Reef Discussion

Talmier

Member
Jul 24, 2011
54
6
Lessons Learned
Guys

Thought I would kick this off with a newbie mistake I made.

Using Salt water as tank top off

Salinity went up to 1.029 before I realised I should be using pure water
 

Talmier

Member
Jul 24, 2011
54
6
Nothing I guess I caught it in time.

I have an RO/DI filter so I just scooped some water out and added some pure water over the course of a few days
 

MTG

Moderator
Jul 10, 2011
10,664
2,149
Gold Coast
:eek: Evap topup must allways been toped up with RO water!!. salinity wont cause to many issues untill 1.030+ so you caught it in time! slowly bring it down over the next few days/weeks
 

MTG

Moderator
Jul 10, 2011
10,664
2,149
Gold Coast
oh i see what we are doing here :rolleyes
for me leaving the skimmer to drain into a container then coming home to a flooded room :cry
 

Dr. Schell

The Fuckin' Doc
Jul 12, 2011
1,972
1,228
Brisbane
the interesting thing about salinity and fish is that fish can handle quite easly rapid drops in salinity. Physiologically, their bodies (i.e. kidneys) do not have to work so hard at conserving water. Often ehan fish are ill, dropping the salinity can help in their recovery. For instance with a parasitic infection such as ich, dropping the salinity helps to reduce dehydration often associed with this disease (e.g. sudden wasting and thinness may be attributed to loss of moisture through interuption to the fish slime coat as a result of the parasite.
However, raising the salinity is a different matter. Raising the salinity has to be done over an exteneded time as the fish has to "pysologically" adapt the the increases in salt by altering its biochemical processes. Increasing the salinity causes stress in fish when done suddenly. Alternatively the dropping the salinity by the same margin causes little if any stress (within certian limits)