Did my fish die from low salinity?

[mgkg327]

I’ve lost 3 fish this week. Yellow tang one day then my yellow wrasse and banggai cardinal two days later.

I met up with a fellow hobbies who gave me some salinity calibration fluid and it looks like my refractometer was off by about .004. I was reading 1.025 when it was really 1.021 if I’m trusting this fluid. I have two clowns and a wrasse that have been breathing hard and not eating well the last two days. Does that sound like salinity could have killed the first fish or is that not enough of a swing?

I calibrated my refractometer with ro water months ago when I started the tank so they have been living in this salinity level since then. Wondering if I still have something else going on like flukes or oxygen issues.

 

[Reefering1]

1.021 won't kill your fish...

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I’ve lost 3 fish this week. Yellow tang one day then my yellow wrasse and banggai cardinal two days later.

I met up with a fellow hobbies who gave me some salinity calibration fluid and it looks like my refractometer was off by about .004. I was reading 1.025 when it was really 1.021 if I’m trusting this fluid. I have two clowns and a wrasse that have been breathing hard and not eating well the last two days. Does that sound like salinity could have killed the first fish or is that not enough of a swing?

I calibrated my refractometer with ro water months ago when I started the tank so they have been living in this salinity level since then. Wondering if I still have something else going on like flukes or oxygen issues.

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

That salinity is not dangerous to fish at all. In fact, it actually lowers stress in fish in some cases. You can move fish straight from 1.025 to 1.021 with just a 30 minute gradual acclimation.

I’d suggest that your fish has some gill disease.

Does the tank have any invertebrates? If they are fine, then fish disease is probable here.

 

[Dom]

I have two clowns and a wrasse that have been breathing hard and not eating well the last two days. Does that sound like salinity could have killed the first fish or is that not enough of a swing?

No... I don't believe it is low salinity. Your salinity isn't that low, but should be corrected.

It sounds to me like disease killed your fish. Do you quarantine?

 

[OrionN]

salinity unit is ppt (part per thousand). Normal salinity is around 35 ppt
Specific gravity units gm/ml (gram per milliliter) the usual value for reef tank is around 1.026 gm/ml or so. Many LFS keep their tanks ar 1.018 or so. SG of 1.021 will not cause any harm to your fish.


Regarding the accuracy of your refractometer, calibrate with RO water is fine. If you calibrated your refratometer and the check your RO water. It it read anything other than 0, you should either throw the solution away (or throw the refractometer away)

 

[mgkg327]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

That salinity is not dangerous to fish at all. In fact, it actually lowers stress in fish in some cases. You can move fish straight from 1.025 to 1.021 with just a 30 minute gradual acclimation.

I’d suggest that your fish has some gill disease.

Does the tank have any invertebrates? If they are fine, then fish disease is probable here.

Darn, was hoping it was just salinity. I do have snails and hermits in there without issue

 

[mgkg327]

No... I don't believe it is low salinity. Your salinity isn't that low, but should be corrected.

It sounds to me like disease killed your fish. Do you quarantine?

I don’t have a quarantine setup. I got two clowns as starters from my LFS, then got several from biota thinking they couldn’t have any parasites, then got two wrasses from another site that claims to do medicated quarantine but fish started dying a few weeks after I got those two fish. I did get a couple coral a few weeks ago too, dipped them but no quarantine. It sounds like dipping isn’t enough to prevent potential fish diseases coming in on them though

 

[mgkg327]

salinity unit is ppt (part per thousand). Normal salinity is around 35 ppt
Specific gravity units gm/ml (gram per milliliter) the usual value for reef tank is around 1.026 gm/ml or so. Many LFS keep their tanks ar 1.018 or so. SG of 1.021 will not cause any harm to your fish.


Regarding the accuracy of your refractometer, calibrate with RO water is fine. If you calibrated your refratometer and the check your RO water. It it read anything other than 0, you should either throw the solution away (or throw the refractometer away)

I calibrated with ro and got zero but that same calibration gave a result of 1.030 when using the calibration fluid the guy gave me. So maybe just a piece of garbage refractometer that needs to be thrown away. I already have a Hanna salinity checker coming, had good reviews. Hope you all don’t say otherwise :/

 

[NanoNana]

I calibrated with ro and got zero but that same calibration gave a result of 1.030 when using the calibration fluid the guy gave me. So maybe just a piece of garbage refractometer that needs to be thrown away. I already have a Hanna salinity checker coming, had good reviews. Hope you all don’t say otherwise :/

I’d be more suspicious of the calibration fluid than the refractometer.
What’s your tank size? How many fish do you have and how old is your tank?
What is your ammonia level and what test kit you using?

 

[CO2TLEY]

I calibrated with ro and got zero but that same calibration gave a result of 1.030 when using the calibration fluid the guy gave me. So maybe just a piece of garbage refractometer that needs to be thrown away. I already have a Hanna salinity checker coming, had good reviews. Hope you all don’t say otherwise :/

My Hanna salinity checker failed on me just under a year of use. Most people have success with them from what i see on r2r, hopefully you have the same luck. Just calibrate it once a month at least, with the Hanna calibration packets, make sure to clean it off with RO water after every use

 

[mgkg327]

I’d be more suspicious of the calibration fluid than the refractometer.
What’s your tank size? How many fish do you have and how old is your tank?
What is your ammonia level and what test kit you using?

