Low Salanity or No Flow?? Which is better?? HELP!

[aumfc]

(Sorry for the cross post but I need advice fast!)

I have a 24g Nano Cude.

I get my salt water from a LFS and it's always fine. I picked up a couple of 5 gallon jugs a few weeks ago. I've already used one a week back and performed another water change tonight.

I'd already taken 5g out and was putting new water in when I noticed the water was cloudy. I checked the salanity direct from the jug and it's .011. My tank water currently reads about .019 as I've akready added back about 1.5g.

Since the water level is low the pump cannot run and the water cannot flow to the back chambers.

My options at this point are to leave everything as is with the tank low and no pump or flow for the night until the LFS opens and I can get more water, which will be about 15 hours from now. Or, continuing refilling the tank with the rest of the .011 water to get the flow going, but my overall salanity will probably drop to .017 or so. Then get some new .025 water tomorrow and perform another change to raise the salt.

What should I do?? I've got about 15 coral patches, 4 small fish, a shrimp, crab, and a bunch of snails. The tank is about 7 months old.

Please help and respond ASAP!

Thanks.

 

[boxfishpooalot]

Flow is not important in this situation. I would keep the salinity the same because lowering it could kill things. Both situations occur in nature but no flow rarely kills things.

Also you can manually stir the tank every couple hours with your hand.

 

[matter1331]

My concern is with the amount of O2 dissolved, which will be minimal with no pump running on the tank. What you could do is maybe see if someone like walmart has a cheap air pump you can use until you get better water. Battery operated air pumps can be a life saver, especially in a situation like this. We always have about half a dozen on hand for our various tanks.

 

[leeweber85]

You're gonna need a way to supply O2... an air pump would work, or if you have a powerhead use it. I don't think I would add any of the .011 stuff... Your LFS owes you a big apology for that!

 

[leeweber85]

Or you could boil the .011 until enough evaporates to bring up the salinity. Just make sure you change your salinity slowly. Don't just dump in the .025 water.