Salinity at 1.031

Azteky

New member
So our tank has been doing great for 5+ years, the last month or so I have had a few colonies of Zoa's close up so I went out and figured I would get decent testing kits, everything has tested normal in the past, only thing off was Phos was around .25 - .3... not great but we only had softies so no harm, Zoa's grew like crazy, even now. I went out 2 weekends ago and bought 2 heads of Darth Mauls and as of today I have 5 heads! I never do water changes and the only thing I dose is Vodka..

So my issue! I used to use a hydrometer and it always read 1.025 - 1.026... So after I bought these test kits I thought what the heck, I'll get a Refractometer while I'm at it... got home, tested my water and it reads 1.031!! So now I'm left wondering do I drop it (Slowly) to 1.026, or could this be while everything in our tank grows quick... All though the last month it has started having issues with corals not opening up as good as they did before.. So I have no clue if the salinity would be the cause of my issues, or the reasons it was doing so well....

I'm doing the Hanna tests now, so will see how close those numbers are to the old cheap tests results.

Anyone have experience with really high salinity? Or don't be dumb and slowly lower mine!? lol
 
first check to see if your refractometer is calibrated properly. if so drop your salinity down to 1.025 and start doing water changes as you may be losing out of valuable minerals that are depleted as well. magnesium isn't going to magically appear itself.
 
first check to see if your refractometer is calibrated properly. if so drop your salinity down to 1.025 and start doing water changes as you may be losing out of valuable minerals that are depleted as well. magnesium isn't going to magically appear itself.

What he said
 
Def check your refractometer first. My hydrometer and refractometer always give me the same reading but I still like to have both to make sure it's what I think it is.
 
The refractometer was calibrated to zero at the store, and I checked again yesterday using RO/DI water.

Got it down to 1.028 and will keep lowering it to 1.026.

I did buy the Hanna Phosphate checker and the Hanna Alkalinity Checker. Alk was 144ppm (8.05dkh) but my phosphate was through the roof at 1.27ppm! Mind you 80% of the aquarium is in full bloom and seems to be doing great, but I would imagine this is also why some of them are closing right up and not opening at all.. or even a combination of the that and the high Salinity..
 
Back
Top