Specific Gravity is really high right now

kevinbeatzeus

kevinbeatzeus

Member
Hello,
I just got some new corals a couple of days ago and they haven't been doing so well. I got them from a really good coral dealer so i know that they're good. A torch coral hasn't extended it's tentacles yet, and a SpS coral has been almost entirely bleached in two days. My levels have been steady for quite a while but i haven't been monitoring SG. I have one of those plastic Specific Gravity testers with the swinging arm, and i know they're not the best, but it has been pretty accurate. Today the SG is 1.030. TOO HIGH I know. So question is, How do i lower it? I'm going to go the LFS right now and buy some Salt water and some RO water. how should i best normalize the levels?
And, should i be doing topoffs with fresh water instead of salt? i never really thought of that until now.
Please help, Should i move the corals into a separate container with new fish store salt water? what do i do? AhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhHHHHH
 
deejeff442

deejeff442

Active Member
why in the world are you topping of with saltwater?
obviously thats the sourse of the reading.
as long as the fish and corals are not dying you can gradually lower the salt.
i keep mine at 1.026
get is down to 1.029 today then slower rate for the next couple weeks.
how are you measuring?not a hydrometer i hope .if so take some water to the lfs to test with a refractor and see if it is even 1.030 in the first place.
a couple tiny air bubbles on the crappy hydrometer will make it look higher than it is.
 
guppie

guppie

Member
Never top off with saltwater, just use ro/di for top off, the salt never leaves your tank, you have been adding, and adding. You want to lower it slowly. how big is your tank? You can probley take out 10 gal and just add 10 gal of Ro/di for today and then check it in the morning then keep this up each day until you get it were you want.
 
nycbob

nycbob

Active Member
as state above, take out about 5 gallons of water everyday for the next 2-3 days, and replace it with fresh ro water, and ur sg should slowly go back to 1.025. just measure it daily with a refractometer. it costs about $40.
 
notsonoob

notsonoob

Member
If you have corals you should get your own refractometer.
You may need to take out some of your water and replace it with RO (fresh) water. You need to drop down your salinity. Adding salt water as top of, increases your salinity, because salt water doesnt' evaporate off your tank. In fact most of the salt is left behind, or develops salt creep all over your tank.
You replace it with fresh water in effect to stabalize salinity that would go up with less water in your tank with the same amount of salt.
Also, never trust a hydrometer in the first place.
 
kevinbeatzeus

kevinbeatzeus

Member
I did get some RO water. I took out about ten gallons and replaced with 5 gallons Fresh and 5 gallons salt. I'm back at 1.028, So i'm thinking i'll wait till tomorrow then add 5 more gallons of freshie water. Also i just bought this little sps frag and it looks like all the little polyps are falling off. what suggestions do you have? here are my levels...
As you know the SG was pretty high.
Amn-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate- < .5
Phos- 0
alk-12
PH. 8.2-8.4
calcium- 460-500 (over that last 2 months)
The corals that i bought just aren't opening up.
A brain the i purchased is like drooling brown sludge from the two mouths that it has. I have several other pieces of coral that are the same species that are doing very well. same thing with some polyp frags. i have lots of polyps in the tank that are all open and have been spreading nicely for a while. But, these frags i got (expensive) have not yet opened up. Is it normal for them to take a couple days to open under light?
Should these problems go away when the SG levels are reduced back down to 1.025
 
deejeff442

deejeff442

Active Member
yea couple days is normal.get the salt right .make sure you have good water movement (no dead spots)
coral are touchy especially while acclimating to a new envioronment (shock)
polyps falling off sounds like water movement problem
 
reefkprz

reefkprz

Active Member
IME a specific gravity of 1.030 is NOT going to cause the problems your having. my reeftanks are run at a specific gravity of 1.027, and before I had automatic topoff my tanks regularly hit 1.030 sometimes as high as 1.032 which is high but I never once expirienced the problems your expirienceing, honestly to me it sounds like other problems.
 
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