Salinity Crisis

x19

Reefing newb
Ok, after coming home today from the reef store (with a couple of new additions) and I noticed some particulate in the water column. Without going through the whole narrative, I checked the salinty of the water in my tank and it's 1.018!! Now, I just calibrated the refractometer and it was slightly off before this test...so who knows how long it's been bad.

Now, if its really 1.018 shouldn't my critters be suffering? Thats really low. I'm concerned that my refractometer might just be fracked.

If it is really that low how would you suggest ramping it up? I don't want to kill of my invertebrates.

Thanks!
 
When you top off your tank, just top it off with salt water. If your critters have lasted this long, they'll probably be ok while you slowly raise your salinity.
 
You're giving them an accidental hypo-salinity treatment.:D Just like the others said, raise it back to normal slowly over a few days or a week, everyone will be fine......even you.:D
 
Should be fine, i've taken mine down as low as 1.015 to treat ich and then raised it just by topping off with salt water and my standard weekly water change.
 
Thanks all. On top of this I checked my RO water today with a TDS meter and it read nearly 250 ppm! My tap water tested over 530 ppm, so I've ordered some calibration fluid for it as well.
 
That may not be wrong, the membranes on those filters need to be changed after awhile and that might be what is up with those readings.
 
That may not be wrong, the membranes on those filters need to be changed after awhile and that might be what is up with those readings.

I know its possible, but I'm not totally sure. 5 months old on the R/O setup and I've only run enough water for a 30 gallon tank in that time...seems really fast.
 
I know its possible, but I'm not totally sure. 5 months old on the R/O setup and I've only run enough water for a 30 gallon tank in that time...seems really fast.

If you're water quality is really poor it will degrade the filters faster then normal.
 
Back
Top