Coral question

[travis32]

I noticed this past weekend my salinity had dropped more than I wanted. My skimmer had overflowed a couple times and last around 10 gallons of water, which was replaced with freshwater. (It may have been more than 10 gallons. was a mess! )

I didn't think to test salinity because I was too ****ed with the clean up and recovery from the mess.

So, I tested after a water change this weekend. I did around a 10 % water change with 1.030 water and after the water change, my water was up to 1.022.

It must have been close to 1.020. So, I added a little more salt each day to raise it. Just around 1-2 cups per day of IO salt to slowly raise it over time. I had an Orange Yuma.... It's now half white and half orange. It looks ok. still opens in the light , etc. I have it at the top of a rock about 15" off the sand bed, (31 inch tall tank and lights are about 4" above the water).

Is the color loss due to lighting or due to salinity increase? my other corals are still colored up fine and opening and closing well. My two anemones seem o.k. And fish are all adjusting just fine. (Only 5 fish). Will it gets color back or will it be a white translucent coral?

 

[mcgyvr]

Stress from a change in salinity can certainly cause color changes in corals..

If the coral has been under the same lighting conditions its unlikely that light is the cause.. If its new to that area/lighting conditions then that is certainly possible too..

 

[travis32]

Yes, it's been in that spot since I placed him. Haven't glued him yet, so he's gotten bumped a couple times, but generally within an inch of where he was. heh. I'm assuming it's the change in salinity.

If that's true, once it stops being stressed will it color up again or just be a white translucent yuma forever? Or half white and half orange? Ha! (Or better yet, a new color?)

Heh.

 

[rustyjames]

Sorry bout the mess, what a pain.

Have to ask, were you dumping unmixed salt into your tank? If so, I can see that stressing more than just the yuma.

 

[billdogg]

Sorry bout the mess, what a pain.

Have to ask, were you dumping unmixed salt into your tank? If so, I can see that stressing more than just the yuma.

^^^This^^^

You should never add straight salt to your tank, even if it's to the sump.

 

[travis32]

Maybe..........I thought hi flow area...... Should be fine.. It dissolved fast. (like instantly).
My return has 2 other devices plumbed off it. One is just a pipe back to the sump because I have too much flow to the display and one is to a UV sterilizer and algae Scrubber. So, the salt would have had multiple opportunities to mix before entering the display. Plus the skimmer....

I was being lazy, I didn't want to mix a small batch of water to mix salt into the system. That would have taken several hours, plus adding more water level to my sump would cause my skimmer to go crazy. I wanted to mix it into my top off bin and just have it top off with really really low dilution of salt but I didn't want to take a powerhead off the display to mix the salt water for more than a day...

I need another powerhead is probably what it comes down to. .... The rest wouldn't have been that hard.