with saltwater is spot on, going up 14 ppt is huge, you should take at least a week to do this, but 10 days would be better.

[syncro]

Good idea mike. I'll keep my eye out for a hydrometer. Thanks for the info Myka. I'll raise the salinity slowly.

[Myka]

Ya, I use a hydrometer for day to day testing, and I calibrate with my refractometer once every 3 months or so. It does actually change over time.