A helpful reminder for all my friends

LEOreefer · Apr 3, 2018

hey all! Just wanted to post a helpful reminder to check your salinity and calibrate your refractometer! I had during lps corals and bleached sps for the the last week. I tested all parameters
Calcium:400
Alk: 9.2
Mag: 1245
Nitrate:5
Phosphate: .12

I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why my corals were fading away. I was talking to @usernam invalid and he said check your salinity. Sure enough I saw my calibration of my refractometer was way off and my salt was actually at 1.020. I did a water change with water at 1.022 and have salt in the top off so hopefully by the next 2 weeks everything g is back on track.

Just wanted to remind everyone how easy it is to overlook such a simple parameter

Mrod · Apr 3, 2018

Good reminder. While I do check it I should occasionally calibrate my refractomer and this has helped remind me.

40B Knasty · Apr 3, 2018

Sometimes it is the little things that will get us. I check the calibration with Acurasea and DT salinity every week while mixing water for my two tanks. Also my 2 Tigger Pod 5g tanks and bucket of saltwater sitting around in case of an emergency ammonia spike or the 4 baby brine shrimp hatcheries. The Tigger pods were both at 1.030. brought them back down to 1.023. Also the bucket was at 1.028. Evaporation in a container with a volume of 3-4 gallons has a MAJOR impact.
And don't forget to shake the bottle of Acurasea EVERY TIME before use.

cboltsd01 · Apr 3, 2018

I agree, I've had the same thing happen to me. One day I noticed some of the colors on my SPS were off and looking pastel like. I checked all my levels which seemed fine. Then I decide just for the heck of to check out the salinity, sure enough, it was at 1.035! I begin lowering it slowly and all of the colors have come back. I'm just glad nothing died, I don't know how long it was at this level.