125 gallon waterbox, it’s been up for about 3 months and had 7 fish. All the fish that died were in there for about 1.5 months. Ammonia has read zero every time I’ve tested after the initial cycle but I do only have API test kits for ammonia / nitrite. Using Hanna for nitrates which have been below 20 by each water change

 

[NanoNana]

125 gallon waterbox, it’s been up for about 3 months and had 7 fish. All the fish that died were in there for about 1.5 months. Ammonia has read zero every time I’ve tested after the initial cycle but I do only have API test kits for ammonia / nitrite. Using Hanna for nitrates which have been below 20 by each water change

Okay, you’re going to get more help in the fish diseases thread. Post there with pics of your affected fish taken under white light. Read the directions for what info you should post and give it an emergency tag.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’ve lost 3 fish this week. Yellow tang one day then my yellow wrasse and banggai cardinal two days later.

I met up with a fellow hobbies who gave me some salinity calibration fluid and it looks like my refractometer was off by about .004. I was reading 1.025 when it was really 1.021 if I’m trusting this fluid. I have two clowns and a wrasse that have been breathing hard and not eating well the last two days. Does that sound like salinity could have killed the first fish or is that not enough of a swing?

I calibrated my refractometer with ro water months ago when I started the tank so they have been living in this salinity level since then. Wondering if I still have something else going on like flukes or oxygen issues.

Question is:
Any signs of heavy breathing, hiding, gasping at surface or scratching?

 

[mgkg327]

Question is:
Any signs of heavy breathing, hiding, gasping at surface or scratching?

It’s hard to see on the clowns but they seem to be breathing with more open mouths than normal. The melanarus wrasse is definitely breathing more heavily with a wide open mouth. The wrasse also scratches himself on rocks occasionally since I got him. None of them are at the surface often though. None hiding more than normal though the wrasse does go in the sand sometimes during the day

 

[vetteguy53081]

It’s hard to see on the clowns but they seem to be breathing with more open mouths than normal. The melanarus wrasse is definitely breathing more heavily with a wide open mouth. The wrasse also scratches himself on rocks occasionally since I got him. None of them are at the surface often though. None hiding more than normal though the wrasse does go in the sand sometimes during the day

Sounds like you may be looking at flukes/gill flukes and best treatable

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Darn, was hoping it was just salinity. I do have snails and hermits in there without issue

Does the tank have good aeration (not just circulation? Are there bubbles breaking the water’s surface? That can help buy some time if it is a gill disease like velvet.

Ultimately though, the remains fish would need to be treated with copper, but no invertebrates can be present when doing that. Not having a quarantine tank is bc an issue in treating this. Once fish loss has begun in a group of fish, it is difficult to stop it in time, sorry.

 

[Dom]

I don’t have a quarantine setup. I got two clowns as starters from my LFS, then got several from biota thinking they couldn’t have any parasites, then got two wrasses from another site that claims to do medicated quarantine but fish started dying a few weeks after I got those two fish. I did get a couple coral a few weeks ago too, dipped them but no quarantine. It sounds like dipping isn’t enough to prevent potential fish diseases coming in on them though

You must operate under the assumption that nothing has been quarantined. Lesson learned ( I hope ).

This isn't to say that you can't add un-quarantined fish to your tank. Many people here do not QT and yet, enjoy thriving tanks.

I'm not an expert on diseases (or anything in the hobby for that matter), but I would conclude disease was your issue.

 

[mgkg327]

Does the tank have good aeration (not just circulation? Are there bubbles breaking the water’s surface? That can help buy some time if it is a gill disease like velvet.

Ultimately though, the remains fish would need to be treated with copper, but no invertebrates can be present when doing that. Not having a quarantine tank is bc an issue in treating this. Once fish loss has begun in a group of fish, it is difficult to stop it in time, sorry.

I didn't originally but I've pointed the return nozzles more toward the surface and added the gyre that I hadn't installed before this week. There seems to be lots of surface agitation now.

I've offered the fish to people on FB that have quarantine setup in hopes that they can be saved. I don't think I can get setup with everything in time. Will go fallow for two months and revisit my whole reefing process I guess..

 

[Glowurm]

I didn't originally but I've pointed the return nozzles more toward the surface and added the gyre that I hadn't installed before this week. There seems to be lots of surface agitation now.

I've offered the fish to people on FB that have quarantine setup in hopes that they can be saved. I don't think I can get setup with everything in time. Will go fallow for two months and revisit my whole reefing process I guess..

Does the tank have a sump with a skimmer? Seems you had no power heads (until this week) so its possible you had an oxygen related issue if you were relying on a return pump for aeration.

 

[mgkg327]

Does the tank have a sump with a skimmer? Seems you had no power heads (until this week) so its possible you had an oxygen related issue if you were relying on a return pump for aeration.

Sump yes, skimmer no. I think it's likely that I also had oxygen issues but I'm now several days in with the return jets facing the surface and the powerhead now running, I would think that's enough aeration wouldn't you? Plus the "waterfall" of the overflow line into the filter socks. With those changes, there's no change in the remaining fish's behavior.