How fast should I lower salinity from 42ppt?

Reefs and Geeks

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So I rarely check my tank's salinity just because when I did do it frequently, nothing ever changed. Over the years I've done less and less checking, and basically check it once a month before a water change. Long story short, I tested a few days ago and read 40ppt. I of course checked the calibration on my refractometer, and it was actually ready 2ppt low, so the actual salinity would be 42ppt! Oddest thing is I haven't noticed any issues with the fish or coral. I have a dusting of cyano on the sand, but otherwise, no visible issues. not sure how it got so high, must have made an error in a water change or something. Or all of the 2 part I dose is catching up to me.

How quickly should I lower it back down to 35ppt? I made sure to triple check the calibration on my refractometer, and checked with another refractometer as well. So far, I changed out about 12 gallons of water with RODI to bring it down to 40ppt. Does dropping it 1-2ppt/day make sense? Being that I don't see any issues with fish or coral, I'm not treating it as an emergency, but don't know how fast of a change is reasonable .
 

vetteguy53081

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GRADUALLY.
Fast is an evil word in reefkeeping. Bail out 2 gallons from tank and replace with same temperature RO WATER and test salinity after 4-8 hours. Continue process until 35ppt is met. May take a day or two to accomplish
 

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Decreases in salinity can be done fairly quickly as opposed to increases. Still better to do it slowly. If your dosing baking soda and calcium chloride as your 2 part that is likely the reason for the increase. Especially if you don’t do water changes.
 

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Since everything looks good, there seems no reason to be fast - I'd personally probably set my skimmer to a wetter setting and let it pull out a gallon a day or so, replacing with FW.
But lets see, 12 gallons brought it down 2ppm - do you have a 200+ gallon system?
 
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yeah, 385 gallon system. Changing out a gallon makes no measurable difference, only drops salinity like 0.1ppt. According to my rough napkin calculation, I need to change out about 50 gallons of water and replace with RODI. Might just continue with 1 bucket a day and let it take about 2 weeks with me checking every day before hand.
 

Randy Holmes-Farley

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yeah, 385 gallon system. Changing out a gallon makes no measurable difference, only drops salinity like 0.1ppt. According to my rough napkin calculation, I need to change out about 50 gallons of water and replace with RODI. Might just continue with 1 bucket a day and let it take about 2 weeks with me checking every day before hand.

Sounds like a good plan.
 

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yeah, 385 gallon system. Changing out a gallon makes no measurable difference, only drops salinity like 0.1ppt. According to my rough napkin calculation, I need to change out about 50 gallons of water and replace with RODI. Might just continue with 1 bucket a day and let it take about 2 weeks with me checking every day before hand.
@Reefs and Geeks - As you're keeping attention on it. Sounds like a good time line.
 
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Reefs and Geeks

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@Reefs and Geeks - As you're keeping attention on it. Sounds like a good time line.
Thanks for the confirmation. Seems I've gotten it under control and all coral and fish are happy, no apparent stress from the episode at all. I ended up replacing about 60 gallons of saltwater with RODI before it was finally back to where it should be.

I just ordered an apex yesterday, so I'll have the salinity monitor which will help me catch this type of issue early next time.
 

A+Aquatics

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Thanks for the confirmation. Seems I've gotten it under control and all coral and fish are happy, no apparent stress from the episode at all. I ended up replacing about 60 gallons of saltwater with RODI before it was finally back to where it should be.

I just ordered an apex yesterday, so I'll have the salinity monitor which will help me catch this type of issue early next time.
Eventually, having every notification in the palm of my hand is where I would like my system to be.
Automated monitoring is such a wonderful tool these days.

Thank You for sharing the wonderful news. Sometimes these situations end badly for reefers because they cannot keep their head on during the stress and they make a move to suddenly.

It is interesting to me how little things can gradually sneak their way into our routine at times.
So relieved things are back to a healthy normal, with a soon to be Apex upgrade. Nicely done my friend ;Happy ;Penguin
 
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Reefs and Geeks

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Same, I have wanted an apex for years mainly for notifications. I'm sure once I have it I will find all sorts of uses for it. I was looking at the el, but my wife actually said to just go and get the full apex. I'm of course not going to argue with that :) I'm also lucky enough to have won a flow monitoring kit from Neptune a couple days ago, though it won't be in for a couple of weeks due to it being out of stock. Now I just need to get a trident and I'll be set! I think this salinity episode, as well as winning the FMK really pushed me (and my wife) to finally pull the trigger. So all in all, not bad. I did just buy her a set of couches for the living room though, so that may have helped haha.

Yeah, I've learned over the years that if the coral and fish look fine, than whatever is off with water chemistry is not an emergency. Even still, it's always tempting to react and make quick changes. IME, it's always a mistake though.
 

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