Raising Salinity

[Psionicdragon]

Hi Randy and others,

I want to know if I can raise the salinity from 1.021-1.022 to 1.026 in one go?

Thanks

 

[bluewater921]

no .. you have to take it slowly .. about every other day raise it a lil .. never go fast .. good things dont happen fast in this hobby ..

 

[Psionicdragon]

Hm, so it takes a few days instead of hours to raise it?

 

[ReefDetective]

Only raise salinity .02 in one day. Anything more is harmful to organisms in your tank.

 

[Sport507]

Only raise salinity .02 in one day. Anything more is harmful to organisms in your tank.

I think you meant .002 but I would keep it down to .001 per day.

 

[Psionicdragon]

Thanks everyone. I need to check my salinity again then. I was trying to raise it slowly, but not sure if I overdid it because some of the guys don't loo ktoo happy.

 

[Sport507]

Thanks everyone. I need to check my salinity again then. I was trying to raise it slowly, but not sure if I overdid it because some of the guys don't loo ktoo happy.

Then be prepared to drop it back down quickly. I just saw a post late week where a person crashed there tank by raising it from 1.020 "“ 1.025 all at one time.

 

[Below Radar]

I'm pretty new to this but I've heard the same. You can drop it 2-3x faster than you can raise it.

 

[Below Radar]

I'm raising my salinity at the moment. My fish aquired ich and I treated them by using the hypo method. My 40 breeder doesn't evaporate a lot so I've been topping it off with salt water instead of fresh fo bring up the salinity. Just a thought.

 

[bevis28]

WOW, thats a big hit for your animals to take.. as stated above, take your time getting it where you want. I'm not shocked that your fish have ich.. from my experience fish seem to like a lower salinity while corals prefer a higher salinity.. i.e. fish 1.021 to 1.023 while corals seem to like 1.025 to 1.026.. i try to shoot for a happy medium of 1.024... the higher the salinity, the more it stresses the fish and the lower the salinity seems to stress the corals more.. its a fine line to walk to keep everyone happy. fast changes in ANYTHING in a reef tank is NEVER a good idea..unless of course its ammonia or something that will kill off your tank.

 

[Psionicdragon]

WOW, thats a big hit for your animals to take.. as stated above, take your time getting it where you want. I'm not shocked that your fish have ich.. from my experience fish seem to like a lower salinity while corals prefer a higher salinity.. i.e. fish 1.021 to 1.023 while corals seem to like 1.025 to 1.026.. i try to shoot for a happy medium of 1.024... the higher the salinity, the more it stresses the fish and the lower the salinity seems to stress the corals more.. its a fine line to walk to keep everyone happy. fast changes in ANYTHING in a reef tank is NEVER a good idea..unless of course its ammonia or something that will kill off your tank.

I agree, I think I misread the refractometer when I was changing water =/ sigh.

 

[downbeach]

What is your evaporation rate per day? I would just start to use SW for top off until the Salinity is back to where it should be. Make sure your refractometer is calibrated. Some say you can use RO water for this, but I've found that a good calibration fluid is better.

 

[rich19020]

I actually noticed my saltinity was around 29 and I wanted it to go back up to 34. I add alittle salt water above the float switch every day to gradually move it up. It has been about 2 weeks and I have moved it up to 31.7.

Lesson learned was to calibrate your conductivity probe more often to prevent the drop.

Do it slowly. You wouldn't dump your fish from the store directly into the tank you acclimate them.

 

[Psionicdragon]

I was just thinking, wouldn't it be bad to lower the salinity down then raise it back up? I believe iirc the salinity is at 1.026 now. I did the water change a couple of days ago (saturday) and today the clams don't look too happy, bu twhen the lights were on Sunday, they were fine as can be.

 

[Psionicdragon]

What is your evaporation rate per day? I would just start to use SW for top off until the Salinity is back to where it should be. Make sure your refractometer is calibrated. Some say you can use RO water for this, but I've found that a good calibration fluid is better.

I believe its 1-2 gallon a day, but the issue is when I did the water change.

 

[downbeach]

Maybe I'm not understanding your dilemma. You asked how to raise your salinity, right? It sounds like you did a wc with new sw that was too low in salintiy, and now you want to know how to raise it.

 

[Psionicdragon]

Maybe I'm not understanding your dilemma. You asked how to raise your salinity, right? It sounds like you did a wc with new sw that was too low in salintiy, and now you want to know how to raise it.

haha, sorry. It was too early in the morning when I asked my question.

I wanted to know the normal process of raising salinity. But over the weekend, I already did a water change and it raised the salinity a bit too fast than I normally would've done it.

 

[downbeach]

OK, gottcha. Well, for future info. just use your make up water for top off instead of your plain RO/DI, until you meet your target level salinity.

haha, sorry. It was too early in the morning when I asked my question.

I wanted to know the normal process of raising salinity. But over the weekend, I already did a water change and it raised the salinity a bit too fast than I normally would've done it.

 

[Psionicdragon]

Thanks everyone for the help.

One last question: How bad is it that I overdid it in one day verse over a period?

 

[downbeach]

Your tanks inhabitants will let you know the answer to that question. If they look OK, and you did the WC last Saturday, you probably dodged a bullet.