EMERGENCY!! Please HELP

[Myka]

Originally Posted by doobiej

i realize it will take more water and salt to do it this way but my thinking is that water changes will help keep my levels in check during this process?

you think I would be safe doing a 30 gallon change each day until I get back to normal? figure it will take 4 more changes. or will a 30 gallon change at 1.04 not raise it .002 as the salinity increases?

is targetting .005 per day too much? im scared that if I leave it to long im gonna lose all my corals

There is no need to do the changes. Which parameters are you concerned about? Adding more salt will keep "the big three" in check. Ammonia should be your biggest concern, and doing 5 gallon water changes on a 220 gallon tank will do nothing to fix that problem should it arise.

I don't think you will get as much of an increase as you're expecting doing it the way you are.

You might have to decide which is more important...fish and inverts or corals? Raising the salinity as fast as you plan will probably lead to the demise of most if not all of your fish and inverts. Any friends that could babysit your fish and inverts?

[Bloodasp]

Agred with myka. just dissolve a half a cup or or a cup in a bit of water in your sump a day and measure how much that changes your salinity. And do the same thing adding more or less salt than what you added the day before depending on how much it increased.
What I did in mine when that happened when I forgot to put the switch of my ato back into my sump dumping about 3 gals into my tank was leave it and let evaporation take care or removing excess water.

[daniella3d]

+1 on that. dropping it to 1.015 won't affect the fish (not the same for corals) but raising it must be done very very slowy, no more than 0.003 per day as it could kill the fish.

I went from 1.09 to 1.024 in 5 days and all my fish were fine. 0.003 per day.

For the corals though, I would try to get things back to normal faster than a week.

[Myka]

Fyi, once you get to 1.020 the corals should be ok. Not to say they won't have been damaged/stressed by the lower salinity. What I mean is once you get to 1.020 there is no need to rush to get that last bit in. What was your specific gravity originally at? How are things looking today? Any ammonia?

[doobiej]

thanks for all the advice,

i have been raising .002 per day and am now at 1.023.

my fish/inverts are all fine and look great and are eating like nothing ever happened

my corals on the other hand have not faired so well. I have lost 5 so far.
(I apologize I dont know the proper names) my rather large open brain, my pulsing(clapping?) xenia, my kenya, and my pink cauliflower corals (2) had to be removed.

my candy cane colonies seeem to hanging on, my huge cup coral looks like he is starting to come out again, but my GSP and branching hammer coral havent come out and dont look good either but I am holding out to see if they recover.

I have checked all my other parameters, and everything is normal.

ugh.

[doobiej]

i have noticed my ph has been dropping though.

I normally sit around 8.15/8.2 during the day and it can dip to 8.05/8.1 at night.

I noticed this morning it was down to 8.02, I added a bit of buffer to bring it up a little bit.

could the PH swings be causing troubles for my corals?

[ALang]

I'd take it slow with all your additions/subtractions of your overall parameters.
8.0 is not bad at all for pH. Let things settle a bit before you start all the adjustments.
Your corals had a huge shock, they are going to go through the next little while at a slow limp. So keep your other parameters steady, keep an eye on the pH, but don't panic over it, either. Keep quality of water up, and wait.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by doobiej

i have noticed my ph has been dropping though.

I normally sit around 8.15/8.2 during the day and it can dip to 8.05/8.1 at night.

I noticed this morning it was down to 8.02, I added a bit of buffer to bring it up a little bit.

could the PH swings be causing troubles for my corals?

Don't adjust pH, especially not for that minute difference. Messing with pH will cause more stress than anything. The drop in pH could be an effect of the low salinity (pH can be slow to react), or it could be an increase in organic breakdown within the tank (loss of corals, loss of microfauna, etc). I think once you get to your target salinity you're best off leaving the tank alone for awhile with no more water changes. Do keep a close eye on ammonia. Otherwise, get back into your regular dosing/testing schedule.

I'm glad to hear the fish and inverts are doing well. The corals may take some time to "come out" again, the fact that their flesh hasn't fallen off yet is a good sign. Euphyllias (frogspawn, torch, hammer) can be really fussy and not come out for many days or even a week.

[doobiej]

thanks,

Im not gonna mess with anything else for now until my salinity is back to 1.025/26.

my ammonia has been reading steady at or near 0. I havent seen a spike at all. nitrates/trites all at or near zero, and P04 is negliable/0.

I normally keep my tank at 1.025.

my livestock seems to have weathered the storm nicely. wish I could say the same for my corals :-(

I just hope I dont lose anymore.

[doobiej]

for what its worth, i've been pulling 10 gallons out adding salt to it and putting it back in as per myka recommendation and it has taken half a pail of salt so far to get it up to 1.023.