EMERGENCY!! Please HELP

Myka · #1 12-25-2010, 04:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michika

When you find salt make sure you're raising the SG back up gradually.

Very important! You can lower salinity quickly and not cause the critters too much discomfort, but raising the salinity is tough on them, and you can easily kill them all. I would plan to raise salinity over the course of at least a week, making pauses in the raising if the critters are looking stressed. While the salinity is still low keep a particularly close eye on inverts (anemones, crustaceans, etc). Corals may not be too impressed either, but the fish won't care. When raising the salinity the inverts and the fish will be the ones most prone to damage due to the increase, and the corals should improve as salinity goes up. It will be a balancing game.

ALang · #2 12-25-2010, 04:36 PM

So that'll give you some breathing room, at least. I'd not panicked too much, now, unless you can get to a pail of salt. Do the raising a bit at a time. Why do we always run out in the middle of night or on Christmas DAY, when everything's closed??
Good on Fishytime to offer to open the store for you, though.

Binare · #3 12-25-2010, 04:41 PM

You guys are awesome, my buckets up for offer as well, but its only half or so of seachem. Im in tuxedo

doobiej · #4 12-25-2010, 04:58 PM

thanks everyone for your offers, PM sent to fishytime.

how slowly should I be raising the salinty?

what is the best way?

can I do several small changes with high salinity like 1.03?

Myka · #5 12-25-2010, 05:19 PM

Like I said, I would aim for about a week in your case or 0.001 per day if you find that easier to figure out. If salinity was low for longer you would have to take more time to raise it. Since the salinity hasn't been low for very long, you can raise it a bit faster.

Do you have an ATO? Personally, I would make the top up water super salty instead of fresh water. That would probably be the ideal way. Otherwise, I would just add 2 cups of salt to the sump at a time several times a day. That shouldn't change it very quickly on a tank your size. If all else fails you could remove 5 gallons of tank water, add about 10 cups of salt and pour it back into the sump, but that will make the salinity increase in jumps. Whichever way you choose to raise salinity, figure out how much that changes it on each "dose" (or each hour with the ATO) to make sure it isn't going up too fast, recheck at the end of the day. If you're using a hydrometer, make sure it is calibrated with a refractometer. If you don't have a refractometer maybe Doug (fishytime) can calibrate the hydrometer for you while you're picking up salt at the store.

Doing changes with high salinity water like SG 1.030 would waste a lot of water and a lot of salt (throwing out the water you remove), not to mention take you about 5 years to get the salinity up.

My guess is your Hippo Tang will have an Ich outbreak after this. Dang Hippos...

doobiej · #6 12-25-2010, 05:32 PM

a big thanks to fishytime, I am heading in to meet him at his store.

temperature is getting back to normal. at 75.5 now.

my corals are really looking bad though. man I hope they pull through.

my daughter ( 3 years old ) just told me I needed medicine for the corals cause they werent feeling so well.....

Edmonton newbie · #7 12-25-2010, 06:22 PM

wow doug thats a great offer there kinda warms a guy to know there are still people that care that much

Ross · #8 12-25-2010, 07:02 PM

Sorry I didnt read this earlier, I have a bunch you could use...
pm me if you need a hand

Coleus · #9 12-25-2010, 07:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by doobiej

a big thanks to fishytime, I am heading in to meet him at his store.

temperature is getting back to normal. at 75.5 now.

my corals are really looking bad though. man I hope they pull through.

my daughter ( 3 years old ) just told me I needed medicine for the corals cause they werent feeling so well.....

Hope everything pull through

Myka · #10 12-25-2010, 07:54 PM

Do you have a spare tank? You could move corals to that tank? Raise the salinity real fast. Corals would prob prefer that, but you would kill the fish and inverts raising salinity fast. Also keep an eye on ammonia as you will probably get some die-off from this. Those SeaChem Ammonia Alerts are great, they actually work quite well.