Salinity change of 0.005sg

[SeaDøøby]

So I left the hose on to my RO/DI system for 9 hours. The RO/DI system was connected directly to the tank. It filled my entire sump and spilled probably 2 gallons on the floor. Is there anything I can do to help with the stress of the fish and corals? I would say that my corals are the most stressed. Bubble coral is turned in, sps have their polyps out but they look weird, gonis are scrunched in, and the clams mantle is out halfway. Can I just have the water slowly precipitate to the right salinity or should I do water changes?

 

[SeaDøøby]

Oh almost forgot. My salinity was 1.026 and now it is 1.021

 

[Sean Clark]

So I left the hose on to my RO/DI system for 9 hours. The RO/DI system was connected directly to the tank. It filled my entire sump and spilled probably 2 gallons on the floor. Is there anything I can do to help with the stress of the fish and corals? I would say that my corals are the most stressed. Bubble coral is turned in, sps have their polyps out but they look weird, gonis are scrunched in, and the clams mantle is out halfway. Can I just have the water slowly precipitate to the right salinity or should I do water changes?

Add some salt slowly and don't freak out. Lessons are often learned best the hard way. Don't do anything other than adjust the salinity. Odds are that things will be fine. It has only been out of spec for a few hours.

 

[SeaDøøby]

Add some salt slowly and don't freak out. Lessons are often learned best the hard way. Don't do anything other than adjust the salinity. Odds are that things will be fine. It has only been out of spec for a few hours.

Saltwater or salt directly? Can I use instant ocean sea salt to bring up the salinity?

 

[Pistondog]

Not a good idea to add salt directly.

 

[Sean Clark]

Saltwater or salt directly? Can I use instant ocean sea salt to bring up the salinity?

Saltwater is always best. I do not think that you are in an emergency situation that would constitute adding salt directly.

Do you have a sump? If so you could add a small amount of salt to the input side of the sump. But I would refrain from that until you knew what your levels were. Test and report. This does not need to be an emergency.

 

[CapeReef]

I’ve had this happen before. I’d never suggest adding salt into a tank with livestock either. Honestly I let my tank evaporate all the excess water naturally so it slowly increases the salinity over a long period of time versus trying to do all this crap putting the livestock under even more stress for constant drastic changes. I had 0 losses.

 

[SeaDøøby]

So I should let the excess water evaporate to the right level? It won't put any stress?

 

[Sean Clark]

Pistons and Capereef both have great suggestions here. Go slow and use premixed saltwater. That is kind of how you got here in the first place correct? Ro hooked up to the tank directly.

 

[Sean Clark]

Measure what your salinity level is now. And let us know what it was before. Again this was over 9 hours as you previously stated correct?

 

[SeaDøøby]

Yes, it was about 9-10 hours. I will test right now. My previous salinity was 1.026.

 

[CapeReef]

So I should let the excess water evaporate to the right level? It won't put any stress?

I mean that’s what I did. There’s always more than one way of dealing with something like this. There’s not only one correct approach to this. But for me that is what my gut instincts told me to do. What I figured is the salinity already got thrown off wack but it did this through my RODI so it was a slow acclimation even though it was more than I obviously wanted. So just like when you drip acclimate livestock it reduced the salinity slowly not .5 in 10min. I figured if something’s going to die from the salinity drop then I can’t do anything about that anymore , what’s done is done. So I figured to prevent any or more loss, the last thing I wanted to do was do more. I didn’t want to put any livestock under any more stress than it already was. I let it evaporate the excess water until I was at my normal water level in sump (which took about a week and a half) and then did a normal water change. As I said I had 0 losses. Do what you think is best for your situation.

 

[Mikosreef]

Take 5 gals of tank water out and add some salt into the 5 gallons and add it back into the tank via small tube.

The corals and inverts may not like it but they should be ok for 1 day (maybe more) in the low salt environment. The fish will be ok in the 1.021.

You should try to bump up the SG to 1.024 so that your inverts and corals are ok.

If the fish are healthy they should be able to take a slowly rising salinity back to 1.024 from 1.021 over 24 hours which is why i am suggesting you drip in/slowly add in via a tube the 5 gallon bucket with added salt.

Keep the water in the 5 gal bucket circulating the entire time as its old tank water, stagnant tank water for 24 hours is not a good idea.

 

[Sean Clark]

I would agree, but I do want to know what the new low salinity level is before.

 

[SeaDøøby]

My salinity now is 1.021 and also my total water volume is 150 plus 60 gallon sump

 

[Sean Clark]

My salinity now is 1.021 and also my total water volume is 150 plus 60 gallon sump

I would call that hypo salinity. Not usually implemented so quickly but not deadly. Slowly raise it back up over a few days to a week. I would bet that everything is fine.

 

[SeaDøøby]

Ok, thank you everyone for your help! I guess it wasn't much of an emergency but thank you!

 

[mehaffydr]

I have done this exact thing and the big thing here is not to freak out and rush getting the salinity back up. Going down is much easier on livestock then going up quickly. I would mix some salt water as you normally would maybe a little strong like 1.027 and slowly exchange water maybe a gallon at a time. I actually just let water evaporate and added mixed salt water it took close to a week but in the end all was fine. Do not just add salt to your system this is no where near that kind of emergency.

 

[mehaffydr]

I would call that hypo salinity. Not usually implemented so quickly but not deadly. Slowly raise it back up over a few days to a week. I would bet that everything is fine.

This is no where near Hypo. Hypo is down around 1.009 to 1.012

 

[Sean Clark]

This is no where near Hypo. Hypo is down around 1.009 to 1.012

Hypo in time. I thought that I implied that however you are correct on the levels.