How important is it to have a higher salinity with coral/anemones?

[skeeter_ca]

I was told by my LFS that they keep their salinity low to closely match the suppliers salinity so it is easier to acclimate them quickly with less stress to them. At 1.020 it wouln't cause any harm. But knowing a lot of business people, any way you can save a little without causing a problem is worth it. Whether it be $50.00 or $500.00 per month. It all adds up.

Now if they are selling premixed saltwater to people they should list it clearly what the salinity is.

skeeter

 

[victorcan]

I was told by my LFS that they keep their salinity low to closely match the suppliers salinity so it is easier to acclimate them quickly with less stress to them. At 1.020 it wouln't cause any harm. But knowing a lot of business people, any way you can save a little without causing a problem is worth it. Whether it be $50.00 or $500.00 per month. It all adds up.

Now if they are selling premixed saltwater to people they should list it clearly what the salinity is.

skeeter

Guess you know they are dealing with poor distributors then, the best marine life brokers use 1.023 - 1.026.. Buy quality sell quality keep customers... I get fish, but corals ?

 

[heathlindner25]

Not talking about mixing salts. Talking about keeping tanks at lesser salinity to save money.

Plus your speaking in generalizations. Like a politician.

Let's do the math.
Pet store has 10000 of fish tanks
They do 20 percent water change a week
Plus add 30 precent for when they sell corals and fish

That's 5000 a week in water
25 cases of I/0 at 25 bucks a case 625

So Keeping your salinity at 1.017 instead of
1.025 will save you won't save them any real money. Save you 200 bucks. If your running 10000 of water system and trying to save 200 bucks a month. That's silly



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Correct, I was talking about the salt water they sell. All of their reef tanks are at 1.026.
Not sure what you mean about the generalizations and the politician comment, just speaking from personal experience. And as a small business owner saving $200 a month here and there is what it's all about, at least in this business

 

[anthonys51]

Correct, I was talking about the salt water they sell. All of their reef tanks are at 1.026.
Not sure what you mean about the generalizations and the politician comment, just speaking from personal experience. And as a small business owner saving $200 a month here and there is what it's all about, at least in this business

200 a month if they have a 10000 gallon saltwater system and change half a week. That isn't such a small business by the way


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[anthonys51]

But this is really not the question the op asked. Yes you can probably get away with having your Corals at 1.020. But especially for stony corals, higher salinity make calcification faster


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[djbon]

Forget about what your LFS have said. As a reefer, I would say keeping SG close to sea water salinity is the only way to go. Get some salt and adjust your LFS saltwater before you do water changes.

 

[thegrun]

Guess you know they are dealing with poor distributors then, the best marine life brokers use 1.023 - 1.026.. Buy quality sell quality keep customers... I get fish, but corals ?

I would challenge the validity of that statement. Most importers ship their fish in low salinity because the ammonia that builds up in the shipping bags is less toxic in lower salinity. The stateside wholesalers for the most part keep their salinity low so they do not need to acclimate the fish to a higher salinity and since a large percentage of their fish are then shipped again they are safer at the lower salinity.

 

[anthonys51]

I would challenge the validity of that statement. Most importers ship their fish in low salinity because the ammonia that builds up in the shipping bags is less toxic in lower salinity. The stateside wholesalers for the most part keep their salinity low so they do not need to acclimate the fish to a higher salinity and since a large percentage of their fish are then shipped again they are safer at the lower salinity.

+1. Most wholesalers and imports are buying over 20,000 worth of fish and corals at one shot. You really think there trying to save 50 on salt. Lol. I know a fish importer. Lower salinity also puts less stress on the fish as well.


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[victorcan]

I would challenge the validity of that statement. Most importers ship their fish in low salinity because the ammonia that builds up in the shipping bags is less toxic in lower salinity. The stateside wholesalers for the most part keep their salinity low so they do not need to acclimate the fish to a higher salinity and since a large percentage of their fish are then shipped again they are safer at the lower salinity.

If you would please go back and read my post.. I think you missed the last sentence "Fish I get it, But corals?" I clearly said I understand fish being shipped in lower salinity but not CORALS"¦

 

[kidA]

Recommend 1.025; little bit of room to react/adjust if it begins to climb or fall. Make sure alk, ca, mg, are in the right zones..

 

[Timfish]

From first hand experience over a couple decades with multiple systems and reading as much as I can on the subject I can confidently say corals and anemones do fine anywhere between 1.020 and 1.030. However, if you look at the rate of photosynthesis of zoxanthellae it's best at a salinity of 1.026 (38 PPT). I've also not seen any apparent affect on corals with a sudden 10% change in salinity although I would expect it to have some affect on the calcification rate.

OOOOOOPS! Sorry everyone! 38 PPT is 1.028 SG not 1.026

 

[griss]

OOOOOOPS! Sorry everyone! 38 PPT is 1.028 SG not 1.026

What in the heck were you searching for to find your post from 9 years ago to correct it? lol

 

[Timfish]

Weeellllll, just recently had a discussion with another hobbyest and I had said 1.026 then looked up the research again to double check myself and it stated 38 PPT (PSU) or 1.028 SG so I had to correct my reccomendation.

Then . . .

When I just logged in I saw on the landing page someone had posted to your thread asking what peoples history was and I thought to my self I need to post something.

But . . .

I've posted responses t similar threds and rather than right everything out again I'd just do a cut and paste.

So . . .

I did a search and had like 6 ages of responses show up under "1987" (when I started my first saltwater system) and started scrolling through the results

Then . . .

One of the results had a response for salinity and I wondered?

(expeltitive) . . .

How did I get that post wrong too! And corrected it. :/

 

[mellotang]

Since we are here now I have a Question….
When you’re at salinity of 35ppt, are there more ions in present which enable stable parameters.? pH, KH, MG?

I would think lower salinity water would have less natural buffering ability due to limited ions resulting in difficulty maintaining stability in pH and KH

 

[Timfish]

COrals are able to up regulate both pH and DIC (bicarbonate and carbonate) for calcification. In marine reef systems DIC is Carbon Dioxide (CO2) Bicarbonate (HCO3) and carbonate (CO32). The ratio varies in relation to pH with HCO3 being roughly 93% of DIC at the pH of reef systems. Salinity does play a role but any given salinity can have a huge variation in DIC (alkalinity) and pH


Here's some papers if you like going down rabbit holes

Corals concentrate dissolved inorganic carbon to facilitate calcification - Nature Communications

Understanding how corals may react to ocean acidification is hampered due to a lack of insight into how corals source the inorganic carbon required to build their skeletons. Here, the authors show that corals are able to concentrate dissolved carbon and that bicarbonate contributes to the carbon...

www.nature.com

Coral calcification in a changing World and the interactive dynamics of pH and DIC upregulation - Ocean Acidification

Coral calcification is dependent on the mutualistic partnership between endosymbiotic zooxanthellae and the coral host. Here, using newly developed geochemical proxies (δ11B and B/Ca), we show that Poritescorals from natural reef environments exhibit a close (r2 ∼0.9) antithetic relationship...

news-oceanacidification-icc.org

https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1505586112

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/2015GL063488

https://dl.uncw.edu/Etd/2008-3/r1/juryc/christopherjury.pdf

Implications of salinity normalization of seawater total alkalinity in coral reef metabolism studies

Salinity normalization of total alkalinity (TA) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) data is commonly used to account for conservative mixing processes when inferring net metabolic modification of seawater by coral reefs. Salinity (S), TA, and DIC can be accurately and precisely measured, but...

journals.plos.org