Really high salinity slowing coral growth?

[Jonathan lee]

Ok so before i even get to the salinity part, i had a major tank crash while i was in isolation for bad covid. I had no idea the chillers pipe came loose and wasnt pumping water into the chiller so the tank boiled at 33c for probably 4 days and crashed and i only found out a few days later. I lost everything basically. Every softy and every mushroom are gone. They melted. Lost fish and inverts too. I was doing a water change today and calibrated both my refractometers(one generic and one for actual sea water) with a NEW bottle of 35ppt solution from brightwell. Err it was reading 40ppt…. Which means my older opened bottle of calibration solution is way off. Its been running at this salinity for over a year now. I was wondering why my corals stopped growing albeit they looked fine. I lowered it abit after the water change but will add more RO tomorrow. Does high salinity slow down coral growth? Like ALOT slower… from one head of duncan every 2 weeks to 0 new heads in 1 year! Favia also stopped growing when it would grow fast. I thought it was because my nitrates dropped from 25 to 2. But now i suspect it was the high salinity. Levels were like 500 cal, 1800 mag and alk at 8 which should be fine. Just the salt was really high

 

[MnFish1]

Ok so before i even get to the salinity part, i had a major tank crash while i was in isolation for bad covid. I had no idea the chillers pipe came loose and wasnt pumping water into the chiller so the tank boiled at 33c for probably 4 days and crashed and i only found out a few days later. I lost everything basically. Every softy and every mushroom are gone. They melted. Lost fish and inverts too. I was doing a water change today and calibrated both my refractometers(one generic and one for actual sea water) with a NEW bottle of 35ppt solution from brightwell. Err it was reading 40ppt…. Which means my older opened bottle of calibration solution is way off. Its been running at this salinity for over a year now. I was wondering why my corals stopped growing albeit they looked fine. I lowered it abit after the water change but will add more RO tomorrow. Does high salinity slow down coral growth? Like ALOT slower… from one head of duncan every 2 weeks to 0 new heads in 1 year! Favia also stopped growing when it would grow fast. I thought it was because my nitrates dropped from 25 to 2. But now i suspect it was the high salinity. Levels were like 500 cal, 1800 mag and alk at 8 which should be fine. Just the salt was really high

Sorry - it's really unclear what you're asking? Edit - your coral probably stopped growing because of the disaster in your tank - High salinity affects coral - it's impossible to say whether this was the cause or the heat? Were you asking something else?

 

[Jonathan lee]

Sorry - it's really unclear what you're asking? Edit - your coral probably stopped growing because of the disaster in your tank - High salinity affects coral - it's impossible to say whether this was the cause or the heat? Were you asking something else?

I was asking if high salinity slows coral growth. My tank just crashed cause tank overheated and i lost everything. Its a bare tank now. I just only realised salinity was high after the tank crash cause I calibrated my refractometers with a newly opened bottle of solution then did a water change. To find out the water is 40ppt. The corals were fine but not growing BEFORE the tank crash. Now after the crash theres nothing to grow anymore lol

 

[vetteguy53081]

I was asking if high salinity slows coral growth. My tank just crashed cause tank overheated and i lost everything. Its a bare tank now. I just only realised salinity was high after the tank crash cause I calibrated my refractometers with a newly opened bottle of solution then did a water change. To find out the water is 40ppt. The corals were fine but not growing BEFORE the tank crash. Now after the crash theres nothing to grow anymore lol

It can have adverse effects and best to test and try to maintain range of 1.024-1.026

 

[Reefering1]

I'm confused... crashed during covid, now doing w/c and realizing high salinity. Covid was 2020, its practically 2024... seems to be a lapse in tank history. Did it crash and dun attended until recently or have you been performing basic maintenance the entire time- just now realizing/questioning salinity.

 

[Jonathan lee]

I'm confused... crashed during covid, now doing w/c and realizing high salinity. Covid was 2020, its practically 2024... seems to be a lapse in tank history. Did it crash and dun attended until recently or have you been performing basic maintenance the entire time- just now realizing/questioning salinity.

Crashed when i had covid last week. Nobody told me and i was in isolation for 10 days in my room. Came out yesterday and did a water change to find the salinity really high. It has been like this for a year at least since thats how long ive been using that bottle of calibration solution. I also had almost no coral growth this whole year and was wondering if the high salinity was the reason. Sorry i was just rambling cause im in distress cause this is the first crash where i lost everything

 

[Jonathan lee]

It can have adverse effects and best to test and try to maintain range of 1.024-1.026

How fast can i drop the salinity? From 40 to 35ppt. Theres really no coral in there now except a candy cane, favia colony….. and my clownfish

 

[dstockwell]

I would say pull some water out and add back just rodi maybe take a couple of days to get it stable.

