Will Fluconazole give a false salinity reading?

Magellan · Jan 28, 2020

Title says it all. If this thread is in the wrong place, help me out mods!

Realized I had Bryopsis in the tank. Ordered Fluconazole with no hesitations. Dosed Fluconazole last Wednesday. Checked salinity last night, 1.028 on my refractometer. Checked my fresh saltwater, 1.026
Checked my RO water, 1.00

I’m confident the refractometer is giving an accurate reading, but is my salinity actually off, or did the Fluconazole dose just make it appear that way? My corals/fish/inverts are happy, nothing is visually wrong with the tank.

ScottB · Jan 28, 2020

Any chance something else changed the water level in the sump and threw off the ATO? Clogged socks or prefilter? Or ATO is stuck closed? Something like that?

Flux is just a fish fungicide that messes with plant cell walls during photosynthesis (so I have read anyway).

LC8Sumi · Jan 28, 2020

I didn't see this happen when I was doing the treatment.

Magellan · Jan 28, 2020

It didn’t really “dissolve” in the water the way I would have expected. Came in pill capsules, almost looked like some powered sugar when I opened them up. Mixed in some tank water and dumped it in, but I could see the little particles moving around in the water column in the same manner as reef roids.

I have a 28g AIO, so just a rear sump with an ATO. If anything, I would have expected my salinity to have gone down, as I didn’t adjust the sensors but did remove my bag of carbon and bag of Purigen. (So my ATO would have replaced that volume). The way the baffles work in relation to the ATO sensors, clogged filter media causes the water to build up in the center chamber, and drop in the outer ones (kicking on my ATO) and thereby lowering my salinity.

I admit, I could have been paying closer attention to the salinity...but I haven’t tested anything besides 1.026 in a year.

GabeM · Jan 28, 2020

Fluconazole used normally should not affect the specific gravity of your tank as it is a measurement of density. You would need a ton of it to change your SG by 0.002

You should always make sure the medication is 100% dissolved before dosing in your tank though.

Magellan · Jan 28, 2020

Current FTS

Magellan · Jan 28, 2020

GabeM said:
Fluconazole used normally should not affect the specific gravity of your tank as it is a measurement of density. You would need a ton of it to change your SG by 0.002

You should always make sure the medication is 100% dissolved before dosing in your tank though.

Would you wait till after the dosing regimen to fix it? Tank doesn’t seem concerned at all, and the bryopsis is starting to die.

GabeM · Jan 28, 2020

Magellan said:
Would you wait till after the dosing regimen to fix it? Tank doesn’t seem concerned at all, and the bryopsis is starting to die.

Calibrate your meter properly and then adjust.

Magellan · Jan 28, 2020

GabeM said:
Calibrate your meter properly and then adjust.

Definitely calibrated, and will slowly bring it down.

Magellan · Jan 28, 2020

Issue was caused by 2 part dosing, problem solved! Thanks for the help guys

Hermie · Jan 28, 2020

No definitely not

Billldg · Jan 28, 2020

I break the capsules and dump the contents into a container and mix with saltwater, then I dump it onto the DT. I wasn't comfortable dropping 16 capsules in my tank and not have the capsule fully dissolve.

It shouldn't effect the salinity reading in any way.

Magellan · Jan 28, 2020

Billldg said:
I break the capsules and dump the contents into a container and mix with saltwater, then I dump it onto the DT. I wasn't comfortable dropping 16 capsules in my tank and not have the capsule fully dissolve.

It shouldn't effect the salinity reading in any way.

I did the same thing, stirred and stirred trying to get the little particles to dissolve.

on the plus side, it’s working as advertised!

Randy Holmes-Farley · Jan 28, 2020

Magellan said:
Title says it all. If this thread is in the wrong place, help me out mods!

Realized I had Bryopsis in the tank. Ordered Fluconazole with no hesitations. Dosed Fluconazole last Wednesday. Checked salinity last night, 1.028 on my refractometer. Checked my fresh saltwater, 1.026
Checked my RO water, 1.00

I’m confident the refractometer is giving an accurate reading, but is my salinity actually off, or did the Fluconazole dose just make it appear that way? My corals/fish/inverts are happy, nothing is visually wrong with the tank.

No,