Salinity 1.021 29 ppt

[Reef-_-Noob]

I have been running my salinity on the lower side for 2 years.. I had better results with fish health so never upped it.

My alk now reads 9.8 and my magnesium was sub 1200, I can measure again.

I plugged these numbers into chat gpt and it says the salinity is low for running alk at 9.8

It was suggested to bring up the salinity to 35 ppt. Also, it assured me that magnesium stabilizes calc and alk to prevent it from precipitating out, which I began to notice yesterday with cloudiness. The precipitate has now subsided this morning.

Do I need to raise my salinity? Can I keep salinity the same and raise magnesium? Will there be more success at 35 ppt salinity?

Colors are good and I have growth rings so nothing too drastic just wondering how to maintain this balance I have now

 

[Ron Reefman]

Your salinity is a little too low for my liking, but if you are having good results, don't let Chat GTP talk you into changing. I'm not sure I'd even let 'experts' here change what you are doing. Trust what you see in your tank!

 

[JulesH]

I have been running my salinity on the lower side for 2 years.. I had better results with fish health so never upped it.

My alk now reads 9.8 and my magnesium was sub 1200, I can measure again.

I plugged these numbers into chat gpt and it says the salinity is low for running alk at 9.8

It was suggested to bring up the salinity to 35 ppt. Also, it assured me that magnesium stabilizes calc and alk to prevent it from precipitating out, which I began to notice yesterday with cloudiness. The precipitate has now subsided this morning.

Do I need to raise my salinity? Can I keep salinity the same and raise magnesium? Will there be more success at 35 ppt salinity?

Colors are good and I have growth rings so nothing too drastic just wondering how to maintain this balance I have now

If it’s working leave it, the temptation to tweak is very strong sometimes.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I personally would raise the salinity, but I would do it slowly. However, if your tank is doing fine with those numbers then I wouldn't tweak it

 

[Reef-_-Noob]

How does raising the salinity affect the other relationships? Does the chemistry become more stable? Less chance of precipitation. Less chance for the corals to be affected negatively at the higher alk?

 

[Skippy The Meh]

Very interesting post here, i love seeing what other people do and this is not a common one for sure!

Heres my 2¢:

My first thought was wow i bet its tough to get dosing right for ca, mg, alk? Second thought was why was his fish doing better in 1.021? Were other changes made around the same time?

I agree with others as far as what works for you stick with. If it becomes too difficult to keep elements stable, i would very slowly increase it during water changes. Dont be like me and just dump salt in, its a big mistake:)

 

[Marco_99]

Just curious what do you use to test your salinity and do you dose anything at all?

 

[get-salty]

if its getting difficult to maintain this level of salinity.. why not raise it up (slowly) to 34-35 ppm and hopefully everything else will stable out.

i can understand with the low salinity if you were to keep fish only - but you also have corals.

also, i highly recommend NOT following AI suggestions.
Im sure it is based on input of #s comparison with some baseline reef aquarium requirements and translates to human readable language lol.

just dont do it.

 

[Reef Jedi]

If this was a fowlr tank I’d say keep salinity where it’s at. However long term success with corals will depend on having the correct seawater concentration at 1.026.

You are correct in thinking it is somewhat better for fish due to disease being less common at a lower salt concentration. You’ll commonly find fish stores do this to minimize disease. On the flip side, corals do so much better at the normal sea water concentration and that may be why you’re having parameter issues.

I wouldn’t just trust chat gpt because it’s getting its advise from countless forums and articles stating sea water is 1.026 sg or 35ppm. If the tank is happy then there’s no need to change anything.

 

[Reef Jedi]

if its getting difficult to maintain this level of salinity.. why not raise it up (slowly) to 34-35 ppm and hopefully everything else will stable out.

i can understand with the low salinity if you were to keep fish only - but you also have corals.

also, i highly recommend NOT following AI suggestions.
Im sure it is based on input of #s comparison with some baseline reef aquarium requirements and translates to human readable language lol.

just dont do it.

Omg that’s funny, we were literally typing the same thing at the same time and we didn’t know it hahaha love good advise!

 

[get-salty]

Omg that’s funny, we were literally typing the same thing at the same time and we didn’t know it hahaha love good advise!

like wise lol !

 

[reefnoob83]

How does raising the salinity affect the other relationships? Does the chemistry become more stable? Less chance of precipitation. Less chance for the corals to be affected negatively at the higher alk?

Another noob! Hahha

 

[reefnoob83]

How does raising the salinity affect the other relationships? Does the chemistry become more stable? Less chance of precipitation. Less chance for the corals to be affected negatively at the higher alk?

Another noob! Hahha

Im guessing that raising salinity raises everything else because of what is added to the salt mix.

 

[EnterName]

Magnesium is pretty difficult to test correctly, so I would not rely too much on test kits.

Also: Use ChatGPT to find sources instead of using it as a source itself. LLMs are trained to produce logically sounding and well structured answers and arguments. This makes them very convincing even if they are spewing complete nonsense.

We know that corals require various elements that make up sea salt. But how much they actually require will differ from species to species. I can't tell you if there are corals you won't be able to keep at your specific salinity, but it will certainly be a bit more challenging to acclimate certain corals to your tank.

 

[Reef-_-Noob]

So I am measuring salinity with a hydrometer Accuprobe with the red floater.

I am investing in Hannah checkers slowly, so far I have UL phoshate, alkalinity, and magnesium.

Probably best to get a second reading on salinity before doing anything.

I took a reading on magnesium after dosing 300 ml over a week and now read 1660

 

[EnterName]

So I am measuring salinity with a hydrometer Accuprobe with the red floater.

I am investing in Hannah checkers slowly, so far I have UL phoshate, alkalinity, and magnesium.

Probably best to get a second reading on salinity before doing anything.

I took a reading on magnesium after dosing 300 ml over a week and now read 1660

From 1200 to 1660ppm with 300mL? That doesn't sound right. What are you dosing?

 

[Reef-_-Noob]

Red sea foundation magnesium. Does it sound far far off?? May have dosed 350 ml but no more than that. Also, I'm keeping some zoas monti cap cyphastrea gold torch hammer colony that colored back up ,a rainbow tenious that is very green, some acropora frags and a recovering chalice. Nothing is dying or doing bad only my cali tort is not doing anything very slow grower.

 

[EnterName]

RedSea Foundation (Liquid): 1mL increases magnesium by 1ppm in 100L.

So 300mL would manage to increase magnesium from 1200 to 1500 in a 100L tank. So it is possible depending on your tank size. I just didn't expect you to increase magnesium so much in such a short amount of time. 1350ppm is "the standard" for 35ppt salinity tanks, so 1600mg is a bit much, but I can't tell you if that already is "dangerously high".

 

[Reef-_-Noob]

I'm running 2 ai prime 16hd with this schedule, it looks pretty whacky, but I was trying to control the algae by reducing par, during the evening hours the colors have been really popping I've got that feeling like they are cooking!

 

[Reef-_-Noob]

I'm running 2 ai prime 16hd with this schedule, it looks pretty whacky, but I was trying to control the algae by reducing par, during the evening hours the colors have been really popping I've got that feeling like they are cooking!