When and how to chance salinity

[oKrazyii]

So i am almost to the point that i am ready to start adding coral to my tank, ive gotten all my stuff setup and my tanke has been aging for a while, i will still wait for the 6 month mark but i have a question about salinity. I am currently using red sea salt (not the coral pro) but im wondering at what point i should change to the coral pro and how i should go about doing it? would it be too much stress on my fish to just start doing my weekly water changes (anywhere from %20-%40) with coral pro right now? and just let the salinity change that way? or is there a better way to go about it to not stress the fish so much?

 

[oKrazyii]

also wondering if anyone has some advice on a good first coral to start with? i was thinking of getting one fo those magnetic rocks that id stick onto my back wall and add some gsp or xenia to it to keep in contained maybe? not too sure lol

 

[ColorMeGone]

You want your salinity to always be the same no matter what salt you use.
Changing salts is up to you but I would choose one type and stay with it to keep spec's in check.

 

[ColorMeGone]

If wanting to add something to the wall I would go with GSP. but that just me.

 

[exnisstech]

Just wondering why you feel you need to change salt? I run an acro dominant tank as well as 3 other tanks on regular instant ocean and everything does well. Not recommending you change to IO I'm just curious why you feel the need to change at all.

PS: The GSP on the back started as a small piece glued directly to the overflow box

 

[oKrazyii]

Just wondering why you feel you need to change salt? I run an acro dominant tank as well as 3 other tanks on regular instant ocean and everything does well. Not recommending you change to IO I'm just curious why you feel the need to change at all.

PS: The GSP on the back started as a small piece glued directly to the overflow box

Well my lfs is where I buy my salt and water, they sell pre bagged salt and ro/do water and they have a chart that shows their bags have different levels of salinity for different types of tanks, the normal saltwater tank salinity is what I’ve been buying but their coral pro bags for reef tanks claim to have a higher salinity so I figured I was supposed to raise salinity

 

[vetteguy53081]

So i am almost to the point that i am ready to start adding coral to my tank, ive gotten all my stuff setup and my tanke has been aging for a while, i will still wait for the 6 month mark but i have a question about salinity. I am currently using red sea salt (not the coral pro) but im wondering at what point i should change to the coral pro and how i should go about doing it? would it be too much stress on my fish to just start doing my weekly water changes (anywhere from %20-%40) with coral pro right now? and just let the salinity change that way? or is there a better way to go about it to not stress the fish so much?

Keep it stable as possible but a 1% +/- change will have little to no impact.

 

[exnisstech]

As @ColorMeGone stated you want your salinty consistent. For coral most run salinty at 1.025-1.026 regardless of what salt is being used. It sounds like maybe your lfs sells for fowlr tanks and coral tanks. Fish only tanks can run at lower salinty than tanks with coral and inverts.

FWIW i have my own rodi system and only buy salt in manufacturer packaging. I never trust anyone but myself to measure mix and confirm salinty of every new batch.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

FWIW, don’t be fooled by the name of the Red Sea coral pro. Any salt mix is fine for corals.

 

[Fish Fan]

Well my lfs is where I buy my salt and water, they sell pre bagged salt and ro/do water and they have a chart that shows their bags have different levels of salinity for different types of tanks, the normal saltwater tank salinity is what I’ve been buying but their coral pro bags for reef tanks claim to have a higher salinity so I figured I was supposed to raise salinity

I think I see the disconnect here. You don't change salinity when you get corals, rather; you need to account for corals using up available alkalinity ions, calcium, and magnesium are the "big three". That Coral Pro salt contains higher levels of alk, calc, and mag than the regular sea salt mix you've been using. Even when you have corals, you don't necessarily need the Coral Pro salt mix. You can dose alk/calc/mag in other ways. If you're just getting started and only keeping soft corals like GSP and Xenia, keeping higher levels of alk/calc/mag is less of a concern because soft corals are not building a calcium carbonate based skeleton like their stoney cousins. I hope that helps!

EDIT: I just reread your post I quoted here, and it is true that some tanks run at different salinities, so you may well be right about that chart. For example, sometimes tanks with only fish are run at a lower salinity to try to minimize fish parasites, and to save a couple of bucks on salt mix each year. But if you want to keep corals as well as fish, I'd suggest a salinity of about 35 ppt, and keep that stable no matter what salt mix you go with.

Good luck!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I use coral pro on my main tank. The other 3 tanks get the cheapest salt I can find, so I switch my salts very regularly. As long as salinity and temperature are matched it means nothing to the fish, and as mentioned above, for corals you need to test the parameters and compensate.