Hi,
since my old calibration fluid was showing a lot of salt built up near opening, I ordered a new one - and to my shock it seems that my reef tank is at 25ppt (1.018-1.019sg)! I ordered PinPoint calibration solution from a reputable source (BRS) and tried with 2 reasonable quality refractometers, one with automatic temperature correction.
Strangely, everything seems to be doing fine in my tank. Part of the reason probably is that I mostly have a very hardy and forgiving livestock: tank-raised occ clown, firefish, gold-headed goby, lots of snails, conch, fire shrimp (that successfully molted couple weeks ago!), and mostly easy-to-care for corals: eagle eyes zoas, Devil's Armor palys, toadstool leather, finger leather, frogspawn, octospawn, symphylia, superman mushroom, clavuria and GSP polyps (basically indestructible), some macroalgae. The only things not doing that great are tiny duncan, chalice and un-named SPS frags I was convinced to take as freebies buying some of the above corals from a fellow reefer, but the frags were tiny and my tank is softie/LPS oriented, so I was not that surprised, especially that SPS was not doing that great as I was due for lighting replacement (>1y.o. T5s).
I am still in shock, looks like my salinity is VERY off - 40% ;(! That should be still borderline OK, but I am surprised my coral and inverts seem to be doing very well.
I am inclined to try to raise salinity with salt water top ups - and try to increase evaporation - over the next 2-4 weeks? Or maybe take some of the water off, bit by bit, and add salt to get to 35ppt? I am leaning against big water change not only because of the hassle, but the only tank crash I had in the last 6 years, in addition to overheating problem, was from a huge (>50%) water change due to apparent low water quality
I lost a lot of livestock then, including my favorite nems and clam, that seemed happy before, even though parameters were far from perfect. So I am pretty scared something like this will happen again, so my plan is to increase evaporation, top up with salt water and monitor carefully for stress.
What can I tell that corals are suffering from low salinity and need to be moved to another tank asap? So far they have extended/open polyps and brain is eating. I actually got many of these corals from a fellow reefer who started a ultra low nutrient system with a nitrate reactor and his LPS corals/softies started to die, they actually seem to look better in my system, finger leather has now some polyp expansion and symphylia is beginning to puff up. Will try to post some pics this evening or over the weekend. Looking for the advice and especially if somebody had a similar experience of (accidentally) keeping corals in such a low salinity. TIA, Magik
since my old calibration fluid was showing a lot of salt built up near opening, I ordered a new one - and to my shock it seems that my reef tank is at 25ppt (1.018-1.019sg)! I ordered PinPoint calibration solution from a reputable source (BRS) and tried with 2 reasonable quality refractometers, one with automatic temperature correction.
Strangely, everything seems to be doing fine in my tank. Part of the reason probably is that I mostly have a very hardy and forgiving livestock: tank-raised occ clown, firefish, gold-headed goby, lots of snails, conch, fire shrimp (that successfully molted couple weeks ago!), and mostly easy-to-care for corals: eagle eyes zoas, Devil's Armor palys, toadstool leather, finger leather, frogspawn, octospawn, symphylia, superman mushroom, clavuria and GSP polyps (basically indestructible), some macroalgae. The only things not doing that great are tiny duncan, chalice and un-named SPS frags I was convinced to take as freebies buying some of the above corals from a fellow reefer, but the frags were tiny and my tank is softie/LPS oriented, so I was not that surprised, especially that SPS was not doing that great as I was due for lighting replacement (>1y.o. T5s).
I am still in shock, looks like my salinity is VERY off - 40% ;(! That should be still borderline OK, but I am surprised my coral and inverts seem to be doing very well.
I am inclined to try to raise salinity with salt water top ups - and try to increase evaporation - over the next 2-4 weeks? Or maybe take some of the water off, bit by bit, and add salt to get to 35ppt? I am leaning against big water change not only because of the hassle, but the only tank crash I had in the last 6 years, in addition to overheating problem, was from a huge (>50%) water change due to apparent low water quality
I lost a lot of livestock then, including my favorite nems and clam, that seemed happy before, even though parameters were far from perfect. So I am pretty scared something like this will happen again, so my plan is to increase evaporation, top up with salt water and monitor carefully for stress. What can I tell that corals are suffering from low salinity and need to be moved to another tank asap? So far they have extended/open polyps and brain is eating. I actually got many of these corals from a fellow reefer who started a ultra low nutrient system with a nitrate reactor and his LPS corals/softies started to die, they actually seem to look better in my system, finger leather has now some polyp expansion and symphylia is beginning to puff up. Will try to post some pics this evening or over the weekend. Looking for the advice and especially if somebody had a similar experience of (accidentally) keeping corals in such a low salinity. TIA, Magik
