Salinity

hlansford · Sep 23, 2022

Hello, I just bought a couple fish from the local pet store. These will be the first ones added to my tank so I’m very new to this. As I was talking to the guy at the store human asked me what my salinity was and I told him 35 ppt. Then, he had me second-guessing myself with his reaction and so I said oh wait, maybe it’s 25. He’s like oh that sounds better because at 35 you would probably kill everything in the tank. So, on the way home I did some research and saw everywhere that it said 35PPT is the general salinity for a saltwater aquarium. So, I just got home and I’m getting ready to acclimate the fish and I decided to test the water that came from the local pet store and, sure enough, it is testing at 24. Mine is at 35. Should I change some of my water out to get it closer to the salinity of the lfs? I don’t want to kill these fish!!!

Jekyl · Sep 23, 2022

35 is the standard. Fish stores run theirs at a lower salinity for pest management. Research acclimation procedures and you'll be fine.

Rmckoy · Sep 23, 2022

No !!!
You want 35 ppt or 1.026
Stores maintain lower salinity for a few reasons but the main reasons are to save money on salt and to ward off parasites .
That being said you want to properly acclimate the new fish to your salinity. .

I would strongly advise finding another store that isn’t going to give you inaccurate information .

EricR · Sep 23, 2022

Since you're already home with the fish in 24 ppt, you obviously have to decide what to do,,, hence your question.
Is there NO livestock in the tank right now?
If that's the case,,, I think your question about lowering your tank salinity is valid, then slowly raise it back up.

***I do NOT know but a 10+ ppt rise for acclimating fish sounds scary to me -- wait for expert input

vetteguy53081 · Sep 23, 2022

hlansford said:
Hello, I just bought a couple fish from the local pet store. These will be the first ones added to my tank so I’m very new to this. As I was talking to the guy at the store human asked me what my salinity was and I told him 35 ppt. Then, he had me second-guessing myself with his reaction and so I said oh wait, maybe it’s 25. He’s like oh that sounds better because at 35 you would probably kill everything in the tank. So, on the way home I did some research and saw everywhere that it said 35PPT is the general salinity for a saltwater aquarium. So, I just got home and I’m getting ready to acclimate the fish and I decided to test the water that came from the local pet store and, sure enough, it is testing at 24. Mine is at 35. Should I change some of my water out to get it closer to the salinity of the lfs? I don’t want to kill these fish!!!

You want 34-35 and when you acclimate your fish, match the salinity to that of display tank before introducing fish. Place bags in a bucket after floating in display tank.
Then . . . .
Measure the Ph, salinity and temperature of the bag water. If you can, make up some water in a container that has exactly the same measurements as the bag readings and move the fish right over, then you can add a cup of tank water to bucket every 15 mins 6 times (almost 1.5 hours)
Then check salinity in bucket and compare to tank. If no match or very close, add a cup of water every few mins until youve reached salinity and trap fish in same cup and pour off water and release into display. Release under LOW light before lights out. Fish in shipped bags produce carbon dioxide and ammonia. The carbon dioxide lowers the pH of the water in the bag, That in turn makes the ammonia non-toxic to the fish. When you acclimate them, if not done just right, you drive off the carbon dioxide faster than you are diluting the ammonia. That raises the pH of the water in the bag, and that in turn, makes the residual ammonia very toxic to the fish. Sometimes, the fish will die right in the bag