MORON UPDATE! Sometimes you miss the obvious...

[Bill S]

AHHHHHH! I've been just going nuts for the past few days, as my SPS that was doing great in my 215 seemed to have quit growing, and I started losing some that have been doing well for months.

Sunday, I did a full workup on the tank:

Temp: 77-80.5 (at the peak of the MH lighting)
CA: 380 (this has been slowly improving from the low 300s a month ago)
PO4: 0.5
NO3: <2
Mg: 1050 (a little low, but not bad)
pH: 8.0-8.2 - varies during the day
Alk: 6 meq/L (17kh)
Iodine: 0.4 (again, a little low, but not alarming)

TODAY I figured out the problem. Anyone want to guess? It's the OBVIOUS one I didn't test for...
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Yup. Salinity. 1.019 WHOA!
How did THAT happen? Well, let's see... Cleaned torpedos on Saturday - with plumbing that's probably 20 gallons. Did a 30 gallon water change - but probably drained too much out and didn't get enough salt in?

Anyway, how quickly should I bring the salinity back up?

[gjuarez]

Steadily but not too quick. Its one of those things that you will probably get different answers. Its like when you first receive an sps coral, should you drip acclimate for a couple of hours or quickly take it out of the bag of very dirty water. I've raised my salinty by four points in approximately 2 hours with no ill effects, although most say that this is not reccomended. Lets see what others have to say. Good luck

[Bill S]

Thanks for the QUICK response, Gerry. I'm most worried about the fish. Not that the corals don't matter, it's just that evolution has made them more tolerant of short term changes. Unlike fish, they can't move when conditions change.

[gjuarez]

Very true, fish might react different to quick salinity changes. I do have to say that one of my shrimps quickly died after the big change. Its going to be a tough call.

[Instar]

Everything you tested for will most likely improve as you bring the salinity back up. Just get started with saltier mixed water and let the evaporation be replaced with salt water then. It will come right back up but slowly enough. If it happens over a day or even a week, the results will be the same so far as the fish go. The corals aren't really all that good that low on salt and buffer content. Not sure what scale that Alk is on. I have no reference points for either measurement scale you listed for salt water.

[Bill S]

Sorry, Larry, I was in a hurry. See new Alk figures.

Oh, and about an hour ago, I broke my glass hydrometer. Yeah, I know all about refractometers. I MUCH prefer the very simple and no-need-to-calibrate hydrometers. Guess I need to find 2 new ones tomorrow!

[OldSalty]

I also felt the alk was a little on the hi side. 4.5meg/l should be the max ya want to go.

[Instar]

Bill, there is something amiss with your Alk test. Is it for Salt water? Those look like fresh water test numbers and german degrees hardness.

The buffering capacity of your water is not real strong and that means you are approaching the possiblity of a crash. The Mg has fallen off a bit and this is an indicator of the health of that part of the water chemistry.

[GaryP]

I'd say that your phosphate is also a major issue. If you are getting .5 ppm with a common ortho test kit, the total phosphate is probably much higher. Phosphate is a major inhibitor of calcification. I would suggest looking into a phosphate reactor to get the results down and then run it on a timer or intermittently to keep it down.

Remember that as you bring your salinity up, all of the other parameters such as calcium magnesium, and alkalinity will come up too.

[TexasTodd]

Bill, were you loosing sps colonies "from the base up", or, "from the tips down?

Todd

[gjuarez]

Probably from the base up since phosphates were a little high. But hold on, alkalinity was kinda high so it could have been from the tips down. I am just confusing people, I will shut up now

[Bill S]

Tips down. Every one.

OK, I just did the following tests:
Alk on my NEW Salifert is 4.0 (also have a Seachem that SEEMS to have some accuracy problems - they sent me new reagents, but still I don't trust it - it reads 6.0meq/l).

The Phosphate kit is an Amer. Pharm - the last one I have - and it's PO3 & PO4. It was around the FIRST color indicator above zero. Now it's got JUST A LITTLE more color than the zero. Definately not the 0.5

Calcium is up to 400 - the highest it's ever been in this tank
Nitrates are less than 2 - only tint at all is on the low scale on a Salifert kit.

And guys, I'm SURE it's the Salinity. I've been edging it up from 1.018 or less - it was 1.018 with my new 12" hydrometer earlier today. It's up to 1.020 right now. On the way to 1.024, I hope. But don't want to overstress the fish.

On top of this, I bought TWO brand new hydrometers today - and broke one right out of the box. I haven't broken one in over 2 years, and I've broken 2 in 24 HOURS!!!

[TexasTodd]

Tip down recession is almost always Alk issues. If your CA is up now it could have brought your Alk down.

I'm not sure, maybe Gary can discuss, but there could be issues with HIGH alk and low salinity, doing some funky chemistry....?

Todd

[Bill S]

Well, basically I'm thinking that once salinity gets back where it belongs, THEN we can tackle the chemistry problems.

[Marlin]

Bill:
A while ago, I had what sounds like the exact problem you're having now. It turned out that my Alk. was too high and Ca. & Mg. too low. After correcting the balance, my corals stopped dying off and began to flourish. I shut my Calc reactor down for a while and added Turbo Calcium and Mg daily until I got everything in balance.
Bringing the salinity up slowly is good, but IMO you need to get the Alk/Ca/Mg in balance also.

[GaryP]

You can bring the salininity up in 24 hrs. or less. Its the same thing as acclimating critters in a bag.

I would recommend doing small water changes with saturated salt water, or just doing it slwoly by using salt water for makeup water.

I would suggest testing the salifert and seachem alkalinity kits side by side and perhaps run the calibration standard as well. I wouldn't be surprised if your alkalinity wasn't making some pretty good swings due to the other changes in your tank. Mine can change a couple by a couple of dKH over a few days. That's why I dose buffer every 3 days.

[Bill S]

Here's an update:

Everything LOOKS to be getting back to normal. I was concerned about making too much of a salinity change because much of what did fine during the "trip" to low salinity, was stressing when I brought the salinity up: softies, hammer, bubble coral, anemones. So that's why I slowed it down. Here's where things are now:

SALINITY!: 1.022
Ca: 460 (wow!)
PO3/4: Undetectable (bought a brand new kit from Richard yesterday - old one was Amer. Pharm)
NO3: 2.0
Mg: 1350
pH: 8.1-8.2
Alk: 3.9/10.8 Salifert, 5.5 on the Seachem.

Both Alk testkits are pretty new. The Seachem, I had tested the calibration standard a month ago, and found it to be in error. I emailed Seachem, they admitted they had had a problem, and sent me some new reagent about 2 weeks ago. I tested the calibration standard (4.0) and came up with 5.5. Uh oh. So, I'm PRETTY SURE my Alk is around 4.

Some of the SPS that I thought was toast, is recovering! I'd always thought that once they start bleaching, they are done. But I have several with some bleach spots on them, recovering. And of course, the "ultra rare" super mocha from Richard that I put in the tank on day 8 survived!