Lesson learned on Salinity

[FindNem0]

So...........about 8 months ago my 80 gallon deep blue rimless crashed, hard and lost a couple grand. I had colonies of zoas, torch coral with a 8"torch opened up the size of a 16" soft ball, frog spawns and hammers the size of softballs, pink bird nest the size of softball. Colonies of green hawks, all kinds of acans, a few plates. So........... I have two young boys that took my refractometer apart and put it back together without telling me(my wife helped reassemble). Threw my calibration off. Which threw all my water changes off following the disassemble of the refractometer. This tank crashed the same time I decided to add some bio filter blocks and a new skimmer. I was convinced that the blocks I bought from a guy were used in a fish only that was dosed with copper and that's what cleaned me out. I sold my tank and everything. I decided to start over. I have had the hardest time trying to cycle a tank. Fish will live all day in a salinity level of 1.006 but anemone won't. My tanks cycled for months and all my test were all low. I finally went and bought a new refractometer and found my other refractometer was reading 1.025 while the new one read 1.006. Hahahahahha kids!!!!! I love my boys!!!!!

 

[Emmagmrtz]

So I'm assuming you don't check your tank salinity often? Must of been forever. Because you would of know when testing your tank water how high the reading was and would of figured the refractometer needed to be calibrated.

 

[TonapahNorth]

Oh wow. I can't help but shake my head and say that I could see that happening in my house. I hope you get back in the hobby soon. You obviously were/are very good at it.

 

[FindNem0]

I'm back in

 

[FindNem0]

So I'm assuming you don't check your tank salinity often? Must of been forever. Because you would of know when testing your tank water how high the reading was and would of figured the refractometer needed to be calibrated.

I checked it during water changes. Which was once a week. I also switched over to aquaforest so the I cup of salt in 5 gallons was measuring 1.025 when really a cup and a half should of measured out to 1.025. What I didn't do was check the calibration. I now have multiple ways to check my salinity. I will be purchasing a controller shortly

 

[Emmagmrtz]

Still not adding up. Being that your refractometer was off -.19. Correct? Using info above. Your kids play with it and offset the calibration. Now the next time you would of used it you would of seen 1.044 once you checked your tank salinity. And if you only checked your fresh batch of water. Well that would of taken over a long period of time to dilute your salinity 1.006. I understand if it went out of calibration in over month with large water changes even a year. But that would of been caught asap since it was an over night thing. You get what I'm saying? Anyway it sucks no matter what hope it come 10x

 

[Water Dog]

If you do get a controller, do not rely on the conductivity probe to be an accurate and reliable indicator of salinity. It's more there for you to recognize consistency and trends. Invest in a Milwaukee digital refractometer, one my most valued reefing tools by far. Plus I'm blind as a bat and have a hard time reading a regular refractometer!

 

[FindNem0]

Do you maintain a reef tank? And I'm not talking about one or two pieces of coral. An entire reef. Once your perimeters are out you're done!! Once those corals start dying they take one another out. Nitrates spike, alkalinity down. Calcium down. My calcium from 440-380. SPS isn't living in 380. My bubble tips died. Once it crashes it crashes. Yes my salinity was reading around 1.040 and I did do a larger change to bring it down. It all makes sense. Why argue it? Do you think I'm making this up? Hahahaa for what?

 

[Emmagmrtz]

Do you maintain a reef tank? And I'm not talking about one or two pieces of coral. An entire reef. Once your perimeters are out you're done!! Once those corals start dying they take one another out. Nitrates spike, alkalinity down. Calcium down. My calcium from 440-380. SPS isn't living in 380. My bubble tips died. Once it crashes it crashes. Yes my salinity was reading around 1.040 and I did do a larger change to bring it down. It all makes sense. Why argue it? Do you think I'm making this up? Hahahaa for what?

