!!!HIGH SALINITY, AM I A ONE MAN GANG? OR ANYONE ELSE IN??

[ESH]

Interesting post Adam. Ive been using Tropic Marin Pro salts for the last 6 months and am happy with them. I have been keeping my salinity measured around 1.025/26. It seems like I end up dropping when I add corals after acclimation due to not getting new saltwater into the tank before the ATO starts running, causing me to mix salt in the corner overflow. Corals seem happier right after I add salt, though not sure if its any coincidence or not.

Do you run anything else through your systems like GFO? Past build threads on your new system, I thought I only saw lots of live rock, calcium reactor and skimmer.

 

[mwilk19]

And that's what makes this hobby so confusing sometimes. Especially to noob's. You can have two tanks that have magnificent coral growth and coloration. When you compare their water parameters they'll be at different ends of the acceptable spectrum. It seems that there are so many things intertwined to have a successful reef tank that it's not just as simple as salinity, alkalinity,magnesium, and calcium. Some people have every gadget in the book dosing this and that and have beautiful tanks, while someone else will dose nothing and with just regular water changes they have just as beautiful of a tank. It can be frustrating sometimes.

 

[revhtree]

Very interesting!

 

[._Z_.]

Agreed Adam should send off and share some ICP results so we can gain more insight to his secret recipe

 

[declanisadog]

I have always ran mine between 1.025-1.026 because that's what it was when my tank was at it's best. Granted, that's also where it was when my tank was at it's worst...

 

[Battlecorals]

Agreed Adam should send off and share some ICP results so we can gain more insight to his secret recipe

Sure thing, my secrets are your secrets! lol

here was the main back in march

triton march 2017.pdf

 

[declanisadog]

It must be the Vanadium...

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

The potassium (443 ppm) is elevated, and some folks think that is desirable (some think it bad).

Seachem Vibrant salt mix really pushes that to super high levels (far higher than yours, >500 ppm).

 

[dragon99]

Sure thing, my secrets are your secrets! lol

here was the main back in march

triton march 2017.pdf

So curiously, that calculates out to a 35ppt salinity using this tool
https://monrecifamoi.saulme.fr/salinite/elements_compute_salinity.php

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

OMG, this is so funny (well, not really, but curious).

I had to edit my post above because I originally said 600 ppm for potassium in Vibrant, remembering earlier posts on the Seachem web site about potassium in Vibrant Sea Salt mix.

But when I checked just now, the numbers were lower. Huh?

Seems they changed the specific gravity for all the target levels. Not sure if the original was a typo, or if they changed the formula in the way i described earlier, with same target levels but lower salinity. Probably just a typo...

Current:

http://www.seachem.com/vibrant-sea.php

At a specific gravity of 1.026, Vibrant Sea™ will yield the following:

pH: 8.4-8.5
Alkalinity: 3-4 meq
Calcium: 425-445 mg/L
Magnesium: 1,250-1,350 mg/L
Potassium: 500-550 mg/L
Strontium: 8-10 mg/L

previous:

https://web.archive.org/web/20170606204503/http://www.seachem.com/vibrant-sea.php

At a specific gravity of 1.023, Vibrant Sea™ will yield the following:

pH: 8.4-8.5
Alkalinity: 3-4 meq
Calcium: 425-445 mg/L
Magnesium: 1,250-1,350 mg/L
Potassium: 500-550 mg/L

 

[Battlecorals]

So curiously, that calculates out to a 35ppt salinity using this tool
https://monrecifamoi.saulme.fr/salinite/elements_compute_salinity.php

That is interesting .

ill admit I wasn't really sure how to interpret salinity from the triton tests. I use the Milwaukee digital refracto and have two of them that ill bounce between just four redundancies sake. I can only assume that when either reads 1.028 that my SG close enough to that to be considered accurate. lol

 

[MTBake]

I get 1.027 to 1.028 when I check my system. I've left it there for the past 2 months now as I got tired of chasing it. This seems to be where my tank wants to be, lol. Everything is looking good and starting to grow.

