SirRoadwolf
Active Member
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2018
- Messages
- 116
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- 77
It seems that everyone has had this happen... They leave the ATO tank on manual, turned on, and overflow the sump... Then, the excess water gets pumped out... And your salinity is down to about 1.016 >.>
Luckily, in my case, my sump is in my basement, so the overflow of water wasn't an issue... it can land on the concrete, and drain in the nearby drain. But obviously the salinity issue was a problem. I noticed the issue about an hour after the event happened, by simply walking past the tank, and looking at the coral polyps, and seeing many of them closed up. I was like.. oh oh. And checked the salinity right away.
Now, I hadn't really read up on what to do in this situation, but my first instinct, was to dump salt in to raise the level up... And so I did. In my case, my sump is about 15 feet of pipe away from the aquarium, through a chiller, and a manifold, and then up a floor to my office above the sump room. so I believe that the salt mixes just fine in the pipe by the time it gets to the aquarium, so I typically add it right into the pump chamber.
within minutes, I estimated the mix, by adding salt into the pump chamber, testing it with my refractometer, and then testing the incoming water to the sump with the refractometer. When I got close, to about 1.024, I went upstairs, and tested the water from various points within the tank, then slowly added a little bit more salt to bring it back up to 1.025 where it was.
The tiny coral polyps were pretty much all closed, and hidden away on the piece of live rock they arrived into the aquarium on. I then saw and read up on the situation, reading several opinions, varying from adding ATO salt water to slowly raise the levels back up over a week, to doing it ASAP as I did, to some opinions that it really doesn't matter, or that the coral can be killed with the salinity going that low, or that the coral can survive, as it usually sees natural variations in nature.
By the time I got done reading a few threads, on here, and other forums, I began seeing the glowing tenticles of the coral emerging on the rock. As I finish writing this post, about half of the polyps have partially opened back up. So... I guess it isn't a loss... Just a lesson to learn from >.>
Luckily, in my case, my sump is in my basement, so the overflow of water wasn't an issue... it can land on the concrete, and drain in the nearby drain. But obviously the salinity issue was a problem. I noticed the issue about an hour after the event happened, by simply walking past the tank, and looking at the coral polyps, and seeing many of them closed up. I was like.. oh oh. And checked the salinity right away.
Now, I hadn't really read up on what to do in this situation, but my first instinct, was to dump salt in to raise the level up... And so I did. In my case, my sump is about 15 feet of pipe away from the aquarium, through a chiller, and a manifold, and then up a floor to my office above the sump room. so I believe that the salt mixes just fine in the pipe by the time it gets to the aquarium, so I typically add it right into the pump chamber.
within minutes, I estimated the mix, by adding salt into the pump chamber, testing it with my refractometer, and then testing the incoming water to the sump with the refractometer. When I got close, to about 1.024, I went upstairs, and tested the water from various points within the tank, then slowly added a little bit more salt to bring it back up to 1.025 where it was.
The tiny coral polyps were pretty much all closed, and hidden away on the piece of live rock they arrived into the aquarium on. I then saw and read up on the situation, reading several opinions, varying from adding ATO salt water to slowly raise the levels back up over a week, to doing it ASAP as I did, to some opinions that it really doesn't matter, or that the coral can be killed with the salinity going that low, or that the coral can survive, as it usually sees natural variations in nature.
By the time I got done reading a few threads, on here, and other forums, I began seeing the glowing tenticles of the coral emerging on the rock. As I finish writing this post, about half of the polyps have partially opened back up. So... I guess it isn't a loss... Just a lesson to learn from >.>