Sorry if it seem if I was coming down on you. And I do know once coral start dying it will begin a dominoe effect. I had a crash before as well and couldn't pinpoint it out. I was just trying to kinda see what went wrong that you couldn't catch it before it did. Pines some pics of my tanks. Don't have any colony sized corals, just rebooted from my crash 2 month ago. And I'm not just your average hobbyist, I actually have to much time on my hand and actually read lots and lots of articles post, reef swaps and attend the speeches and try to learn as much. So I try to give best advice that I can. I'm surprised some reefer been in the hobby twice as long as me and learned nothing yet, but usually happen in many of my hobby people don't care. And just as a DISCLAIMER non of that above is meant toward you. More of a rant. Surprisingly I'm sure someone will take it as if I was talking to them directly

 

[Ashish Patel]

I am sorry for your loss.. I am a old school hobbyist... So I have like 3 hydrometer so i've always checked at least 2 to cross check. I also don't worry about it much as I've pre measured salt containers for each 5 gallon of water that has been tested to give a 1025 reading - which is fine for mix reef and FOWLR systems. Since now I am setting up my first SPS tank, its my main priority to keep Alk, Temperature, PH, and salinity (in that order) stable from the start. Therefore, I have to use a refractometer and will be adding an Apex after few months. Thanks in advance for saving us a potential similar problem down the road.

 

[FindNem0]

IMO there are just some things that can't be taught from a book and just come from experience. It wasn't a casual die off. My LPS looked like deflated balloons over night. I couldn't pin point it because when everything was shriveled and dead overnight!!!!! When it died, it died. I can't explain it to you. It wasn't a casual crash. I thought I possibly was electrically shocking my fish from a pump because my tank wasn't grounded. I don't claim to know anything like the some of the nerds on here. Some of these cats are wicked smart. But after trying to cycle two tanks and noticing the levels on both tanks low in all categories I decided to purchase a new refractometer. When I tested my water Friday and saw it was at 1.006, I knew that's what caused my tank to crash 8 months ago. You can take any tank and change the perimeters over night and your stuff will be dead. Especially when I did that 40% water change to bring it down
When my tank was healthy my salinity sat at 1.026, calcium450, dhk 9.5, magnesium 1350, 0 nitrates, PH 8.3. It never budged or fluctuated. Call me a newb, I can care less. When this tank crashed, it was gone and smelled like a dead body overnight. That's my experience. Not yours or anyone else's.

 

[FindNem0]

I didn't share this to be criticized. My wallet suffered that humiliation. I shared this to keep people from making the same mistake by NOT calibrating their refractometer. Or using different methods of checking it.

 

[FindNem0]

I am sorry for your loss.. I am a old school hobbyist... So I have like 3 hydrometer so i've always checked at least 2 to cross check. I also don't worry about it much as I've pre measured salt containers for each 5 gallon of water that has been tested to give a 1025 reading - which is fine for mix reef and FOWLR systems. Since now I am setting up my first SPS tank, its my main priority to keep Alk, Temperature, PH, and salinity (in that order) stable from the start. Therefore, I have to use a refractometer and will be adding an Apex after few months. Thanks in advance for saving us a potential similar problem down the road.

Yeah for sure!!!! Don't forget calcium. Those SPS corals love that Rich calcium. Calcium reactors are suppose to be great adds to systems like that. Make sure you get that calibration solution for your refractometer. Use that hydrometer as well. I'm definitely going to make a pre-measure cup.

 

[Maacc]

Man, so sorry for your loss and totally see how it happened. Great to see you back on the horse. I am sure your new tank will look great.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Yeah for sure!!!! Don't forget calcium. Those SPS corals love that Rich calcium. Calcium reactors are suppose to be great adds to systems like that. Make sure you get that calibration solution for your refractometer. Use that hydrometer as well. I'm definitely going to make a pre-measure cup.

Yeah good point with the calibration.. What is a good refractometer you would recommend and not-recommend. I am so tempted to buy a $25 one from amazon but just dont' want to have to replace it in few months - which probably will happen.

 

[FindNem0]

Well I had a JBJ and I just bought a REDSEA

 

[Water Dog]

Careful with the RedSea, you have to calibrate it every time you use it with 35ppt calibration solution.

 

[jlear3]

Sad day OP but one I think a lot of us have dealt with. Learning in this hobby can be easy or very hard. Cheap or very expensive... Lol

 

[FindNem0]

Careful with the RedSea, you have to calibrate it every time you use it with 35ppt calibration solution.

Really? I'll have to get a bottle of that

 

[Water Dog]

It's like 6 bux at BRS and lasts quite a while. Just make sure you close the cap tightly so evaporation won't throw off the solution.