Bought salt water from LFS....BIG mistake!

[Dustin813]

I bought some pre mixed salt water at my lfs yesterday to do a water change today. I have a 65g reef tank and usually do a 10-15% water change weekly, but since I have been battling elevated nitrates and phosphate, I have been changing 20% of the water weekly for the last 3 weeks. Tested water this morning and it tested out as:

Salinity 1.024
Mg- 1400
Ca- 425
Kh- 9.2
No3- 24ppm
Po4- .48 (I know this is very high, and have reduced feeding for about the last week, and cleaned all equipment including cleaning out the sump)
Temp- 79
Ph- 8.0

After draining 12.5g from the tank, I began to add new saltwater to the tank. The water I was adding looked a bit “milky” when I was pouring it in, but I didn’t think much of it since I was pouring under my blue lights. I usually do the water change in the morning, when the lights aren’t so blue. At any rate, after adding about 10 gallons, I realized that the water in the tank had clouded up badly and all of my corals very quickly sucked in. At that point it occurred to me that extremely salty water had a milky look to it. I tested salinity and it tested at 1.037. I immediately pulled 5 gallons of water out of the tank and replaced it with fresh water, bringing tank salinity down to 1.030. All of my corals are still in and the fish are noticeably stressed.

I took a sample of the water up to my lfs immediately to let them know what happened and also let them test the water, so they would believe me. The water I was adding tested at almost 1.080. The owner consulted a couple of his employees, and one of them said they had put a sign on the pump that feeds RODI top off water into the salt tank, saying that it was broken and another pump was on the way. Basically, for 2 weeks their water has been evaporating without any top off.

So here are my questions. 1- what should I do next to ensure that I don’t lose my livestock and corals? I’m sure all of my other parameters are out of whack after this.

2- What should my expectation of my lfs be in the event that I do lose my tank.

This has never happened to me before, so I’m concerned that I am going to lose my tank. Have any of you had this experience? I guess at the end of the day, it’s my fault for not testing the water I’m putting in my tank, which I normally do. Got lazy, and paid for it. Hopefully not too bad though.

 

[Tuffyyyyy]

You should be fine. I've forgotten to turn my ATO back on for a week and not lost anything. You were lucky to catch it so quickly.

 

[dansreef]

That really sucks. I had an issue years ago...similar. I now mix my own.... but before I take any of my own premix and add it to one of my sumps... I always check the salinity. I use a refractor and also calibrate with solution from the MFG. Even doing this... I have had to adjust the salinity on occasions.

I hope things work their way out for you. Yes, I would hold the LFS accountable for the mess up.....as much as they will take. At the end of the day....it is still in your hands to check and double check.... my two cents worth.

 

[Dom274]

Most of the tank is going to look angry for a couple of days I bet, but I would be surprised if you actually lost anything. Bring the tank down .001 a day for 5 days and everything should be just fine. Mistakes like this happen - I've mixed up freshwater and freshly made saltwater buckets before myself and thrown the salinity out of whack - I don't remember any serious effects...

 

[leahfiish]

Something is fishy about thir story it would take a lot more than 2 weeks for the salinity to get up to 80. But regardless I think you'll be fine.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I think it's a darn good reason to buy your very own RO/DI unit and make your own water.

 

[Sipec]

Something is fishy about thir story it would take a lot more than 2 weeks for the salinity to get up to 80. But regardless I think you'll be fine.

I’d think it would depend on a lot of factors, heat, humidity, size of the mixing station...

 

[Dustin813]

Update- just tested all water parameters after allowing the tank to run for about 4 hours after water change.

Mg- 1760
Ca- 500
Kh- 9.3
Salinity- 1.029
No3- 16ppm
Po4- .39
Ph- 8.0

You guys think I’ll be ok? Going to change about 2 gallons out per day for the next week and replace with fresh water. I’m concerned about the big jump in mg.

 

[Dustin813]

Also, I spoke with the owner of the lfs again and he ensured me that should I lose anything from my tank, he will replace it free of charge. So, that’s good at least.

 

[leahfiish]

I think everything will be fine.

 

[srm077]

My opinion albeit harsh is why would you not test a water source before adding it to your tank? I change 150 gallons a week on my setup and have everything down to the gram and still test before the change. 5 minutes worth of work could prevent this situation. I am new to the hobby but having read many disaster stories I feel that testing is most important.

