Very high salinity

Trailermann · Apr 5, 2020

I have been trying to cure some very fresh very live rock I obtained. I set it up at the right temperature and salinity and prepared for the bad smell. It never happened. Every once a while I topped off the tub with RODI. Several weeks ago, i added a shrimp and did 50% water change.
It has been over four weeks and I began to get suspicious. Salinity 2.0, Nitrite, trace, Nitrate 0.0. Temp 75.5, ammonia 4.0, and then, salinity 1.035! I can't remember how long since i topped off the tub.

Could i have killed off all the critters and, algae and microbes?

Billldg · Apr 5, 2020

Good question. I can't say with 100 percent certainty. I would say that it shocked the bacteria and possibly killed some of it, but I doubt it killed it all. You may just have to cycle it again to build the bacteria colonies back up. As far as pest that could have been on the rock, that high of a salinity will kill them.

#reefsquad

saltyhog · Apr 5, 2020

I'm not sure I understand the last sentence. Are you saying after waiting quite a while your salinity had gone up from 1.026 to 2.100?! Yikes! I never glanced to see if my refractometer goes that high!

I don't for sure know the answer but I would strongly suspect that you're right thinking that high of salinity killed/prevented growth of your bacterial populations. Start over after getting your salinity to normal and use some bottled ammonia instead of the shrimp...then you won't have to put up with the smell. Adding a bacterial culture like Fritz Turbostart or Biospira or similar will also speed the process up.

Billldg · Apr 5, 2020

Yea, I didn't understand that part, I thought you raised the salinity to 1.035.

Trailermann · Apr 6, 2020

Yup, I let it rise to 1.035. Regarding killing the pests, I suppose that also means that the wonderful menagerie of interesting critters also got zapped. The live rock I got was a very special delivery of bio diversity.

Trailermann · Apr 11, 2020

Ammonia still through the roof, but nitrite is zero and nitrates almost zero. Wondering if I killed off ALL the bacteria, so that there is nothing left to digest the ammonia.