RODI leaked into tank

Shluffer

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My RODI broke (I think) and leaked into my tank. DT has dropped to 1.019. I see fish swimming and coral don't look dead yet.

How quickly do I raise the salt level back up? Should I remove rock or anything else form the tank? I have some snails but I'm guessing it's over for them. They are still attached yhe to tank walls.
 

admiralmcstabby

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Well I believe the general rule of thumb is raise by .002 a day. Which will be about three days for you. Corals don't always "show signs" immediately after some incidents, may take a day or two.

A drop in salinity affects corals in a pretty significant way, there's a balance at a cellular level that is maintained by keeping salinity at very specific levels and a decent drop that fast will affect the corals cellular structure. I hate to say this but if your corals come out ok after this you'd be lucky...and I'd be very happy and surprised for you (I don't NOT wish ill will, just being realistic).

And of course don't dump all the additional salt in at once, if you can try to drip it in as all of your inhabitants are already stressed enough, even a .002 increase at once will only add to it.

Good luck!
 

ReefChasers

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I wouldn't take any longer then 24 hours to raise it back up personally, but it likely hasn't killed anything yet and is not likely to kill any fish. But for your corals sake, I'd try to get it back up to the proper range over the course of 24 hours. (Not all at once, but not wait too long either.)
 

fishguy242

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hi what size tank?
 
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Shluffer

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300 gallons total water volume. Probably 250 in the dt.

I'm going to raise the sump salinity then turn the return pump on at 1%. Then increase the sum sg back up in a few hours. Is that a good approach?

I don't keep this much sw on hand. Going to have to use the skimmer to dissolve the salt.
 
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Shluffer

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It's not that much coral. I was planning on starting to reef up but hadn't gotten to it. If the fish make it ill countyself lucky.
 

DaneGer21

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I would use your ATO. Add new saltwater to your ATO and not RODI. Test salinity, and change out the ATO back to RODI when happy. It will be slow and gradual. That’s my opinion.
 
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Shluffer

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Now confirmed. Rodi unit broke. Never thought higher than the tank but not above it would be an issue.
 

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ATO* units can definitely siphon -- you can put a small-ish hole in the line just above the maximum water level of the reservoir (pointing down, so it sprays back into the reservoir while pumping) and this would stop the siphon when the pump shuts off by allowing air into the line. That's kind of slap-dash though I suppose. FYI A lot of ATO* units come with a 'siphon break' plastic piece that is to be installed in the line above the maximum water level in the reservoir -- so maybe you have one of those floating around some where.
 
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fishguy242

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just take out bucket of tank water add handful of salt, mix well add to sump ,check dt salinity 1/2 hour later,go from there,try to get back to .022-.023 tonight ,025-.026 tomorrow ,should be fine.. ;)
 
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Shluffer

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No direct connection between my rodi and tank. Rodi fills a 5 gallon bucket. Bucket is below the water line. Ato then fills the sump using a pump that is capped at 2 minutes every 8 hours through a pipe which sits 5 inches above the water line. It's not possible to get a siphon.

What happened: The rodi itself broke. the 4 way valve started leeking. Most of the leak went on the floor. Some ended up in the overflow (random luck). Sump hit max level and shutdown the return pump.
 
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Shluffer

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Should I add prime in case untreated water (pre rodi) ended up in the tank?
 
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Shluffer

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I setup an aqualifter to slowly add tankwater to container with salt in it. As the container overfill water drips into the return portion of my sump. Should bring up salinity really slowly overnight, but not enough for the corals. Will add more salt to the container in the am.

The fish who are swimming (most hide at night) don't look stressed. Time will tell.
 

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No direct connection between my rodi and tank. Rodi fills a 5 gallon bucket. Bucket is below the water line. Ato then fills the sump using a pump that is capped at 2 minutes every 8 hours through a pipe which sits 5 inches above the water line. It's not possible to get a siphon.

What happened: The rodi itself broke. the 4 way valve started leeking. Most of the leak went on the floor. Some ended up in the overflow (random luck). Sump hit max level and shutdown the return pump.
Ah I see what you are saying, the RO unit itself not the ATO, that is a little scarier in fact just because of the chance you got un-filtered water in there. But I wouldn't really stress about it too much, adjust the salt up as you have planned sooner rather then later, then you can always follow up with a water change or two to dilute any residuals out.
 
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Shluffer

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I started the slow water add 3 hours ago. It's unlikely the salinity will increase fast enough for the coral but I'm more worried about the fish. Will probably take two days to get the Salt level back up.

I picked up. New 4 stage rodi instead of fixing the one I have. Marine Depot liquidation. If I want more stages I'll pull them off the broken one.

Going to have to reorganize the fish room to remove this risk. Good news is that the failsafe programed into my apex shut down the pump. Otherwise everything would be dead. Nice that it paid for itself.
 

admiralmcstabby

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I'm not sure what kind of plumbing you have, but if you can I'd definitely invest in some one way valves as well. While other options aboce (drilling holes to break siphons, etc) are also great contingency plans, I have always found you can ***never*** have too many contingencies in an aquarium!

How did everything do through the night? Still have all your livestock?
 
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Shluffer

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The fish seem OK but I haven't seen my mandrine or wrasse. Will check on them again soon.
 

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I'd do 10-20% water changes with higher salinity water (like 1.025 - 1.027) over the coarse of a day until I got it up. Personal opinion. You can mix highly salty water and just add it in slowly over time, but on a tank that big and the risk of "sprinkling" salt mix directly on already stressed corals...I wouldn't.
 

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I had the same issue last week with super low salinity. 1.018 and what I did was pump about 10-20 gallons out into a brute can, increase the salinity in the bucket to 1.025 then add back into the tank. I had to do this about 4 times over the course of 5-6 hours and it worked for me. I have fish only in this tank also.
 

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