 

[evan38109]

I use the Milwaukee digital refracto and have two of them that ill bounce between just four redundancies sake. I can only assume that when either reads 1.028 that my SG close enough to that to be considered accurate. lol

Huh. I use the same meter and when I checked it with calibration solution, found it always read high. Every 35ppt solution read 37ppt on the Milwaukee. I checked with several different batches of solution before just deciding to mix my salt at 37ppt. Corals were much happier as a result!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Well, being that the salinity of the red sea ranges from 36-42ppt or 1.027-1.030SG... a higher salinity than the "gold standard" 35ppt obviously won't hurt fish or coral, given the amount of fish and coral that come from the red sea... it actually may very well be better.

 

[Salty_Box_Reef]

About a year ago I was talking with you(Adam) and decided to make a couple changes. Added the photon v2 with supplemental strips, hung them 20” off the water, pulled gfo, and bumped my salinity to 1.027. Everything has been great since.

 

[wangspeed]

My Milwaukee digital refractometer reads .002 high with every calibration fluid I have ever tried. Curiously, the Hanna version is spot on. I compared against a friend’s with the same source water.

I asked Milwaukee about this during a MACNA conference and he was super defensive. It was an unpleasant conversation and I haven’t bought anything from them since then.

The Milwaukee digital refractometer is super consistent and never goes out of calibration, but always reads high. I hope people that use it know.

 

[dragon99]

My Milwaukee digital refractometer reads .002 high with every calibration fluid I have ever tried. Curiously, the Hanna version is spot on. I compared against a friend’s with the same source water.

I asked Milwaukee about this during a MACNA conference and he was super defensive. It was an unpleasant conversation and I haven’t bought anything from them since then.

The Milwaukee digital refractometer is super consistent and never goes out of calibration, but always reads high. I hope people that use it know.

Mine reads 37ppt when my refractometer and Apex read 35ppt. But as you said, it is consistent with that reading.

 

[Leslie Tabor]

I keep mine at about 1.026 to 1.027. Things seem pretty happy, have kept it there since the start. however, I don't do SPS either.

 

[bubblemytip]

I swing the other way and keep mine at 32-33ppt but keep calcium at 440ppm, mag at 1350ppm, KH at 8.5dKH and Potassium at 450ppm.

DSR Method does this too. Seems to work well.

 

[Joshua Kerstetter]

This is a battle I feel I've won and lost internally several times now. My original 50 Gallon salt water tank I did 0 water changes for over a year, did my ATO off direct well water, only passing through a sediment filter and water conditioner and never had any issues with fluctuating salinity, or ever saw it outside a perfect 1.025 using a hydrometer. Then I thought I'd get all fancy with my 220, started using RO water, got a Apex, started dosing 2 part at the same time, and after numerous High and Low swings, mostly due to my bad math, or carelessness one thing I kept seeing was. My fish and coral didn't care. Nothing died, nothing really changed. I'm not proud of this, but I really had crazy swings, in one day I think I displaced between 30-50 gallons of salt, and then RO water back and forth. Needless to say I made a mess, had many containers of water lying around, and was running around like a mad scientist. I relearned one very important thing during this whole transition. Make SMALL changes, and only one change at a time, do nothing for a least a week before making any other changes.. and never.. ever rely on just 1 instrument. Every time I think about how much salt and water I wasted because I wasn't patient and just let my Apex salinity probe acclimate it drives me nuts. Looking back now I never had anything die, and didn't notice that much, but I do remember a war coral going through an incredible growth spurt around the time my salinity was abnormally high and my new and first SPS I had bough also going gangbusters. I'm actually a little low as we speak 1.023 I think..my Apex is saying 35.7. I'm just going to let it ride. I lost 1 SPS coral 2 weeks ago. But I'm fairly sure it was because I moved a wave maker away from that area when I introduced a new fish and changed my flow to that particular area, it was a gorgeous piece, but I still see some life in it. One 2 separate occasions I've had SPS "rebirth" themselves, you can all BS on me, but I'll take pics when/if it happens again. As we've all said, every tank is different, everyone has their own experiences, I always strive for improvement, but if its not broke, I need to learn to leave it alone. And for now, that means letting my salinity go where it wants to, until I see a real reason to make a change.