salinity preference?

[diek3man]

I was just wondering what were some people's salinity preference was. One man at my lfs told me to stay low at 1.20. I was told at another store to stay high at 1.024-1.026. Also...when you do water changes do you pour it in slowly or drip it in? As you can tell I am new at this (one month) and want to make sure I do things right. I currently don't have any fish, just a clean up crew for my algae.
Thanks!

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Diek3man
I was just wondering what were some people's salinity preference was. One man at my lfs told me to stay low at 1.20. I was told at another store to stay high at 1.024-1.026. Also...when you do water changes do you pour it in slowly or drip it in? As you can tell I am new at this (one month) and want to make sure I do things right. I currently don't have any fish, just a clean up crew for my algae.
Thanks!
Welcome to the boards

Your water is best at 1.025-1.026. That is the SG of natural sea water. It is best for your fish and inverts. When you do water changes they should be 10-15% per week. Mix the salt water in a bin. I use a brand new trash can with a powerhead in it. You have to mix the water for at least 24-48hrs before it goes into the tank.

 

[casper9888]

pour it in slowly too, to make sure u dont shock the fish and anything else u have

 

[rad]

Originally Posted by sepulatian
Welcome to the boards

Your water is best at 1.025-1.026. That is the SG of natural sea water. It is best for your fish and inverts. When you do water changes they should be 10-15% per week. Mix the salt water in a bin. I use a brand new trash can with a powerhead in it. You have to mix the water for at least 24-48hrs before it goes into the tank.
dood. Im sorry but 15% a week? your insane. thats going to deplete his beneficial bacteria. Id do no more than 25% a month. and usually I break that up in to two water changes, one every two weeks. As for the salinity: 1.024 is recomended if your going for corals. As for mixing: it would be ideal to be able to mix your water in a bucket for no more than 24 hours. If you do it for too long you get calcium deposits on your buckets and the plastic starts to interfere with your water. Which is never a good thing. If you dont have 24/12/1 hour(s) to mix your water with a power head then just use a stick and a bucket like us poor folk and mix it real good for about 15 minutes, taking breaks when ever. that mixes it well enough and your power heads in the tank will do the rest of the work.
edit: you only lower your salinity to 1.020 when your dealing with fish only. and thats fine, just so long as you have no corals. as for pouring it in, just pour.

 

[earlybird]

Originally Posted by rad
dood. Im sorry but 15% a week? your insane. thats going to deplete his beneficial bacteria. Id do no more than 25% a month. and usually I break that up in to two water changes, one every two weeks. As for the salinity: 1.024 is recomended if your going for corals. As for mixing: it would be ideal to be able to mix your water in a bucket for no more than 24 hours. If you do it for too long you get calcium deposits on your buckets and the plastic starts to interfere with your water. Which is never a good thing. If you dont have 24/12/1 hour(s) to mix your water with a power head then just use a stick and a bucket like us poor folk and mix it real good for about 15 minutes, taking breaks when ever. that mixes it well enough and your power heads in the tank will do the rest of the work.
edit: you only lower your salinity to 1.020 when your dealing with fish only. and thats fine, just so long as you have no corals. as for pouring it in, just pour.
Beneficial bacteria does not live in the water column and 15% change will not deplete it. It will however, replenish the trace elements that are essential to everything in your tank. The water is the "life blood" of your tank. Good to change 10-15% weekly IMO.

 

[redinator]

10% water change once a week. I try to maintain 1.025 but it goes a little higher 1.027 if I don't add fresh daily.

 

[dawman]

Originally Posted by rad
dood. Im sorry but 15% a week? your insane. thats going to deplete his beneficial bacteria. Id do no more than 25% a month. and usually I break that up in to two water changes, one every two weeks. As for the salinity: 1.024 is recomended if your going for corals. As for mixing: it would be ideal to be able to mix your water in a bucket for no more than 24 hours. If you do it for too long you get calcium deposits on your buckets and the plastic starts to interfere with your water. Which is never a good thing. If you dont have 24/12/1 hour(s) to mix your water with a power head then just use a stick and a bucket like us poor folk and mix it real good for about 15 minutes, taking breaks when ever. that mixes it well enough and your power heads in the tank will do the rest of the work.
edit: you only lower your salinity to 1.020 when your dealing with fish only. and thats fine, just so long as you have no corals. as for pouring it in, just pour.

Who ever gave you that info should be smacked .

 

[ameno]

oh no, not another how often to do a water change issue. Some people do one a week and everythings fine others do once every three or four months and seem to do fine, of course waiting that long they have to add trace elements to the tank to help keep things balanced. each tank is set up different as far as equipment and stock so you'll have to keep an eye on things and do what's needed for your setup. Me I don't do water changes that often and everything works great, I do add trace elements. as far as salinity, fish will do better with a lower level such as 1.020, the fish store keeps there fish at a lower level usually, for a reef, your better at around 1.026, that's were I keep mine, so when you by fish for a reef tank you have to be sure and acclimate slowly to get them use to a high salinity. and make sure there healthy, because putting a sick fish in a reef is really bad.
When doing a water change just put a PH in the tub and let it mix for around 24 hours, add a heater in with it to get temp. up and then add to the tank.

