BitReef
Active Member
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2020
- Messages
- 216
- Reaction score
- 209
- Location
- Edmond
- What state or country do you live in
- Oklahoma
Tldr:
Recently tested my salinity and it was 1.019. In the process of raising it, my Alk and Cal both dropped ridiculously low and I am trying to get everything back into balance.
Full story:
35 gallon reef tank with softies, LPS and some hardy SPS. Dosed with All for Reef.
I regularly test the salinity of new water I use for water changes, but rarely test the salinity of my tank. I figured, if the new water is fine, no need to test the tank. Well, lesson learned. Three weeks ago, on a whim, I checked the salinity of my tank and it was 1.019!
I have no idea how it got so low. My best guess is that during water changes I have been taking out slightly more than a gallon of water and only replacing one gallon. I rarely run a skimmer and don’t have much salt creep.
Anyway, I have been slowly raising the salinity by adding salt water to my ato and doing a few water changes with over salty water. That was going fine,until…
After about 2 weeks I checked my Alk, which is usually fine, and found it to be 5.5! So I started to raise my Alk back up using sodium bicarbonate. That was going fine, until…
Today I tested my Cal and it was 250ish. So now I’m starting to dose calcium chloride.
Looking back, all of these mistakes should have been obvious, but it’s my first time working through something like this. Hopefully I’m on the right track to fix everything. It’s crazy how interdependent all of these variables are.
Luckily, all my corals have been fine through it all. I did lose one firefish just prior to discovering the salinity issue, but I don’t know if it was a contributing factor.
Any thoughts, recommendations or comments are welcome.
Recently tested my salinity and it was 1.019. In the process of raising it, my Alk and Cal both dropped ridiculously low and I am trying to get everything back into balance.
Full story:
35 gallon reef tank with softies, LPS and some hardy SPS. Dosed with All for Reef.
I regularly test the salinity of new water I use for water changes, but rarely test the salinity of my tank. I figured, if the new water is fine, no need to test the tank. Well, lesson learned. Three weeks ago, on a whim, I checked the salinity of my tank and it was 1.019!
I have no idea how it got so low. My best guess is that during water changes I have been taking out slightly more than a gallon of water and only replacing one gallon. I rarely run a skimmer and don’t have much salt creep.
Anyway, I have been slowly raising the salinity by adding salt water to my ato and doing a few water changes with over salty water. That was going fine,until…
After about 2 weeks I checked my Alk, which is usually fine, and found it to be 5.5! So I started to raise my Alk back up using sodium bicarbonate. That was going fine, until…
Today I tested my Cal and it was 250ish. So now I’m starting to dose calcium chloride.
Looking back, all of these mistakes should have been obvious, but it’s my first time working through something like this. Hopefully I’m on the right track to fix everything. It’s crazy how interdependent all of these variables are.
Luckily, all my corals have been fine through it all. I did lose one firefish just prior to discovering the salinity issue, but I don’t know if it was a contributing factor.
Any thoughts, recommendations or comments are welcome.
Last edited:
