Need help with rapid salinity drop

MB1227 · Dec 4, 2023

Long and terrible story (flood / loss of power) short… I need to drop salinity from 1.040 to 1.025 fast to get a porcupine puffer in to a temporary tank. Temp tank is cycled and running at 1.025. His current salinity is high and the tank got contaminated with plaster / sheet rock and I want him out of that water asap. Currently doing a slowwwwww drip acclimation but can I step it up drop him over the next hour fairly safely? I know going down fast is okay typically but is that too fast? Sorry this isn’t really a disease but I’m trying to get quick help. Thanks all in advance

MB1227 · Dec 4, 2023

Update, goal is to drop over 3 hours and hope for the best. Based on old posts should be okay in theory

littlefoxx · Dec 4, 2023

@vetteguy53081 @Jay Hemdal

vetteguy53081 · Dec 4, 2023

MB1227 said:
Update, goal is to drop over 3 hours and hope for the best. Based on old posts should be okay in theory

You can Safely drop quickly but Raise Slowly. I remove a quart and replace with a quart of RO water until desired Level. You can go with larger replacement

MB1227 · Dec 5, 2023

vetteguy53081 said:
You can Safely drop quickly but Raise Slowly. I remove a quart and replace with a quart of RO water until desired Level. You can go with larger replacement

Thank you for the reassurance, I truly appreciate it, so far fish isn’t stressed despite a very stressful situation.

MnFish1 · Dec 5, 2023

MB1227 said:
Update, goal is to drop over 3 hours and hope for the best. Based on old posts should be okay in theory

I would agree with this - another option is make up fresh saltwater to 1.040 - and put the fish there - that takes care of the contamination - then as you say - drop the salinity over several hours - the good news is that dropping salinity more quickly is less of an issue that raising it. However, your fish had a rapid rise - so I might go a little slower then 3 hours. Sorry if someone has already posted this - I can't read other answers for some reason! Best wishes and sorry for the mess

Dom · Dec 9, 2023

MB1227 said:
Long and terrible story (flood / loss of power) short… I need to drop salinity from 1.040 to 1.025 fast to get a porcupine puffer in to a temporary tank. Temp tank is cycled and running at 1.025. His current salinity is high and the tank got contaminated with plaster / sheet rock and I want him out of that water asap. Currently doing a slowwwwww drip acclimation but can I step it up drop him over the next hour fairly safely? I know going down fast is okay typically but is that too fast? Sorry this isn’t really a disease but I’m trying to get quick help. Thanks all in advance

Is fast a good idea?

I know that rapid increase can cause osmotic shock. Isn't the same true for a rapid decrease?