Raising salinity?? dont want to kill fish

[RFAnemos]

So long story short I've got a few tanks 1 had a problem and now the salinity is low and I need to raise it..its a 60g and the salinity is .18 I know that is really low and I'm working to fix it..all fish and inverts are alive happy and healthy including snails..I kno dramatically increasing salt could harm the tank so yesterday I emptied about 5 gallons of tank water in the bucket and added the dose the bucket says (1/2 cup for 1 gallon)(instant ocean reef crystals) and could have possibly added a additional 1/2 cup can't remember anymore..so added my fan and heater, mixed then added straight back to tank and basically nothing it maybe slightly raised it by half but it didn't even raise it to .19..checked back a few hours later after tank had time to turn over a few times and still nothing..since I can't really listen to the back of the bucket how much salt do I need to add? How often, every few hours or once a day?..don't want to kill any fish so any advice helps

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

I hear you want to keep the change under .002 per day, so it sounds like you are on track.

However, i would have expected a drastic change with that amount. So I would absolutely verify your salinity measurement.

I've seen lots of posts by users who thought they were hypo or hyper saline, go through drastic measure to change it, and turns out it was perfect to start with and their method of measurement is what did them in.

 

[Pistondog]

Do not add salt to tank.
Remove a gallon or 2 of salt water daily and replace with rodi.

 

[Pistondog]

Fish are less sensitive to salinity swings than some inverts, urchins ime.

 

[Court_Appointed_Hypeman]

So long story short I've got a few tanks 1 had a problem and now the salinity is low and I need to raise it..its a 60g and the salinity is .18 I know that is really low and I'm working to fix it..all fish and inverts are alive happy and healthy including snails..I kno dramatically increasing salt could harm the tank so yesterday I emptied about 5 gallons of tank water in the bucket and added the dose the bucket says (1/2 cup for 1 gallon)(instant ocean reef crystals) and could have possibly added a additional 1/2 cup can't remember anymore..so added my fan and heater, mixed then added straight back to tank and basically nothing it maybe slightly raised it by half but it didn't even raise it to .19..checked back a few hours later after tank had time to turn over a few times and still nothing..since I can't really listen to the back of the bucket how much salt do I need to add? How often, every few hours or once a day?..don't want to kill any fish so any advice helps

Did you do a 5 gallon water change? Or take 5 gallons of tank water, added salt to it, and put the tank water back in?

If it was a 5 gallon water change, then this change of .001 might be correct.

 

[RFAnemos]

Did you do a 5 gallon water change? Or take 5 gallons of tank water, added salt to it, and put the tank water back in?

If it was a 5 gallon water change, then this change of .001 might be correct.

I took out 5 gallons of tank water and added the salt and put back in

 

[RFAnemos]

I hear you want to keep the change under .002 per day, so it sounds like you are on track.

However, i would have expected a drastic change with that amount. So I would absolutely verify your salinity measurement.

I've seen lots of posts by users who thought they were hypo or hyper saline, go through drastic measure to change it, and turns out it was perfect to start with and their method of measurement is what did them in.

Was so busy today couldn't get to LFS to have them double check. I was thinking it could be the cheap plastic tester, thought they were supposed to better than digital lol..im definitely gonna buy a different one so I can always double check myself before having to get a 3rd opinion at the LFS incase of another freak out lol..

 

[brandon429]

I use those testers but you have to be correct with them

I have long tweezers that reach down, grab the swingarm by the tip, and a quickly shake the arm up and down to release bubbles. even tapping doesn't work well, you have to shake off the bubbles. been doing that seventeen years straight for salinity and if you do it any other way it's highly likely to misread.

in every fill in that swingarm tester, the sensor disk on the motion arm collects bubbles and tapping is inconsistently freeing them, you have to grab with with tweezers and go up/down really fast to dislodge, let it sit 20 seconds=good.

then rinse with ro di or distilled after every use, let dry.

 

[Rjmul]

Do you have an overflow

 

[bushdoc]

I presume this is a FOWLR tank.
If you have ATO, you can add saltwater to your container and let ATO add it to DT slowly.
If not, just add saltwater except RODI to compensate for evaporation. Fish tolerate lowering salinity much faster then rising salinity, so you need to go rather slowly. Make sure your Salinity measurements are accurate.

 

[bushdoc]

Do not add salt to tank.
Remove a gallon or 2 of salt water daily and replace with rodi.

That would decrease salinity not increase it.

 

[Pistondog]

Do not add salt to tank.
Remove a gallon or 2 of salt water daily and replace with rodi.

This is not correct, as bushdoc corrected me. If you have an ato rep,ace the rodi with fresh saltwater until salinity is where you want it.

 

[Rjmul]

This is not correct, as bushdoc corrected me. If you have an ato rep,ace the rodi with fresh saltwater until salinity is where you want it.

Glad someone else caught that