Best way to safely bring down salinity

[BristleWormHater]

My salinity currently sits at 1.028sg which has bumped my calcium all the way up to 586ppm, my alk is still acceptable at 9.2 dkh but it usually sits at 8.6dkh. Should I do a water change with lower salinity water or slowly replace tank water with RODI water? Worried that just doing a lower salinity water change won't bring down calcium enough.
Pretty much everything in the tank is doing well, my blastomussa has been not looking great maybe thats why? I tested everything because my goniapora looked a little less open but other than that everything seems fine.

 

[KrisReef]

My salinity currently sits at 1.028sg which has bumped my calcium all the way up to 586ppm, my alk is still acceptable at 9.2 dkh but it usually sits at 8.6dkh. Should I do a water change with lower salinity water or slowly replace tank water with RODI water? Worried that just doing a lower salinity water change won't bring down calcium enough.
Pretty much everything in the tank is doing well, my blastomussa has been not looking great maybe thats why? I tested everything because my goniapora looked a little less open but other than that everything seems fine.

I would remove a gallon or 5 and let the automatic top off refill the tank with RODI, and repeat until it gets to the target salinity

 

[Mike1970]

What I would do is set up a dosing pump, pull out water with the dosing pump start with 1-2 gallons a day depending on your water volume and let my ATO do the work and check my salinity daily, when you get it back inline go back to normal stop water changes and dosing additives while I’m doing this

 

[Savage Henry]

Make sure your meter is calibrated properly before you do anything.

 

[winxp_man]

I would recommend buying a Tropic Marin hydrometer. And there are calculators if your water temp is not to what the hydrometer is setup for. Which normally is set to 77* for the tropic marin hydrometers.

 

[D'sreef]

Make sure your meter is calibrated properly before you do anything.

I second this motion. Also, you can adjust your ATO sensor up a little bit each day until you reach your desired sg.

 

[BristleWormHater]

Make sure your meter is calibrated properly before you do anything.

I made sure calibrate it very well this time

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I would remove a gallon or 5 and let the automatic top off refill the tank with RODI, and repeat until it gets to the target salinity

This is exactly what I would do if my salinity got too high

 

[Fish Fan]

Just to add; animals can handle lowering salinity much more easily than raising salinity, so you can safely lower your salinity much more rapidly than you’d want to raise it.

 

[edd59]

take out e few gallons depending on your size tank and dump RO back in.
tropic marin hydrometer is a good investment along with a beaker.

 

[CHSUB]

You can correct instantly not worrying about hurting your animals and the level is barely high anyway. I keep mine at 1.027 which corresponds to 35 PSU and my Milwaukee digital meter.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

My salinity currently sits at 1.028sg which has bumped my calcium all the way up to 586ppm, my alk is still acceptable at 9.2 dkh but it usually sits at 8.6dkh. Should I do a water change with lower salinity water or slowly replace tank water with RODI water? Worried that just doing a lower salinity water change won't bring down calcium enough.
Pretty much everything in the tank is doing well, my blastomussa has been not looking great maybe thats why? I tested everything because my goniapora looked a little less open but other than that everything seems fine.

Bear in mind that dropping your sg =1.028 to 35 ppt (sg = 1.0264) will still leave your calcium a bit over 550 ppm ,assuming the 586 ppm is accurate).

That’s not likely a problem, but I just don’t want you to think it was going to be a big calcium drop.

 

[BristleWormHater]

I would recommend buying a Tropic Marin hydrometer. And there are calculators if your water temp is not to what the hydrometer is setup for. Which normally is set to 77* for the tropic marin hydrometers.

Not worried about the accuracy of my refractometer measurement since my other parameters, like the high calcium are elevated like they would if salinity were higher.

 

[BristleWormHater]

Im just going to take out 2 cups of water a day and let the ato refill until salinity is back at 1.025 which is where I like to keep it. Tank is a 25 gallon, approximately 18 gallons accounting for rock and sand so I think 2 cups a day is a more than safe amount.

 

[BristleWormHater]

Safely brought down salinity to 1.026 so just a little bit left to go. I think I must have had a severe testing error when I tested calcium the first time, I think its because I used a syringe that was previously full of saltwater for my RO sample. Calcium is 416ppm.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Safely brought down salinity to 1.026 so just a little bit left to go. I think I must have had a severe testing error when I tested calcium the first time, I think its because I used a syringe that was previously full of saltwater for my RO sample. Calcium is 416ppm.

I’d stop now. :)

 

[BristleWormHater]

I’d stop now. :)

Yeah, I think im just going to make sure my next water change is mixed to 1.025 so it'll bring down salinity without bringing down calcium.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Yeah, I think im just going to make sure my next water change is mixed to 1.025 so it'll bring down salinity without bringing down calcium.

Sounds fine, although I personally target a salinity higher than 1.025.

 

[sjfishguy]

I would recommend buying a Tropic Marin hydrometer. And there are calculators if your water temp is not to what the hydrometer is setup for. Which normally is set to 77* for the tropic marin hydrometers.

I second this. I gave up on refractometer as there are too many variables. Is the calibration solution off? Did it stay calibrated from last time? I too went to the tropic marine hydrometer and learned how awful my refractometer really was

 

[BryanM]

I would remove a gallon or 5 and let the automatic top off refill the tank with RODI, and repeat until it gets to the target salinity

This is what I would do as well.