Idiot move!!!

[eliramos]

Just did a 5 gallon water change only to realize I used ro water!!!!
Crap!!!
Went from 1.025 to 1.019 shoot!!!
Did another quick change from the salt I had leftover from another jug brough it back up to 1.021
Any advice!?!?!

 

[calvo15290]

I put the salt in first and also we you don't belong in the hobby if youv never made a mistake you learn fin mistakes

 

[The_Stig]

Start putting brine into it if you have room. When I do this and need to make brine I lterally put 2-3 gallons worth of salt in a 1 liter bottle, mix with hot water and shake the bejesus out of it. Get it up a few more points then just start to replace evap'd water with mixed water till its where you want it. Try not to do water changes to get it where you want because that messes with a lot of different things, too much of that can shock the system and you will have an even worse situation on your hands.

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[eliramos]

Thanks guys!
My lfs doesnt open till 12 and I have work I just got to hope and pray that I dont lose anything till im able to get some salt!!!!

 

[The_Stig]

Thanks guys!
My lfs doesnt open till 12 and I have work I just got to hope and pray that I dont lose anything till im able to get some salt!!!!

You should be fine. .025 to .021 is not that big of a deal to most inhabitants. A natural reef sees a bigger drop than that during a storm and of course not everything dies immediately.

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[philr]

Experience is what you get when you dont get what you want. All should be fine for one day - the Stig even says so.....

 

[eliramos]

Thanks everyone anxietly levels are dropping lol Hoping for the best!
You all are great

 

[ReefMonkey13]

Only advice I can give is to raise it back up slowly.

If you have an ato use it to raise the salinity by replenishing the tank with salt water at a small amount at a time. Monitor the salinity during this time until it comes back to it normal level. Once back to normal change the ATO back to refresh RODI water.

Hope that helps. Good Luck

 

[eliramos]

yea thats what im going to have to do i gotta go buy water right after work! Thanks!

 

[jdl513]

As a rule you should always add salt to water not the other way around.

Adding water directly to dry salt makes for a saturated brine until diluted.
This brine can precipitate calcium out of solution and worse through your alkalinity out of balance.

If your salinity is at 0.021 sg I would take the slow approach ReefMonkey13 suggested.

 

[JohnC]

You should be fine, animals do much better with sudden drops in salinity than sudden rises. Just turn off your ato and let the water evap till its back up to the appropriate level. We all make mistakes, it happens, fortunately I don't think you will see many ill effects from this one. On a side note, I always check sg, ph, and temp at a minimum even on small water changes now because I had a similar incident happen. I got in a hurry once doing a water change and did not realize that the water I got from my lfs had the sg off the charts high. I caught it because I noticed the distortion that occurs when water of one sg is poured in to water of another sg. I added ro quickly to bring it back down within about 20 minutes and the tank was fine. But it taught me to always double check any water going in the tank.

 

[eliramos]

You should be fine, animals do much better with sudden drops in salinity than sudden rises. Just turn off your ato and let the water evap till its back up to the appropriate level. We all make mistakes, it happens, fortunately I don't think you will see many ill effects from this one. On a side note, I always check sg, ph, and temp at a minimum even on small water changes now because I had a similar incident happen. I got in a hurry once doing a water change and did not realize that the water I got from my lfs had the sg off the charts high. I caught it because I noticed the distortion that occurs when water of one sg is poured in to water of another sg. I added ro quickly to bring it back down within about 20 minutes and the tank was fine. But it taught me to always double check any water going in the tank.

Of course!
Honestly I always take that aproach it just so happened that I grabbed the wrong jug!
The salt water I use from my lfs is always the same salinity and I let it sit over night to match the temp but of course I grabbed the ro jug :banghead:
Well poop happens!
Just gotta hope for the best!

 

[swayd]

I did that a couple weeks ago. I was mixing 5 gallons of water then came home to add another 10 gallons of RO water and forgot to add salt and pumped it all into my display. I just added some saltwater and it was fine. no coral were affected and I got my salinity back to 1.024.

 

[JohnC]

Of course!
Honestly I always take that aproach it just so happened that I grabbed the wrong jug!
The salt water I use from my lfs is always the same salinity and I let it sit over night to match the temp but of course I grabbed the ro jug :banghead:
Well poop happens!
Just gotta hope for the best!

I think you are going to be fine! That would be an easy mistake to make. Good luck, I know it's hard not to stress out tho!!

 

[eliramos]

Just an update everyone is doing great honestly maybe even better than before!
As far as salt level goes I believe the best level is 1.023?
If thats right, this whole mistake may have been a blessing in disguise cuz at 1.025 I feel pike the corals weren't as open as they were now and the fish seem more active also than before!
It may have also been that I emded up doing an 8 gallon water change instead of a 5
What do you guys think?