 

[turningtim]

JHMO, LFS's keep the salinity down for two reasons, one is cost of salt. If you have that many tanks and keep the salinity low it adds up in $. The other is cleaning at 1.020 algae is kept a bay a bit. So cleaning is easier. Again think about total gallon a LFS has.
I also think that we don't add in any load factor in to the equation. I have a very heavy loaded 55 reef. I need 10-15% water change once a week. I drip kalk for cal/alk. If you have a lightly loaded 180 fowlr then you probably don't need to change water more than 10-15% each month.
It all depends on what your tank needs! If your fish and corals look bad and show no growth then something needs to change. But I would start on the safe side and then add a bit more time between changes and LOOK at your tank!
I don't test as often as I should but I can look at my tank and see what I'm missing........

 

[perfectdark]

Originally Posted by earlybird
Beneficial bacteria does not live in the water column and 15% change will not deplete it. It will however, replenish the trace elements that are essential to everything in your tank. The water is the "life blood" of your tank. Good to change 10-15% weekly IMO.

I dont entirely agree with this as I do believe that benificial bacteria does exist in your water column however IMO you could do an 80% water change and not deplete 10% of the bacteria that exists in your tank. Especially if its a well established tank.
If that was true then everyone that uses a UV Sterilizer is in severe danger of crashing their tanks.

 

[rad]

Originally Posted by Dawman
Who ever gave you that info should be smacked .
looks like someone has a severe case of keyboard courage. and thanks for the constructive criticism. it means alot that your advice is taking this thread to another level considering all the reasons you stated behind your statement. grow up. Im just stating another way of thinking. some people arent all anal retentive about their tanks. the tanks are not rockets, and you are not a scientist. its good to keep the fish alive, yes. but some steps are unnecessairy. perfect dark has a completely valid statement. just because everyone on here that reads everyone elses posts tends to agree with one another because there all fed/read the same information dosnt make that info any more pertinent than anyone elses info.

 

[seamandrew]

I never do more than 10% a week and sometimes every other week like Rad described. I do test my water weekly and if the nitrates spike, then it's time for an adhoc water change again 10%. Beneficial bacteria do live the water column, just not as densly as they do in the live rock and other substrate in your tank. I also think the smaller the tank the more frequent your water changes should be. Water chemistries always shift more readily in smaller tanks. Lastly, as an alternative to mixing your own sea salt and water, I buy salted Reverse Osmosis water from my Local Fish Store (1.75 a gallon) and it's wonderful! Water is chemically perfect (I've tested periodically to make sure), and saves me the trouble of spilling water everywhere (I'm kind of a cluts). Nutri-Seawater is another product but the salinity tends to be 1.030 and it's much more expensive. I add this with a bit of RO water (unsalted) just to get specific gravity down to 1.023.
Question though for all of you, I hear that 1.020 is good for fish, and 1.024 is minimum for reef, I keep mine at 1.023 and will probably increase to 1.024, but what's best for invertebrates and for propagating coralline algae?

 

[ameno]

at 1.026 all does well with me and coraline is doing great

 

[maxalmon]

Experts correct me, but UV units only kill or cause the death of free swimming organisms.
.
I somtimes do a 50-75% water change on my nano and over the last 6 months I haven't had a problem. But, If I were to remove 10lbs of LR from the same tank,then I would have a problem.
.
Makes you wonder how many Nitrosomonas are in the water vs tank surfaces?

 

[dogstar]

35 ppt....whats the temperature of your water ?

 

[diek3man]

Originally Posted by TurningTim
JHMO, LFS's keep the salinity down for two reasons, one is cost of salt. If you have that many tanks and keep the salinity low it adds up in $. The other is cleaning at 1.020 algae is kept a bay a bit. So cleaning is easier. Again think about total gallon a LFS has.
I also think that we don't add in any load factor in to the equation. I have a very heavy loaded 55 reef. I need 10-15% water change once a week. I drip kalk for cal/alk. If you have a lightly loaded 180 fowlr then you probably don't need to change water more than 10-15% each month.
It all depends on what your tank needs! If your fish and corals look bad and show no growth then something needs to change. But I would start on the safe side and then add a bit more time between changes and LOOK at your tank!
I don't test as often as I should but I can look at my tank and see what I'm missing........
How often do you drip kalk? I was told I should do this by my lfs. ( my ph is a tad low and my calcium is a tad low) thank you for all your help and the information!

 

[perfectdark]

Originally Posted by seamandrew
Question though for all of you, I hear that 1.020 is good for fish, and 1.024 is minimum for reef, I keep mine at 1.023 and will probably increase to 1.024, but what's best for invertebrates and for propagating coralline algae?
Salinity kept at 1.024 to 1.026 IMO is best for reef, invert and coral line propogation. Essential trace elements that are in your sea salt are at a higer level with more salt added to your water. I have found that at the 1.025 range I maintain 450ppm of calcium my alkalinity is also spot on. Along with magnesium iodine and other elements they all add to the propogation of coraline algea and promote a healthy molt for your inverts. If these elements were too low there could be issues. Testing your levels is the only sure way of telling as everyones tank will show different results from the same salinity.

 

[turningtim]

Originally Posted by Diek3man
How often do you drip kalk? I was told I should do this by my lfs. ( my ph is a tad low and my calcium is a tad low) thank you for all your help and the information!
I drip 24/7. 3 tsp Kalk, 3 tsp vinegar and 1.5 gals of RO water dripped for top off rate (evap). This lasts a bit over a day....
Depending on the needs of the tank I would start at 1tsp per gallon and work your way up.