Problems with salinity

[Nick D]

I have a refractometer it’s approximately eight years showing salinity to be 1.025. I recalibrate every 30-40 days. I am Noticing my corals mostly softits are starting to retract and disintegrate so I tested my water at my live fish store and it was showing 1.006 so I bought a new refRactometer and I’m slowly getting my salinity back to normal. Will my Coral come back or is it too late as this has been going on for approximately 30 days. My Kh is usually around 8-10, this seems to hard to keep stable.
magnesium is low at 1120 and this is hard to keep in the 1300 range. Calc is 420. Any other issues I should Be testing for ? Nitrate, phosphate?
thanks in advance for any input. 30 yr.Reefer.

 

[T-J]

... live fish store...

LFS = Local Fish Store ;)
Sorry you're having problems. I'd never trust an 8 year old refractometer. I use a Hannah digital salinity reader. I calibrate it about once a month. I then compare it to my calibrated refractometer. If you are using refractometers, keep them clean and calibrate them to 35ppt. Don't used RO/DI water to calibrate to 0.
If they are disintegrating, they are probably too far gone. But you never know. Raise your salinity slowly through water changes. Or, you can let the water evaporate and not top it off to raise salinity.
As far as keeping thing stable: get an ATO. That'll take care of salinity swings. Check your alk/calc daily at the same time for a week. That should give you an idea of how much is being consumed per day, so you can dose to keep it stable.

 

[Nick D]

LFS = Local Fish Store ;)
Sorry you're having problems. I'd never trust an 8 year old refractometer. I use a Hannah digital salinity reader. I calibrate it about once a month. I then compare it to my calibrated refractometer. If you are using refractometers, keep them clean and calibrate them to 35ppt. Don't used RO/DI water to calibrate to 0.
If they are disintegrating, they are probably too far gone. But you never know. Raise your salinity slowly through water changes. Or, you can let the water evaporate and not top it off to raise salinity.
As far as keeping thing stable: get an ATO. That'll take care of salinity swings. Check your alk/calc daily at the same time for a week. That should give you an idea of how much is being consumed per day, so you can dose to keep it stable.

Thank you. Helpful!

LFS = Local Fish Store ;)
Sorry you're having problems. I'd never trust an 8 year old refractometer. I use a Hannah digital salinity reader. I calibrate it about once a month. I then compare it to my calibrated refractometer. If you are using refractometers, keep them clean and calibrate them to 35ppt. Don't used RO/DI water to calibrate to 0.
If they are disintegrating, they are probably too far gone. But you never know. Raise your salinity slowly through water changes. Or, you can let the water evaporate and not top it off to raise salinity.
As far as keeping thing stable: get an ATO. That'll take care of salinity swings. Check your alk/calc daily at the same time for a week. That should give you an idea of how much is being consumed per day, so you can dose to keep it stable.

what do you recommend for dosing alk ? I heard baking soda but afraid to put foreign stuff in tank.

 

[T-J]

Thank you. Helpful!

what do you recommend for dosing alk ? I heard baking soda but afraid to put foreign stuff in tank.

I use 2 part Calcium and Alk from Bulk Reef. For alkalinity I use their Soda Ash:
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/1-gallon-mix-soda-ash-single-use-bulk-reef-supply.html