 

[dstockwell]

I'll stick with old reliable hydrometer

 

[vetteguy53081]

How fast can i drop the salinity? From 40 to 35ppt. Theres really no coral in there now except a candy cane, favia colony….. and my clownfish

Remove one gallon at a time and replace with RO water and test after an hour or two and keep adjusting until you reach desired level

 

[Jonathan lee]

I'll stick with old reliable hydrometer

Well, the bottle of calibration liquid is over a year old but not expired so i thought it should be fine but upon googling i see people saying they only keep it for 6 months before buying a new one.

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Well, the bottle of calibration liquid is over a year old but not expired so i thought it should be fine but upon googling i see people saying they only keep it for 6 months before buying a new one.

Yeah, I was going to say, before possibly overcorrecting in the other direction and definitely stressing your tank inhabitants, be sure you're confident about the salinity.

IMO, the best hobby grade tool for determining salinity is the Tropic Marin glass hydrometer.

 

[JayM]

Well, the bottle of calibration liquid is over a year old but not expired so i thought it should be fine but upon googling i see people saying they only keep it for 6 months before buying a new one.

I know it’s a long shot, but maybe the new bottle is a bad batch and the old is correct?

I’d take a water sample to the LFS and see what they say before you do anything drastic.

 

[ReefingDreams]

How do you know your current calibration fluid is accurate? It does make sense that some evap from the old fluid could cause the fluid to increase in salinity, while you're calibrating your refractometer to a lower threshold.

 

[Jonathan lee]

I know it’s a long shot, but maybe the new bottle is a bad batch and the old is correct?

I’d take a water sample to the LFS and see what they say before you do anything drastic.

Ok i will do that hopefully tomorrow. I actually saw a thread about how two new bottles of brightwell calibration liquid were reading different in a calibrated refractometer. Which is why i didnt wanna spend the 30 bucks on the small bottle. But since my levels are higher than it should be(according to the AF icp test for my batch of salt) i guessed my salinity would be higher? Thats why i bought a new bottle of calibration solution to test. Calcium was 50ppm higher than it should be, mag was 400ppm higher than it should be.

 

[Jonathan lee]

How do you know your current calibration fluid is accurate? It does make sense that some evap from the old fluid could cause the fluid to increase in salinity, while you're calibrating your refractometer to a lower threshold.

I dont know if its accurate. I can only trust brightwell on this. Its a new batch from this year. Newly opened yesterday. Im just hoping its correct. I will bring some water to my lfs and have him check to be sure

 

[Jonathan lee]

Yeah, I was going to say, before possibly overcorrecting in the other direction and definitely stressing your tank inhabitants, be sure you're confident about the salinity.

IMO, the best hobby grade tool for determining salinity is the Tropic Marin glass hydrometer.

I just checked the old bottle. It expired in 22 lol… i for some reason read as 23.

 

[vahegan]

Well, the bottle of calibration liquid is over a year old but not expired so i thought it should be fine but upon googling i see people saying they only keep it for 6 months before buying a new one.

I prefer to use calibration solution that comes in sealed single-use pouches. The only way a calibration fluid for salinity would go bad, is through evaporation, and that usually takes place through the bottle cap. I use Hanna pouches, but that is good for their own meter, which works through measuring conductivity. For regular optical refractometer, there was Randy's article on how to make your own calibration solution using RO water and table salt (you would also need accurate scales) - this is also good and reliable.

In regard with reducing the salinity - when I needed to do that, I did water changes, using RO water as replacement. It would be wise to do no more than 5% weekly, monitoring the results until the desired salinity is attained over several weeks. It is usually less painful for the inhabitants when you go downwards (i.e. drop the salinity), than a sharp increase.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

FWIW, salinity calibration fluid will never go bad except by evaporation or contamination.

For the tank to read high due to poor calibration fluid, the calibration fluid must be extra weak, which cannot be from evaporation.

So unless you contaminated it, or it was mismade (which may be), bad fluid is not causing the high tank salinity reading.

 

[vahegan]

FWIW, salinity calibration fluid will never go bad except by evaporation or contamination.

What do you mean by contamination? I can't think of anything other than adding significant percentage of RO water or tap water to calibration fluid (why would one do that, anyway?)