How drastic is a salinity change 1.025 to 1.027

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stanleo

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Agree with everyone else, most likely this is not urgent and you can lower your salinity over time. But I am still not sure about what is going on.

Feel free to just stop me if I am just too lost, but if I understand you correctly, this is what happened:

1. tank at 1.025 yesterday, before water change, measured by refract #1
2. water change done yesterday, makeup water matched to 1.025 with refract #1
3. Found refract #2 today, calibrated it, and discovered tank at 1.027
4. Checked tank with refract #1 (did not recalibrate this refract between today and yesterday), 1.027.

Refract #1 and #2 are in agreement today, and since #2 was calibrated today, we are assuming that #1 is reading correctly today as well as yesterday.

So that means that after your water change yesterday, your tank was at 1.025, and something raised the salinity to 1.027 overnight. Evap loss and/or temp swings will affect salinity, but on 150 gals, wouldn't that need to be a pretty significant change in a short period of time?
You got everything right. The one thing I didn't mention was that when I make new water I let it sit over night with a pum and a heater. I had checked to make sure the tank and the new water matched the night I made it but didn't check the next day when I did the water change like I usually do. I just remembered that after reading your comment, cause you're right, something has to be going on. I think its possible that more salt dissolved overnight which raised the salinity in the new water, which is why I usually check right before putting the new water in the tank.
 

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Ah, thanks for that explanation!
 

Captain Quint

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Or...Easy to dip a gallon of the tank water and replace the gallon with RODI fresh until you obtain your desired specific gravity which wouldn't take but a couple of days or so.
 

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My biggest concern is the starfish. When I researched him, I read that they can't tolerate changes in salinity.

I don't have an ATO, I just check every morning and usually have to add about a liter of fresh ro water I have at the ready every day.

Without an ato, chances are your salinity is swinging constantly....25-27 is not an issue..., But if your concern is for your starfish that requires salinity stability, then best to get an ato
 
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Without an ato, chances are your salinity is swinging constantly....25-27 is not an issue..., But if your concern is for your starfish that requires salinity stability, then best to get an ato
I am looking into one. Issue I am having is I am not a DIY kinda guy, especially with anything electrical. All the ones I find are for nano tanks and I haven't been sure if that would work on mine. Any suggestions?
 

Dr. Dendrostein

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I did my water change yesterday and I checked to make sure the salinity matched before adding the new water. Well today I found an old refractometer and calibrated and the salinty jumped to 1.027. I always keep it at 1.025. How bad is this? How much fresh ro water do I need to add to fix it in a 150 total water volume tank? I did confirm it with my current meter.
I've done WC in the past, from 1.026 to 1.030 from NSW no changes on my corals. Dendronephthya colonies.


1 of 32 carnation corals, dendronephthya sp.

Screenshot_2019-10-02-09-26-08-1.png
 

Doctorgori

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Yeah generally going down isn’t as impactful as going up in salinity but that’s fish only ....personally I haven’t noticed any stress over a point difference whatever the scale...again fish only
 

ingchr1

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This is why I wish reefers used the same units as marine biologists.

1.025 sg is 33 ppt. 1.027 is 36 ppt. Thats an 8% increase in salinity. Unlikely to kill anything, but not at all trivial. Most marine animals never encounter either level, living their whole lives in a stable 35 ppt.

However, if you did the same calculation with the sg numbers (1.027 and 1.025) youd come to the conclusion that its a 0.2% change, which would be completely trivial. But its not really an 0.2% change, its an 8% change.

---

All quibbling over units aside, I'd just take out a little tank water each day and let the ATO replace it til youre back at 35 ppt.
For SG the % change should be calculated just using the last two digits, which gives about the same result (7%).
 

fish farmer

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I am looking into one. Issue I am having is I am not a DIY kinda guy, especially with anything electrical. All the ones I find are for nano tanks and I haven't been sure if that would work on mine. Any suggestions?

I use Ultralife Float Switches. My old one just failed after many years(15?) of service(the relay part was toast). I occasionally have to replace the madison float switch part...I always keep one in stock. I think the new one from here https://www.marinedepot.com/ultralife-float-switch comes wired to the box...but it doesn't look like it from the picture.

I have the switch part in my sump, spliced longer wires down to the box above a plastic tote in the basement with a mag drive pump capable of doing several feet of head.

If you were to set this up tank side you could easily have a pump in a bucket/tote and not have to cut any wires if your run to the tank is short.

You may have to rig up some sort of hanger for it in the sump.....I never like suction cups for anything important.
 
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I use Ultralife Float Switches. My old one just failed after many years(15?) of service(the relay part was toast). I occasionally have to replace the madison float switch part...I always keep one in stock. I think the new one from here https://www.marinedepot.com/ultralife-float-switch comes wired to the box...but it doesn't look like it from the picture.

I have the switch part in my sump, spliced longer wires down to the box above a plastic tote in the basement with a mag drive pump capable of doing several feet of head.

If you were to set this up tank side you could easily have a pump in a bucket/tote and not have to cut any wires if your run to the tank is short.

You may have to rig up some sort of hanger for it in the sump.....I never like suction cups for anything important.
I'm not allowed to spend that much money on anything for the tank anymore lol.

That said, I just ordered the ac relay and float switch from amazon for under 20 bucks and I am going to attempt to do this based on a youtube video I found from some called The DIY King. Wish me luck lol
 

Coastal Aquatics

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I did my water change yesterday and I checked to make sure the salinity matched before adding the new water. Well today I found an old refractometer and calibrated and the salinty jumped to 1.027. I always keep it at 1.025. How bad is this? How much fresh ro water do I need to add to fix it in a 150 total water volume tank? I did confirm it with my current meter.
It’s not going to harm anything in your tank
 
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