Salinity Question

[RaymondL]

New tank has finished cycling, and will be populating it with 1 clown fish. Just a few questions from a newbie

1. Can I have a pair of clowns instead of just 1 to start?

2. The salinity I"m told the magic number is 1.025 - how important is that to get that close and is it better to be under than over?

Mine is now at 1.030 - would that be okay?

Thanks!

 

[Rmckoy]

1.0267 is the magic salinity number. .
For fish only you can go slightly lower but ideally to be 1.025-1.026 is ok
Stability is the magic !
Don’t let the number fluctuate at all
Is best

 

[shakacuz]

New tank has finished cycling, and will be populating it with 1 clown fish. Just a few questions from a newbie

1. Can I have a pair of clowns instead of just 1 to start?

2. The salinity I"m told the magic number is 1.025 - how important is that to get that close and is it better to be under than over?

Mine is now at 1.030 - would that be okay?

Thanks!

wait a few weeks to add the 2nd clownfish. your biodiversity is still adjusting/growing/settling. or, you can add the 2nd fish, and add some bottled bacteria. how big is the tank?

1.0267 is the magic number. but it is OKAY to be at 1.024, 1.025, or 1.026 as long as it is STABLE. 1.030 is a bit high. would definitely try to bring it down to 1.025-1.026

 

[redfishbluefish]

My recommendation is to add the two clowns at the same time, and preferably both on the small size. The reason is that when they are young their sex hasn't been determined. As they age, one will transfer to female (the larger one) and the other to male (the smaller one). What you don't want are two females....they are the mean ones and will fight to the death.

 

[RaymondL]

Thanks all...my mistake! I remeasured 3 more times (out of paranoia). My reading is 1.023, not 1.030 - must be too early in the morning.

Am I ok at 1.023?

 

[BroccoliFarmer]

Thanks all...my mistake! I remeasured 3 more times (out of paranoia). My reading is 1.023, not 1.030 - must be too early in the morning.

Am I ok at 1.023?

I have kept fish at that level, and so do many lfs to save salt money. Corals was more difficult at that level

 

[shakacuz]

Thanks all...my mistake! I remeasured 3 more times (out of paranoia). My reading is 1.023, not 1.030 - must be too early in the morning.

Am I ok at 1.023?

you are OK. ideally want to bump that higher to 1.025-1.026.

 

[WVNed]

I feel you are going to get a false impression by replies. It is almost impossible to maintain a completely stable salinity number.
You mix up the water and put it in a tank. The water immediately starts evaporating. The salinity slowly rises. Eventually you add more water to the tank to replace the evaporated water and the salinity drops to the old number you started with and starts rising again.
Even if you use an automatic top off (ATO) device to add water for you this will be true.

The number you want to keep approximately in the center of all that is 1.025-1.026.

 

[muggle0981]

Yup

ok but bump higer

corals best 1.026

id add fish together

 

[RaymondL]

So with evaporation in play, it's probably better to be at a lower value from 1.025? Just as well, the refractometer might have a +/- reading as well, so with my reading at 1.023 - I don't know if I should add more salt to raise it to 1.025 since there's nothing in it at the moment. Or, in my next water change just make sure that the replacement water is at 1.025 and take it from there.

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I always advise to add one fish then wait a few weeks to add another, but clownfish is the exception. I add those in as juvenile pair. But the tank size is important to answer your question. If its a 10 gallon tank, then add only one at a time. I added a pair into my 32 gallon as the first fish and it was fine.

Salinity is important, and its very important to do your own research. At least google what is the normal ocean salinity, so that you have some base knowledge. Google and youtube are you best friends in this hobby (aside from this forum)

 

[Koh23]

I tought that whole purpose of ato is to mantain salinity......

Of course, it all depends on water volume, and to what decimal are u comparing.....

Lets say you start with 1.025,00000.

For me, amount of ro water that is added via ato is around 50ml. So, for every 50ml that evaporates, 50ml of ro water will be added.

So, on 500l water volume, its 0.1% fluctuation. If only 40ml is evaporated, yes, salinity is bit higher than original, and only when aditional 10ml of water evaporates, it will be reset back to starting 1.025.

This is so low fluctuation, and you simply cannot measure it with classic refractometer, so, in your eyes, its all 1.025. really dont matter if in one point is actualy 1.024,98.

What im trying to say, set salinity to 1.025, set your ato to replace evaporated water, and dont worry....

 

[PeterEde]

I feel you are going to get a false impression by replies. It is almost impossible to maintain a completely stable salinity number.
You mix up the water and put it in a tank. The water immediately starts evaporating. The salinity slowly rises. Eventually you add more water to the tank to replace the evaporated water and the salinity drops to the old number you started with and starts rising again.
Even if you use an automatic top off (ATO) device to add water for you this will be true.

The number you want to keep approximately in the center of all that is 1.025-1.026.

This is why you get an ATO.

 

[aSaltyKlown]

Do you have an ATO (auto top off)? If not, I'd highly recommend one. Topping off can be a daily or every two-day ritual. I did daily manual top-offs for months before I got an ATO, what a game changer. I would not set up a tank without one. What size tank do you have?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

Here’s a good way to think of the salinity change effect with evaporation.

If you have a 20” deep tank on a dump mess system, and you allow the water level to drop by 1/2” by evaporation before you refill it, the salinity increases by a factor of 0.5/20 = 0.025 or 2.5%.

That boosts 35 ppt to 35.88 ppt or a specific gravity of 1.026 to 1.0267.

 

[PatW]

Really, you can control salinity pretty closely. I have a 300 gallon system (or just about). My ATO is in the return chamber of the sump. A change of about a quart is easily detected by the ATO and it adds more water. I quart in is 1/1200 of the system. Now when I mix salt water, my refractometer is set in units of ppt in seawater with 35 ppt around the desired level. So the mixing has something like a 3% error or maybe a bit less. The thing is as long as the system is kept within certain limits and stays stable, everything is fine. The ATO keeps things pretty stable and water changes are 10% with a 3% error or an impact of about .3%. So good enough.