RODI Emergency, Please Help

quintessence · Jan 31, 2022

I have a small 14 gallon aquarium that I've had for years that houses two clown fish and some corals on the live rock.

I always test the water before I put it in. Always. You can see where this is going.

I don't have my own RODI set up where I live right now, so I buy saltwater from the local store.

... The corals are _not_ ok this morning. I check the water. The salinity has dropped. To about 1.010.

... ... ... I check the remaining water in the clean bucket, but I know. I bought saltwater, but it is in fact RODI.

I changed the water last night, the store doesn't open until later today, and I only have about a gallon (out of 4, I did a ~3 gal water change) left. And no emergency salt. The salt store opens in ... 3 hours.

... How fast can I raise the salinity back up? What do I do? I think I might need to accept the loss of the corals as they look terrible but the poor clown fish oh my god. I've had this tank since 2014 and I've never had to _raise_ salinity before. Occasionally lower it slowly, in summers when there's more evaporation. But never raise it.

Help. Please help.

vetteguy53081 · Jan 31, 2022

Lower salinity up to 1.023 is ok short term
You have to raise gradually adding every 20 mins up to 1/2 gallon at a time
You can however lower at a faster rate

quintessence · Jan 31, 2022

Ok. I was able to get distilled water (no RODI) and some Instant Ocean so I've been mixing that, about 5 gallons total, to have something to work with.

... I've never used distilled water, searching seems to indicate that it's fine to use - does anyone have experience with it / is it actually fine?

Lbrdsoxfan · Jan 31, 2022

Distilled works in a pinch, you'll be ok.

quintessence · Jan 31, 2022

Ok - here we go. Thank you!

I'll update here in a few hours / once I've leveled out the salinity and see what happens.

Thank you all again

Simon Reefing · Jan 31, 2022

You should be fine just make sure to go slow! Good luck!

quintessence · Jan 31, 2022

Update: the clownfish still seem to be fine, the corals are still looking poorly, salinity was up to ~1.020 a couple hours ago and I needed to mix a new batch of saltwater.

JonEB · Jan 31, 2022

Just keep at it and have faith in your fishes

they love you too

Simon Reefing · Jan 31, 2022

quintessence said:
Update: the clownfish still seem to be fine, the corals are still looking poorly, salinity was up to ~1.020 a couple hours ago and I needed to mix a new batch of saltwater.

What type of corals? Sorry if I missed it

quintessence · Feb 1, 2022

The corals are (were?) mushroom (?) corals that actually arrived with the live rock. When I initially set up the tank several years ago, I got it to house a mantis shrimp. After that mantis passed, I got a small, orange mantis shrimp (that was living in that specific live rock). The orange mantis lived for about 4 years before passing over the summer after a molt lead to a malformed hammer which I suspect resulted in her getting stuck mid-molt on the subsequent molt (although that all would've happened in her den, so I didn't see).

Photo of healthier corals and clownfish attached, pre-events of the weekend.

quintessence · Feb 1, 2022

Update: Salinity still at 1.020. I stopped adding water in the afternoon today and I am going to take a water sample to the salt store tomorrow as I don't want to over salinate after all that. I just don't trust it and it's making me nervous.

Fish are still doing ok and corals are still doing "ok".

Screwgunner · Feb 1, 2022

Get it up to 1.024 your corals will thank you for it.

JonEB · Feb 1, 2022

Great job being patient.
May have missed it so sorry if I’m re asking but what are you using to test salinity?

quintessence · Feb 2, 2022

Oh @Screwgunner definitely trying to get it to 1.024, but I didn't want to keep raising the salinity until I was sure that 1.020 was correct. It didn't make sense to me that the salinity rose and then flatlined when I was adding saltwater like that and I don't want to overdo it and cause more problems.

For testing I'm using a refractometer. I was going to bring a sample to the salt store to have them double check the salinity while I get some RODI to use / stop using distilled.

damsels are not mean · Feb 2, 2022

Corals are usually tolerant of swings in salinity although that's quite low. Since it is a short term drop I think they will be fine. Mushrooms for sure. Clowns probably okay too if they didn't die already.

Screwgunner · Feb 4, 2022

I think at some grocery stores you can get 5 gallons of reverse osmosis water

quintessence · Feb 4, 2022

Just another update: I was able to stabilize the salinity at 1.024 by late Wednesday. So now just playing wait and see. The fish seem to still be fine, the corals have still shrunk but overall ... it seems ok?