 

[Dustin813]

My opinion albeit harsh is why would you not test a water source before adding it to your tank? I change 150 gallons a week on my setup and have everything down to the gram and still test before the change. 5 minutes worth of work could prevent this situation. I am new to the hobby but having read many disaster stories I feel that testing is most important.

I agree with you completely. I am also new to the hobby, and this seems to be the way most learn new things. I guarantee you it’ll never happen again, at least not because I didn’t test the water.

 

[Rakie]

I think it's a darn good reason to buy your very own RO/DI unit and make your own water.

This is 100% essential. People who say otherwise are, IMO, misguided -- especially as those who say you don't need one always have their own.

Do not trust the LFS. Ever.

 

[five.five-six]

Don’t worry about the MG, 1900 is prettty much a non issue.

One interesting fact, MG has a refractive index about 10X sodium chloride so before you go ape, you might want to check your specific gravity with a good hydrometer.

you see, a refractometer doesn’t mesure salinity, it measures refractive index and high MG is going to effect the refractive index of your sample.

 

[HotRocks]

I am fairly new to hobby, have a good buddy that is expert level hobbyist, he instructed me not to enter the hobby without my own RO/DI. See my post link below about a little research I did. The other thing about LFS is who knows how often they change filters. I have made a couple thousand gallons with mine on original filters, still with a TDS Reading of 0003ppm. Its way cheaper too!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ro-di-experiment-tds-testing.336213/

 

[Som1else]

I am fairly new to hobby, have a good buddy that is expert level hobbyist, he instructed me not to enter the hobby without my own RO/DI. See my post link below about a little research I did. The other thing about LFS is who knows how often they change filters. I have made a couple thousand gallons with mine on original filters, still with a TDS Reading of 0003ppm. Its way cheaper too!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ro-di-experiment-tds-testing.336213/

100% agree. You are going to be topping off with water forever so it just makes good sense to have one. The most expensive parts of it are the membrane which need replacing every year or two usually and the DI resin. Speaking of the DI resin, you can recharge that yourself indefinitely and if you are willing to keep your Cation and Anion in separate cartridges its even easier to recharge it when your tds start to climb.

 

[Dom]

The moral of this story:

Test any water you use if you didn't make it yourself BEFORE using it.

 

[ectoaesthetics]

I have had this happen three times in the past. It sucks! I am pretty carful when it comes to my tanks, but sometimes your just in a rush with everything in life and do the change without checking the SG.

That being said the last time was 3 years ago... and I have never allowed anyone to mix my salt again. It caused a major issue that evening... However, as everyone stated above you will probably not have a serious problem. I would simply pull extra water out of the tank as you plan on doing and let my ATO take care of it. I might even just pull a 1/2 gallon out 4 times a day or a gallon 2x a day to slow down the change.

 

[greg1786]

Just to echo most of the good advice so far, as long as you lower it back to normal slowly, I think you'll be ok. You already know your mistake so I will not harp or add any unnecessary advice/ criticism. However to help ease your mind a bit....

About 4 or 5 years ago I was switching over from a 55gal reef setup to a 125gal. It all had to be done in 1 shot as the 125 was going in the same place I had broken down the 55 and I had no person or place to hold my livestock. Long story short at the end of filling the 125 I had a 2 brute trash cans one with fresh RODI water and one with salt water all mixed and ready to go. Not paying attention I added the RODI water instead of the SW and needless to say it dropped my salinity insanely low. I wasn't as fortunate to catch it as fast as you were though. I realized the following morning when I woke up and everything looked very stressed. I'm the end I only lost a starfish so seeing as you caught it so quickly I think you will be just fine. Good luck and welcome to the hobby!

 

[azreeftank]

My opinion albeit harsh is why would you not test a water source before adding it to your tank? I change 150 gallons a week on my setup and have everything down to the gram and still test before the change. 5 minutes worth of work could prevent this situation. I am new to the hobby but having read many disaster stories I feel that testing is most important.

Amen brother I have mine down to a Science and I STILL double check my water before it goes in my tank. That’s the first thing I got before my tank an RODI System because I would never trust anyone else’s water. I always wonder do stores really worry about zero tds?? I mean what do they care if they sell bad water it goes in your tank and you get Algea and then they are there to sell you all sorts of crap to remove Algea. Do they clean the RO filters?? Change them when the DI is used up?!!