1.030...why not?

[Smoke-Town]

Ok so watching modern reef diver videos as everyone knows always have lots of sad sites that were once reefs or maybe are still holding on but super bleached... lots of algae and other issues... but still plenty of vibrant healthy looking reefs around the world... but the one area that always seems to be the least affected and most beautiful looking natural reef in my opinion is the Red Sea. It's slightly land locked so it doesn't get as much fresh water coming in... the Red Sea has a salinity of 1.030, impressive variety of species, amazing coral coloration, and seemingly less dead zones, less bleaching, and less algae... I can't help but think the takeaway is that the higher salinity of 40 ppt is at least partly responsible for this.
Studies show some corals in the wild to be 5,000+ years old... when the world was cooler and glaciers were larger and not melting as much fresh water into the ocean to drop to the current ocean salinity.

Has anyone tried maintaining a reef with this level of salt? Ive got half a mind to start an experimental tank like this. What are the negative effects besides more money in salt? I assume some creatures both fish and inverts have evolved over time to the lower salinity of today's oceans and wouldn't be able to tolerate this, but there is plenty of life to choose from in the Red Sea.

 

[homer1475]

My salinity often creeps up to 1.029 from dosing without any detrimental effects to my inhabitants.

I will remove some water, replace with RO/DI till I'm back down into the 1.025 - 1.026 range.

As long as it's done slowly over time, everything will adjust. Adding anything new, might be problematic, but will adjust over time.

 

[AKL1950]

Thing to remember about the Red Sea is very few humans get in it and trash it. People in that part of the world don’t constantly get in the water and don’t trash it with tons of sun tan lotion. Sun tan lotion is a major contributor to reef regression. I was in Saudi Arabia for a couple of years and would dive in the Red Sea. Miles of beautiful beach and only two of use in the water.

Jetson

 

[Waters]

I have always read that the higher salinities are harder on the fish......but that doesn't explain the fish that obviously live in that environment all the time, other than they have just adjusted to the higher salt content.