Recovering from 14ppt Salinity

[rickynho]

Hello everyone,

Thanks for reading this post.

I am in a difficult situation with my corals. I have lost nearly 8 acros, 3 goni, and two torches due to ultra low salinity (14ppt).

Here’s what happened to hopefully prevent another newbie like me from losing a lot of money, but more importantly, prevent killing beautiful corals.

My Red Sea ATO went haywire and created an overflow in my tank 4 times. The first time I didn’t know what happened and checked the ATO logs, nothing has been added according to the logs, but did reset the controller. The second time I did more research and led me to clean out the sensor thoroughly. That didn’t solve the problem and created a third overflow, I disconnected the pump from the controller and just left the water leak sensor. Lo and behold, a fourth overflow… this time with the pump cable disconnected from the controller. Short of smashing the ATO into pieces I disconnected everything and resorted to manual top offs.

Unfortunately during this 4 day ordeal, I completely overlooked that the overflows were diluting the water. This week I have lost over 10 corals and no signs of stopping.

I have brought salinity back to 30ppt but I am sure the tank is completely out of whack judging by the corals remaining, and how bad they look.

Does anybody have any suggestions on how to recover the tank from this? I did a major water change, 75 gallons into a 300 gallon tank, and started dosing again using Red Sea’s 4 part program.

Is this just a matter of time for the tank to cycle through? I’d hate to see the corals dying daily.

I am attaching a quick video of some stuff that's showed up on the rocks that wasn't there before, and I don't know how to treat it.

Any thoughts for this new reefer would be greatly appreciated

 

[mann1139]

I just want to confirm your timeline:

Your salinity dropped to 14 ppt over 4 days.

You brought it back to 30 ppt? How did you add salt, and over what time period?

Did you have any other die-off?

Have you tested for anything else? If so, can you post the results? If not, I would test the tank to see what parameters might be off. We would just be speculating without numbers.

 

[rickynho]

I just want to confirm your timeline:

Your salinity dropped to 14 ppt over 4 days.

You brought it back to 30 ppt? How did you add salt, and over what time period?

Did you have any other die-off?

Have you tested for anything else? If so, can you post the results? If not, I would test the tank to see what parameters might be off. We would just be speculating without numbers.

Thanks for your response.

The salinity dropped to 14 over a week (roughly 7 or 8 days). I just brought it back to 30ppt this thursday by doing a 25% water change, 75 gallons of fresh salt water into the 300 gallon tank.

During the 5 - 7 day of the salinity dropping, I lost a Tang and a Clown. Along with some Acros, which is what prompted me to check the parameters for something more severe. That's when I started the water change and getting the levels back to where they are now.

As of yesterday at 14:51, using my local fish store's test kit (an Aqua Spin), the measurements were

Aqua Spin Photometer (API)
ALK 8.9 dKH, pH 7.9, Phos 0.0, Ca 426, Mg 1386, Ammo 0.0, Nitrite 0.2, Nitrate 13

Today at 09:30, I used my HI97115 from Hanna and its reagents and got a reading of
ALK 11.8 dKH, pH 7.9, Phos 0.0, Ca 547, Mg 1280, Ammo 0.09, Nitrite 0.43 Nitrate 16.6

Salinity remains 30 ppt.

Fortunately, the fish are fine which includes 6 tangs, 4 angels, 2 chromis, 2 clowns. This morning, some of the softer corals like chalice are discoloring, and lost one red shrimp.

The parameters seem "okay" but it feels like there's no stopping the snowball effect like that's killing the corals.

 

[mann1139]

You have some die-off happening, that's spiking the Ammonia. Deal with that first.

 

[rickynho]

You have some die-off happening, that's spiking the Ammonia. Deal with that first.

I am working on it. Currently dosing the Red Sea Part 4, PO3:NO4 Algae Management, and Red Sea Coral Nutrition. I am thinking of dosing Microbacter7 to deal with the hard to reach die offs. Anything I should do for ammonia?