Salinity Level...Why Differing Opinions?

[Miss Reef Tank]

Hi,

I am new to salt water and i have been hearing all differnt opinions about what level the salinity should be.

My hydrometer says it should be 1.020 - 1.023
My local coral shop says it should be: 1.020 - 1.021
And i have read on forums that it should be 1.023 - 1.025

Whos right?

 

[incysor]

If you're doing a reef tank, 1.025 is the widely accepted goal.

If you're doing a fish only, (FO), or fish only with live rock, (FOWL), tank then going down to 1.019-1.021 will save you money by using less salt, and the lower salinity is hard on some parasites so the fish don't gennerally have to fight them off as much.

You will have a bit of swing in salinity from evaporation/top-off, but you want to try to stay as close to your target as possible. If you use an automatic top-off system you'll have much less drastic swings and it'll be less stressful on your system. After the move it took me nearly a month to get around to putting my top-off system back together. During that time I did two water changes and just kind of added fresh ro/di water when the level in the sump was getting low. My salinity fluctuated from 1.025, up to 1.031, and back. Nothing died, or even appeared visually to be stressed out, so a few degrees shift isn't a huge deal but it's really not optimal, and it CAN be a huge deal in a nano tank. Having the salinity swing like that on 110gals over a period of several days is much different than the same swing over several hours in 5gals. Once I got the top-of back on it, it's stayed steady at my target 1.025.

Brian

 

[djconn]

Yeah, it is interesting. I try to keep my tanks around 1.024. I have heard that lowering that number can sometimes help with parasites.

 

[wizord25]

yea, if you're keeping corals, try to keep it at 1.025. for fish only i would go to about 1.023, that way it can swing up or down a little without getting too high or too low.

 

[Miss Reef Tank]

Just an update... i have decided to go with my local coral shop, 1.020 - 1.021 because i buy alot of fish and coral from them, there tanks are beautiful, and its less stress on my new fish if i introduce them to a tank with the same salinity from which they came.

Thank you for your imput.

 

[incysor]

Just an update... i have decided to go with my local coral shop, 1.020 - 1.021 because i buy alot of fish and coral from them, there tanks are beautiful, and its less stress on my new fish if i introduce them to a tank with the same salinity from which they came.

Thank you for your imput.

Unless they've got a tank that's display only, that they never sell corals out of, I wouldn't trust this salinity level. Many stores run their systems at a lower salinity level because it saves them lots of money on salt, but that doesn't mean that it's good for the corals. They don't care because from their viewpoint the coral shouldn't be in their tanks long anyway, because it'll be sold.

Just having the same salinity level as the store doesn't make any difference in how you should acclimate your new critters. You should still float them so the temperature of the water can equalize, and you should still run a dripline to get ALL the water parameters as close to your tanks as possible. Just becuase you're salinty is the same doesn't mean your PH is the same. I watched a friend float a fish but he skipped a dripline and when he released his goby it immediately went into seizures and died. After running a test on another fish's water from that same store/purchase we found the stores PH was ridiculously low. Even though the salinity in the tanks and the bags were nearly identical the fish was a goner because my friend got lazy. He ran a dripline on the rest of the fish and they did fine.

Good luck with your tank.

 

[djconn]

Wow. That is crazy. :shock: